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Mountain State celebrates arts and crafts

CEDAR LAKES, W.Va. – The 2013 Mountain State Art and Craft Fair is filled with sounds and smells. From kettle corn popping to the roar of a hot furnace firing glass, it’s a true West Virginia tradition.

The fair got started back in 1963 as part of the state’s centennial celebration and has been going strong ever since. This year more than 170 juried artists are taking part in the four-day event that got underway on Thursday.

Dan Templeton is one of the artists. He and his wife own Templeton’s Salt Glazed Pottery in Wheeling. This is their first year at the fair and Templeton wanted to show off his craft.

“It’s what they call throwing, hand throwing. No molds, my hands are my molds,” explained Templeton.

He’s not just selling his pottery, he’s demonstrating his craftsmanship and taking questions from curious shoppers.

Thomas Doak is from Doddridge County. He makes and sells rockers, swings and tables made from West Virginia wood: cherry, oak, maple and walnut. He got started years ago when he was an economics teacher at Doddridge County High School. He wanted to show his students that running a small business was possible.

“Can you run a business doing this? And the bottom line is yes, you can! But you can’t overextend yourself,” stressed Doak.

Within a couple hours of the fair opening he’d sold every swing he brought with him and the handmade rockers were going quickly.

For the third year in a row Martha Watson-Kessinger of St. Albans was showing her handmade goods at the event. In fact, it’s a family affair. She crochets, her husband is a cooper and their daughter is a painter. Together they create the products for their business Revolutionary Road.

“It was a way to express the love of our hobbies and share them with other people,” she explained.

But the homemade goods don’t stop at arts and crafts. Charlie Brown from Jacksonville, Fla. was popping up bag after bag of kettle corn to sell to hungry shoppers. What’s his secret?

“When we cook it, we take the raw corn, some vegetable oil and add some sugar, cook it together and then salt it and serve it,” Brown explained. “Simple and great!”

Eighty-percent of the vendors at this year’s fair are from West Virginia.





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