Hagley Craft Fair

By Carson Williamson

The 41st Annual Hagley Craft Fair was held at the Hagley Museum and Library Oct. 19-20 and open to all to experience and enjoy crafts and fine arts hand-made by numerous crafters, with styles from various different world cultures in some cases.

Attendees were treated to the crafts, fine arts, and gourmet, hand-made items from over 50 artisans with skills ranging from photography, painting, textile work, pottery, jewelry, wood carving, metalworking, and alpaca-fibre products.

Outside of the Museum and Library was a collection of different foods, including organic salsas, flavored honey, organically grown tea, and specialty vinaigrettes, among other items.

Ellis Underkoffler, a Delaware resident since 1970, attended the craft fair as a vendor and discussed his craft.

“I do all my own photography, my own matting, my own printing, and I travel around basically Delaware, Southern Pennsylvania,” Underkoffler commented, “Every once and a while, I’ll stretch that out and do a workshop of the wildflowers in Texas, or I’ll go to Iceland or go to Alaska and do some fishing and some photography.”

Underkoffler said, “What I enjoy most about photography is talking to the people… It’s nice to sell some things, but I just like to talk to people (and) about the photographs themselves.”

The fair highlighted artists from all over, with attention to those within the state. One of those members was a Hagley Museum and Library member, Rick Cross.

Rick Cross attended Hagley to sell his art for the first time this year.

“I only started selling art about a year ago, and I live right around the corner from Hagley and I’ve been a member here, so I was aware of the show,” Cross said. “I decided to give it a shot.”

Patricia Tolton was another local artist at Hagley, who had been attending the Hagley Craft Fair for 10 years.

“I guessed they liked me,” Tolton joked with a laugh. “I’m a local artist, and I try to do local shows because I like to be known in the area that I live in.”

Tolton gave some background info on the history of her family, who were potters that moved to the Ohio River valley from Stoke-on-Trent, England in the late 1800s.

Tolton spoke on her reason for getting into the family craft, “My aunt was the last potter in my family, and when she started to retire I started to take classes. It was a hobby that kind of went wild.”

The Hagley Craft Fair is an annual event held every October. For more information, Hagley keeps an up-to-date calendar featuring all events held at the Hagley Museum and Library.

Video by C. Williamson.