There’s something extraordinary about the level of craftsmanship and handiwork that appears at the annual Kitsap Fair and Stampede.
The other 51 weeks out of the year, practices such as wood carving or turning, weaving and spinning can feel overshadowed, relegated to the eldest generations. Come fair time, however, local leaders of various clubs and organizations relish the chance to showcase that their interests in the traditional arts can live on through younger fairgoers.
Joelle DuBois with Kitsap Weavers and Spinners is proud when her group gets to show off its work. “Our youngest member, she’s just nine years old,” DuBois said. “She got her spinning wheel for her birthday.”
Children this year got hands-on with the various materials that can be spun, a makeshift petting zoo if you will, and some even got the chance to take a turn at the seat of a wheel.
It’s a great tool of focus, said one of the group’s newer members, Dawn Rittenbach. “When you’re in front of the loom, you can’t be putting it down every five seconds to pick it up. I go into a slower space, a slower time that takes me out of the fast and takes me back.”
Getting these crafts in front of young eyes helps keep hobbies like woodturning alive. Olympic Peninsula Woodturners, a local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners, has been bringing their craft and live demonstrations to the fair for over a decade.
“Our club is what you would call silver-haired,” chapter president Larry Lemon said. “A lot of people, the time commitment and the investment to do this at home, happens when they’re older. A lot of those same folks were introduced to this when they were in high school, years ago, and they come back to it.”
That doesn’t mean everyone drops it. Lemon’s grandson is teaching others how to turn at just 17 years old, but the group actively appeals to the kids at the fair using the live woodturning setups. “We focus with the kids here on making something quick that you can see from beginning to end,” he said, bringing out a box of pre-made spinning tops. “A top, a little finger top, is something they can handle, something they can eventually strive to make.”
Like spinning, wood turning takes practice, and present-day attention spans do not always benefit those sorts of groups. However, DuBois believes it’s all the more reason to try and get kids interested early. “One of the things about spinning is that it’s not as easy as it looks. It takes a good bit of practice to get that muscle memory, so you have to work with kids a little bit longer because they don’t always have the patience to get past that frustration.”
People of all ages were invited to check out the Kitsap Weavers and Spinners section of the fair.
