Steve with Anu' Dudley at the 2013 Common Ground Country Fair

 

This year I have to take a camera with me to the fair. Usually I'm working away like mad, or talking my head off. It never occurs to me to document the experience. I have been filmed by local TV stations, and lots of people take photographs as I work. This picture was taken on a Sunday afternoon two years ago, as the fair wound down. Anu Dudley has been the Crafts Coordinator at the fair for over twenty-five years. In the back, behind my right leg you can make out the treadle for my spring-pole lathe lying on the ground. I bring the lathe every year and let the crowd try it out. For many of them it is the first time in their lives that they have ever realized what "hand-made" really meant for our ancestors.

 

Anu' is holding a Tracy pattern fan-back that I constructed that year while at the fair.

 

This year will I take pictures of the lathe in use. It's a sight.