Bethabara is a charming place, part city park and part historical restoration. It is the site of Winston-Salem's first settlement in the mid-1750's. That's wildly early for this part of the world. Most of the towns in the Yadkin Valley didn't come into existence until the mid to late 1800's.
In honor of the original Moravian settler's intense work ethic, the folks p
utting on this festival worked like dogs, or more accurately, horses. My vote for hardest workers is a 3 way tie. Ms. Russell can be seen in this picture standing in front of the Herman Buttner House, (our digs for the festival,) completely done up in her 18th century garb luring festival visitors into the house to view the historic house and our wares. She stood there for the complete run of the festival, over six hours, without so much as a bathroom break and we had a solid stream of visitors. Thank you, Ms. Russell.
The other two winners are the two horses pulling this wagon completely loaded down with hay and tourists. Unless the horses had stunt doubles they also worked for a solid 6 hours. Considering the generous amount of frothing at the mouth, I think it was the same ones all day.
Bethabara originally invited the Yadkin Valley Craft Guild, of which I am a member, to occupy the Buttner House during the Apple Festival in hopes of filling it with potters, weavers, spinners and other heritage crafts in keeping with the 18th Century re-enactment feel of the festival. Well, when not enough heritage crafts were available, the invitation was expanded to include all members. That's where yours truly comes in. Although silk painting and dyeing was being done long before the 18th century, it was primarily an Asian and, to some degree, European, art. Certainly wasn't happening in the NC Piedmont wilderness in the 1750's by a group of devout Moravians. Not to mention the bright, intense colors I favor were not generally available before the invention of aniline dyes in the mid 19th century.
Nevertheless, in we go, and our original display, seen above, was moderately tasteful, although not particularly interesting. The room was a little dark. The only light came from a small metal chandelier that had, thank God, been wired for electricity, but it was more suited for an intimate dinner party than a craft show. So since we got there early and could get dibs on whatever space was available, we snatched a prime spot by the window. A small, multipaned window but some additional light. Imagine our distress on arriving on Festival day to discover that the situation has become considerably more crowded and we have been nudged gently away from the window in order to make room for all. Well, we took matters in our own hands and magnanimously gave up our now less than prime space and moved to the front porch. Though this photo is a little dark, since we, as usual, can never remember where to place ourselves in relation to the sun, a careful examination will still reveal a second floor porch at the top of an intriguing set of stone steps with Mrs. Russell standing at the bottom doing her best to fill the house. Trust me, in person, the brightly colored silks fluttering in the breeze were much more prominent.
The powers that be were somewhat concerned that "purple, gossamer lingerie fluttering about" were not in the true spirit of the festival, but being good sports, said to give it a go, anyhow. And as you can see, it was pretty fluttery, but we must say, in our own defense, that it is not lingerie. This is, in fact, an evening coat. Probably a distinction lost on an historical preservationist but we felt the need to speak out. Most of the visitors seemed to like the colorful display. Of course the one
s who didn't like it probably didn't say anything. If you can't say something nice and all.
But it was a fun day and it was good to hear what people had to say about our work and get some feedback. And there are worse ways to spend a beautiful fall day than sitting on a breezy porch/balcony and watching big draft horses pulling loads of people on seriously old-school wagons. Our locale, the Butner house had, back in the day, been the residence of Bethabara's distiller and his family. The original house burned and this one was built to replace it in 1803. So even though it replaces the original, it's still pretty old. Frankly, I can't believe it didn't burn again with all those walk in fireplaces big enough to roast an ox that had to be the only source of heat for at least a century or a century and a half.
