Artisans of the Ozark Folk Center

Craft Village Artisans of the Ozark Folk Center

MONDAY - Overview

The Craft Village consists of buildings housing different handicrafts. Touring the buildings allows visitors the rare opportunity to watch artisans at work creating crafts that have been traditional to the Ozark Mountains region for many years.

Visitors can watch artisans at work in the buildings of the Craft Village.

Artist or Artisan?

What is an artisan and how is it different from an artist? An artist is someone who creates art for its own sake -- for its beauty or its message. An artisan creates something that is not only artistic but is functional and serves a useful purpose. For example, a painting is created by an artist just for the purpose of being viewed or experienced. A ceramic bowl is created by an artisan to be beautiful or enjoyable but also for the purpose of holding food or other items.

Within the Craft Village, more than 20 artisans demonstrate basket weaving, broom making, pottery making, knife making, weaving, quilting, wood carving, yarn spinning, doll making, candle making, and more. These artists are happy to talk about their work, and they also host workshops throughout the year which provide more time and instruction for interested people. Being able to work on their crafts daily allows the artisans to get better and better at their chosen craft.

The artists of the Craft Village make a living selling the items they create. Many of their crafts can be purchased in the Ozark Folk Center gift store.

TUESDAY - Judi Munn, Potter

Judi Munn and John Perry

Judi Munn and her husband, John Perry, run the pottery building at the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village. The walls and shelves are full of beautiful pots, mugs, bowls, plates, and pitchers made in the shop. Judi’s work is functional stoneware which is designed to be used and enjoyed.

Pottery is made from clay. It has to be baked in a special oven called a kiln, so it will become hardened and permanent. Throughout the year, Judi and John fire their clay art pieces using different types of kilns. They use an electric, propane, a waste vegetable oil kiln, and a special wood-fired groundhog kiln. The wood-fired groundhog kiln is an historic style of firing which they fire up each spring.

Judi and her husband demonstrate the art of wheel-thrown pottery to the public. Most of their work is wheel-thrown and is decorated with liquid colored clay which is called “slip”.

Judi and John are known for their fern pottery. They made these by using the leaves of Ozark ferns as hand-made stencils on the clay’s surface.

Judi and John have a popular and unique collection of slip pottery known as “Critter Pottery”. The “Critter Cup” is a favorite. These mugs are decorated with line drawings of animals on the outside and have little sculpted animals inside. In addition to her wheel-thrown work, Judi also enjoys hand-building with clay.

When Judi was young, she told her mother she wanted to be an artist. Her mother told her that artists have holes in their socks. Judi earned a college degree in environmental science, worked with the Peace Corps, and then became an apprentice at the Ozark Folk Center pottery shop. She loves making a living by using her hands. Now she is an award-winning potter -- and her art is so beautiful that no one would care whether she has holes in her socks or not.

Judi Munn's job at the Craft Village, like all of the other artisans there, consists of a balance of showing people how her craft is done along with producing the highest quality work that she can. Working at the Craft Village gives her much freedom to be creative.

WEDNESDAY - Tom Weir, Knife Maker

Tom Weir is the knife maker at the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village. Tom was born in northeastern Arkansas and grew up on a farm in Lawrence County. He spends nearly every day making knives. Tom makes all kinds of useful knives - from twisted railroad spike novelties to beautiful Damascus bladed skinners.

Tom says that he makes knives to be used but also tries to put a little bit of himself into each knife. Each knife comes out different. He’s a true artisan who creates art that is useful.

Tom makes a few of the big, showy knives, because people want them, but he prefers to make medium to small knives which are more useful for hunting and skinning. For handles he uses antlers and woods such as maple and bodark, also called Osage Orange.

Tom also does scrimshaw, which is carving into bone or ivory. His etched carvings of mountains with elk or wolves match the finely polished blades of his unique knives.

THURSDAY - Skip and Racheal Matthews, Copper Colorists

Skip and Racheal Matthews are copper colorists, and they use heat to “paint” on copper by controlling the metal’s oxidation.

Skip developed the technique 35 years ago and is known as the Father of Flame Painting. He taught his wife, Racheal how to do it, and now they both create copper art pieces and also teach the process at the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village. They had to come up with a vocabulary for teaching the unique copper painting process.

The artisans use a small torch as a drawing tool. Skip and Racheal can produce 14 main colors through heating the copper to different temperatures. They use the colors to create patterns and designs on pieces of copper. There are 23 to 33 steps to create each copper piece, including cleaning, heating, cooling, reheating and finishing the pieces with a coat of polymer.
The flaming torch brings out the colors through the oxidation that forms on the surface.

Rachael said, “Anybody can get color on copper, But we’re flame painters because we’ve learned how to control the color and make it go where we want it to. Even with that, we figure we have about 70 to 80 percent control. If you’re a control freak, this is not the medium for you.” In her first year as a flame painter, she said, she had a lot of “happy accidents” that helped her learn more about the process.

Their copper pieces take many forms, such as butterflies, crosses, fish, leaves, pendants, and others.

Racheal and Skip Matthews have many beautiful copper pieces available for sale at the Ozark Folk Center and through their website.ttp://s240831787.onlinehome.us/coppercolorists. They also teach classes on their copper coloring teachnique.

YouTube Video: Flame Painting Copper Colorists - 6:14 min.