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32nd Ellwood City arts festival begins
ELLWOOD city, pa.
It was shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, when the singing of the national anthem would announce the beginning of the 32nd Annual Arts, Crafts and Food festival.
Rick and Sue Cox, like all the other vendors gathered at Ewing Park, were putting the finishing touches on their display in anticipation of what was likely to be throngs of people. Crowds clog the three-day festival every year, which always ends with a fireworks show the last night.
Unlike the other vendors, though, they were surrounded by a wire cage. Outside the cage were bears, a mountain lion, a pelican and an eagle.
Though no cage captured the spirit of these animals, they were immobilized, and immortalized, in wood.
The Edinburg, Pa., couple were going to show people, from the safety of the cage, how they take an ordinary log and turn it into something extraordinary. To do it, they’ll rev up a chain saw. Emerging from the noise and the dust will be another piece of art, all the more astounding for how it was created, to add to the collection in front of the cage.
“We’ve been traveling around the East Coast doing this for a living since 2006,” Sue said.
They go to festivals and fairs, but will go to someone’s home to carve a tree.
They’re going to New York soon to do just that. “We’ll go to Hawaii if somebody wants to pay our way,” Rick said.
How would you get a chain saw past airport security?
“You run it real loud,” Sue suggested.
The couple’s pieces show much detail, from the points on the claws and teeth of Sue’s mountain lion to the whimsical faces of her “little bears” who cling to a tree branch that makes a perfect holder for yard lanterns.
“My bears have my grandchildren’s personalities,” she said.
The finer points come from power tools and sometimes hand-carving. But one eye-catching detail, the thick, twisted sassafras stand of an elaborate table, is Mother Nature’s.
The pair did not start out as artists. He was a music teacher and she taught elementary school, then they ran a grocery store for 30 years.
“I started to do hand-carving, then bought tools and books and learned,” Rick said. “I started using the chain saw in 2003.
“I just had a bunch of fancy firewood for awhile,” he continued. “But I kept getting better.”
Sue also said that at festivals, veteran carvers help out the rookies. Plus, the two get in a lot of carving time.
“Some fairs are 10 day-fairs,” she said. “If you’re carving all day for 10 days, you get lots of practice.”
The couple enjoy returning to the Ellwood festival.
“This is close to home,” Sue said, and they get to see many friends.
They’re far from the only vendors who return yearly to the festival, which not only showcases arts and crafts but is Ellwood’s Fourth of July celebration.
Jane and Walt Kiel of Portage, Pa., near Johnstown, have been coming for nearly 20 years, Jane said. This year, granddaughter Rose, 20, is with them.
Their booth entices the kids into making their own pixie sticks with colored dust and their own candles in a glass with granulated wax.
“We use layers of color, put a wick in it and melt the top,” said Walt.
Further down the lawn, parents can enjoy candles that Barbara Wilson, owner of Common Scents Candle Co., already has made for them.
Wilson, who was looking for “something to do from home,” bought the company three years ago from owners who had it for 16 years in New Wilmington, Pa.
“I love candles,” said Wilson, whose husband, Rich, said he’s glad she makes them now instead of always buying them.
Vendors have much to offer in the way of variety. There’s bowling pins in Steelers jerseys and football helmets; clay art; wind chimes and wishing wells; bonnets and rag dolls; jewelry; headache-free headbands; pennants and portraits; crystal nail files; and flip-flops with fancy fuzz.
The food and drink is plentiful, with subs, strombolis, lemonade, Hawaiian shaved ice, hot dogs, gyros and lamb on the rod. At the Ellwood City Wolves Den shelter alone, choose from Italian hot sausage, lamb, fish, Philly Steak or meatball sandwiches.
“And none of it has any calories or fat, especially the pepperoni puffs at BVMs,” assured Joanne Lowrie, who was manning the Ellwood City Area Historical Society booth.
Ellwood’s festival has grown much since it began in 1980, with plenty of out-of-towners coming in from Ohio and elsewhere, she said.
But it’s the home-town crowd’s event of the year. “If you want to see anyone in town, you come,” said Lowrie.