Fall Folk Arts Festival Keeps Appalachian Traditions Alive
Each fall, Exchange Place Living History Farm comes alive with artisans, historical reenactors, musicians and community members for the Fall Folk Arts Festival.
This year's festival, held Sept. 26-27, brought together craftspeople dedicated to preserving traditional skills, many of which are becoming increasingly rare. Among the artisans were embroiderers displaying intricate needlework, fifth-generation coopers crafting wooden barrels, a self-taught banjo maker and historical reenactors demonstrating traditional skills.
The celebration of traditional craftsmanship began near the parking lot at the Burrow Museum, where a collection of intricate needlework pieces was on display.
The pieces commemorated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and were created by members of the Embroiderers' Guild of America, primarily from the Bays Mountain chapter.
Many featured patriotic red, white and blue designs decorated with stars, while others depicted significant moments in American history. Mable Davis, an original member of the Bays Mountain chapter, created a piece depicting first responders raising an American flag following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"We are a teaching organization that likes to teach others about needlework," said Mary Burris, a member of the Bays Mountain chapter. "We also like to do needlework, and we do all genres."
The Bays Mountain chapter has 24 active members and has been part of the community for 41 years. Burris was an original charter member alongside Katherine McClelland and Judy Ketron.
Burris learned surface stitching from her grandmother when she was 5 or 6 years old. After joining the guild in 1981, she learned counted-thread embroidery.
The guild teaches several forms of needlework, including beading, surface stitching, wool felting and appliqué. Members gather regularly, with instructional meetings held on the third Sunday of each month at First Presbyterian Church in Kingsport.
Across the street, guild members displayed fall and Christmas-themed pieces, including contributions from other local chapters.
"Come out and join us if you're interested in needlework. We're willing to teach you," Burris said.
Preserving a family tradition
Across the street, the Stewart family from Hancock County demonstrated coopering, a craft their ancestors brought from Europe approximately 200 years ago.
Traditional coopering involves constructing watertight wooden barrels and casks without using glue or nails.
Rick Stewart, a fifth-generation cooper, has practiced the craft for more than 50 years. He now shares his knowledge through folk schools and festivals alongside his son, Brendon Stewart, who has spent eight years learning the family trade.
Rick Stewart learned coopering from his grandfather, Alex Stewart, who was featured in several books and films and received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.
Rick Stewart has also appeared in books and magazines and demonstrated his skills for the Smithsonian Institution.
"Everything we do is really simple, but works so well," Rick Stewart said.
During his demonstration, Stewart used a piece of wire to take measurements before carving a notch into a wooden band used to hold a barrel together.
Although the techniques appear simple, Stewart emphasized that mastering them takes years of practice.
The family completes every step of the process by hand, including splitting the wood.
"We get it ourselves, because no one else knows what we need. It's all hand split, just like our family did in the late 1700s," Rick Stewart said.
Among Stewart's traditional tools was a Japanese knife, a reminder of his experience studying coopering in Japan.
During the 1980s, Stewart demonstrated at the American Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., when Tennessee was the featured state and Japan was the featured country.
Through a creative arts fellowship, he later spent six months living and studying in Japan alongside a Japanese cooper he met at the festival.
Stewart discovered similarities between Japanese and Appalachian coopering techniques, despite the geographic distance separating the traditions.
"We communicated by knowing what we were talking about," Rick Stewart said. "Their tools were so similar, it was unreal. My family came from Scotland, for generations they were coopers there before they moved here to East Tennessee. His family had been [coopers] for all those centuries. How many hundreds of years ago did they figure out that was what you need?"
Crafting banjos by hand
Nearby, Dennis Farris, a self-taught banjo maker from Marion, Virginia, displayed a collection of instruments he had built or restored.
"I was always interested in making stuff; I always made stuff ever since I was a little kid," Farris said. "I bought a banjo from Sears for $29, and I wanted a better banjo. I couldn't afford a better one, so I decided I was going to build me one. So, I've been building them on and off ever since."
Although largely self-taught, Farris received some guidance from instrument maker Albert Hash.
"I got a little bit of learning from Albert Hash. Albert showed me a few things, but most of it I just picked up on my own," Farris said. "I just examine instruments and look at them. I've kind of got my own way of making them now. I never make two of the same, there's always something different about them."
Farris frequently combines different types of wood to create colorful patterns in the block rims of his banjos. Most traditional block rims are made from a single type of wood, such as maple or beech.
His favorite wood is cherry, although he also uses maple and beech, which produce stronger tones that may not always suit old-time banjos.
Rather than traditional lacquer, Farris sometimes finishes his instruments with Kroil, a penetrating oil.
One of his designs combines a fretless neck with frets farther up the instrument, making it easier for musicians to locate notes.
"This neck is a fretless neck up to the seventh fret," Farris said. "People like to play fretless banjo, but once you get up the next it gets hard to locate. So, I decided about the seventh, eighth fret, I would make the rest of it fretted, so it would be easy to see."
Another restored banjo, originally made in 1891, featured small grooves that allowed players to feel where the frets would normally be.
Farris reconstructed the instrument after finding it in pieces. It retained a traditional goatskin head, unlike many modern banjos that use synthetic materials.
Keeping traditional crafts alive
Dorothy McMillan, originally from southeastern Wisconsin, creates and sells cornhusk dolls using recycled materials and natural elements such as moss, beetles and seeds.
A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, McMillan also demonstrates her craft at the Museum of Appalachia.
Her interest began during childhood when she discovered photographs of Victorian cornhusk dolls in a craft magazine. After writing to the artist who made them, she received a packet of instructions that helped her learn the craft.
"I made these in the late 1970s and early 80s. I made them for gas money to get to and from college," McMillan said. "I always said that when I got to retirement I would make them again. So, now I've been making them since about 2022."
Jamie and Jack Harvey traveled from Knoxville to demonstrate and sell traditional homemade lye soap, a craft they have practiced for 25 years.
What began as a hobby has become a way for the retired couple to provide an affordable product while preserving a traditional method of soapmaking.
"This is really good for things like eczema, skin problems, psoriasis and poison ivy. Not to mention its great for getting stains out of clothes, doing laundry and washing dishes," Jamie Harvey said. "They always made soap when they killed hogs in the fall, when the weather was like this."
Jack Harvey also practices blacksmithing; a skill he developed after the couple purchased a new soapmaking kettle and needed a stand to support it.
Unable to find someone to make the stand, he learned to forge one himself. He eventually began making hooks, joined a makerspace and acquired blacksmithing equipment for his home.
Today, he sells handmade iron products alongside the couple's soap.
Teaching the next generation
Although the festival showcased a wide variety of traditional crafts, many artisans shared concerns that fewer people are learning the skills needed to keep them alive.
For generations, these practices were passed down through families. Today, many craftspeople rely on festivals, demonstrations and educational programs to introduce their work to new audiences.
Exchange Place is helping bridge that generational gap through its Junior Apprentice Program, which teaches young people about life on a 19th-century East Tennessee farm.
Heather Gilreath, director of the Exchange Place Junior Apprentice Program and the Eden's Ridge Hearth Cookery Society, said participants learn traditional skills through hands-on experiences.
"The Junior Apprentices demonstrate life on a mid-nineteenth century East Tennessee farm," Gilreath said. "So, they're going to be doing a lot of chores like hauling water and splitting wood, but they're also going to be demonstrating hearth cooking and blacksmithing in the forge."
The apprentices also learn gourd crafting, transforming gourds into utensils and containers similar to those used by early Appalachian families.
"For this festival, we also do gourd crafting," Gilreath said. "Gourds were sort of the Tupperware of yesterday and were used for all sorts of different vessels in the kitchen and on the farm."
The program's motto, "Unplug into the Past," reflects its emphasis on hands-on learning and connecting young people with Appalachian history.
"Our motto in the JA program is 'Unplug into the Past.' So, it is a lot of hands-on activities that, regardless of the subject matter, help with brain development and help with social interaction," Gilreath said. "Specifically, we focus on crafts that were common in early America in the Appalachian region. So, it builds an appreciation for history and ancestors, can teach a little of self-reliance, sustainability and patience. It is not an instant gratification like you would get today."
Participants learn blacksmithing, basket making, sewing, open-hearth cooking and other traditional skills.
Some continue practicing those crafts long after completing the program.
Kalae Halverson began volunteering at Exchange Place when she was 7 years old. Now 20, she continues volunteering after graduating from the Junior Apprentice Program at 18.
During the festival, Halverson demonstrated traditional cooking techniques, preparing ham and hoecakes over an open hearth.
"We are making ham and hoecakes. Pork and corn were the main food staples in the 1850s. The Europeans didn't have corn until they came to America," Halverson said. "Hoecakes were a big way they were using corn, and then Tennessee is a great place to raise hogs, because there is so much forest land and it is nice and cool in the fall. It is perfect for keeping the meat safe."
Other former apprentices have continued practicing skills such as blacksmithing and heirloom gardening.
As traditional crafts become less common, the Fall Folk Arts Festival provides artisans with an opportunity to share their knowledge, while Exchange Place's Junior Apprentice Program introduces younger generations to the skills and traditions that helped shape Appalachian life.
Comments