Folk Artisans

July 4-8, Bill Smith ~ Adirondack Pack Basket Builder

Bill Smith, like his family before him, has always lived in the northern Adirondack woods, near Colton, NY.  He has been a hunter, fisherman, trapper, guide, logger, teacher and, more recently, a storyteller and singer/songwriter. Today he demonstrates the traditional craft of weaving strong and durable work baskets from hand-pounded native ash trees, which he first learned as a boy from Mohawk men who worked with his father in logging camps. He continues today to work with hand tools and forms that have been used for centuries by basket makers in the region.  Bill is fondly referred to as a living Adirondack Legend.

July 9-13, Chris Woodward ~ Guide Boat Builder

Chris Woodward learned as a teenager when he “borrowed” an old Guide Boat that it was superior to any canoe he had ever tried and knew right then that he had to have one. Years later, he became an apprentice to the last of the traditional builders—Carl Hathaway and Ralph Morrow of Saranac Lake, NY—and has been working on these “Cadillacs of wooden boats” ever since. In 1991 he purchased Hathaway’s shop where today he repairs and restores old boats and builds about one new guideboat each year.

July 20-24, David Woodward ~ Blacksmith

David Woodward of Easy Street near Paul Smiths and Lake Clear, NY, today continues to practice the ancient craft of working iron, not as a farrier shoeing horses, but as a toolmaker. That means he makes and creates building hardware, lighting fixtures, and custom iron work like that made for the Adirondack Great Camps by staff blacksmiths of old. A seventh-generation native of the Adirondack High Peaks region, he is proud to own the anvil brought long ago from the old family farm in Vermont.

August 3-5, Helen Condon ~ Wool Rug Braider

Like her Nova Scotia-born grandmother before her, Helen Condon continues the long-honored tradition of making beautiful braided rugs from recycled scraps of wool. “Waste not, want not,” was the old rule, so rural women saved materials from well-worn clothing, blankets, even empty flour sacks to cut into strips, dye with a variety of colors and fashion into durable and beautiful floor coverings. From her studio in a converted Grange Hall in Parishville, NY, Helen now creates rugs large and small on commission and teaches as many younger people as are willing to learn about this vanishing craft.

August 10-12, Francoise Ouimet ~ Wagon Wheel Rug Weaver

Growing up in a French American community near Cohoes, NY, Francoise eventually learned the craft of making small throw rugs from her Quebec-born mother-in-law. She began by using scrap materials from the textile mills that were an important industry in the area at the time. For forms, she uses wooden wheels from old carriages or wagons from which the hub and spokes have been removed and nails added to the rims to attach the individual strips of fabrics. This rural farmhouse tradition seems to have nearly disappeared today.

August 18-22, Ron Riley ~ Wood Carver

August 23-26, Ada Cross Buff Mitten Knitter

Taking over folk arts presentations from her octogenarian mother, Annis Holmes, Ada demonstrates the special knitting technique of creating a mitten tough enough to stand up to the rigors of winter logging in the Adirondacks. She learned to knit with Annis at their home in Chestertown, NY. Ada continues the active knitting and teaching her creative mother passed on to her. She is a master of designs and patterns for sweaters and hats as well as mittens. The thick and durable buff mittens, traditionally used by old-time loggers, are always a surprise to visitors who are fascinated by her presentations.