Wednesday, September 16, 2015
By KALEA HALL
khall@vindy.com
POLAND
While driving east on Western Reserve Road, drivers might notice a brown burlap ear poking from behind the hill.
Don’t worry. It belongs to Winnie the Pooh.
Megan Molnar, daughter of Rick and Jill Molnar, owners of Molnar Farms, has created straw bale characters to kick off the fall season at the farm.
Megan’s creations – which also include three Minions, Olaf and Sven from “Frozen” and soon R2D2 and Chewbacca from “Star Wars” – wow the young and old.
Samantha and Charlie Foster of East Palestine were as impressed by the straw bale creations as their two girls, Riley, 4, and Emily, 1.
“We came to check it out,” Charlie said. “We came last year. It made us come back.”
An 18-foot-tall Winnie invites you into Molnar Farms with a dripping blue-painted pot of “hunny,” tiny red shirt and huge smiling face.
Further up the drive are the three straw Minions, made famous by the film “Despicable Me.” The Minions were made with 3-foot by 6-foot straw bales. One has wire for hair, one features a burlap bone in its hair and one crazy purple Minion has purple corn stalk for hair.
The “Frozen” characters – Olaf, a snowman who loves summer, and Sven, a reindeer who loves carrots – are further down the drive to Molnar’s market. R2D2 and Chewbacca are still in the works.
This is the fifth year Megan has worked with spray paints and other materials to create straw character masterpieces.
“Our first year, we just did the Halloween characters,” Megan said.
A pumpkin, spider, Frankenstein and a witch were some of the early straw creations.
In fact, this all got started when Megan noticed one of the straw bales looked like a pumpkin.
Megan has always been creative, and after a few years of making Halloween designs she decided it was time for a change.
With help from her brother, Rick Molnar Jr., the engineer behind the straw characters, they branched out into other designs.
Last year brought Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Angry Birds, Mike and Sully from Monster’s Inc. and Minions to the farm.
To make the characters, Megan takes a picture from the Internet and then it is simulated on the round and square bales of straw. The bales are net wrapped to give them a smooth look when they are painted.
Megan first used spray paint, but then it became necessary to use gallon paint and a spray gun.
She still uses spray paint for fine detailing.
Burlap, chicken wire and other materials are used to make parts for the characters Megan can’t make with straw.
It is time-consuming to make the characters.
Winnie, for example, took two full days, and that’s without his burlap-covered, chicken-wire arms.
But the benefit of the straw creations is all worth it.
Winnie is so tall a telehandler – a forklift and crane machine in one – was used to put his large head in place.
“We have the hay rides for the kids,” she said. “This is just something else for them to see. That’s why we keep doing it.”
Rick Molnar is the third generation farmer on the more than 700-hundred-acre farm where fruits, vegetables, soybeans, field corn and wheat are grown.
He calls his daughter’s straw artwork “a great attraction.”
“It’s great to see the kids’ [reactions],” he said. “They get out of the car and they run down the drive.”
Check out the straw creations during the Fall Festival Saturday . The Molnar Farms market will be open and several local craft makers will be there.