Festival in the Woods forges arts, crafts, fun
WINFIELD TWP — The normally tranquil farm was anything but this weekend.
Cars by the caravan turned fields into massive makeshift parking lots. Gleaming white tents and colorful banners overwhelmed the green grounds.
Hundreds of browsers, shoppers and tagalongs, young and old, strolled the lush lawns looking for that unique gift or collector's piece, as music filled the air.
All the to-do was about the Whispering Pines Farm Festival in the Woods in Winfield Township, and judging by the crowds, it was another success
The event, which has been running for several years, happens biannually at the farm owned by Kerry McCann and Donald Sprouse on Winsome Lane.
There were 75 vendor booths or tents that participated Saturday and Sunday. Wares for sale included all kinds of arts and crafts, handmade jewelry, wood and metal art, botanical and garden art, and industrial and repurposed art.
The list was seemingly endless.
Kyle Gercken of Slippery Rock and his “Forged in Kol” booth was among the more popular destinations.
He provided real-time metal forging on his coal-fueled forge, periodically cranking the gear system that blows the fan on the bottom.
“The more air you give it,” he said, “the more it combusts.” It's got to get hot enough to forge metal. That's red hot.
At his store, which he's owned for eight years, he uses a propane forge to produce funky works of art and cutlery.
His bestsellers are miniature swords and knives. He also handcrafts impressive-looking hatchets and cleavers.
At his booth, he offered the opportunity for children to make their own miniature swords, of sorts.Five-year-old Callie Navari of Plum, Allegheny County, needed both hands to wield the mallet against the anvil to make her very own sword.When it was done, and fit to handle, Gercken turned it over to the little girl.“Wow,” she said, beaming to her mother, “that's great.”Damian Skal, a fixture at such festivals, was another crowd pleaser. The Oakland Township man is a chain saw sculptor, and his talents were on full display.On bended knees and donning ear muffs and eye goggles, he meticulously and delicately carved up his latest project — a 5-foot tall standing black bear.Skal works his saw the way a Globetrotter works a basketball. He's constantly flipping and flopping the bar over to get the right angle for cutting. He rotates the saw up and down and maneuvers it in and out of the wood.Occasionally, he stops long enough to feel the texture of his carving. He's a perfectionist and an artist.At festivals, his work is frequently interrupted. But he wouldn't have it any other way.“I like stopping to talk to the spectators,” he said. “I'm always talking to them and I really enjoy it.”The questions he gets the most: What kind of wood does he use? How long has he been chain saw carving? How long will it take to carve that bear?The answers: white pine; 10 years; four hours.The 46-year-old father of three who still works as an MRI technologist at Butler Memorial Hospital, has turned his hobby into a money-making venture.It's the best of both worlds.
“Never in a million years,” he admitted, “did I think I'd be a chain saw carver at this point in my life.”Another booth not lacking for curiosity seekers and tasters was Blackbird Distillery, Pennsylvania's first legal moonshine maker.Sandy Culp, the event coordinator for the distillery based in Brookville, Jefferson County, was on hand to impart knowledge on the making of “moon.”Visitors could also sample the product in different flavors: orange creamsicle, black cherry, lemon drop, hot cinnamon and apple pie (the most popular, says Culp).The distillery also makes a “high-test straight” version that is hardly for the novice consumer of adult beverages.“It's 173 proof,” Culp noted.The Festival in the Woods also offered a smorgasbord of food to feast upon, including — to name just a few — kettle corn, egg rolls, barbecue, pierogies, sausage, kielbasa and homemade pork rinds in flavors of ranch, dill pickle, sour cream and onion, and hot and mild BBQ.And for those festival visitors wanting to rest and kick back, Jenkins & Crum provided live music, a blend of classic folk-rock, circa the 1960s and '70s.
