John C Campbell Folk School 2015

We did it again, a return trip to Brasstown, North Carolina to attend John C. Campbell Folk School. The blacksmith was taking at class on 18th century lighting. I was just going to relax and enjoy my week there. 

We've been 6 or 7 times, we can't remember. It never gets old, the area, the music, the wonderful people, the way of life, the list goes on and on.

Here is a recap of the week. 

The dining hall looks amazing with all the oak tables and white table settings. This particular evening we had eggplant Parmesan and warm olive bread with a hard crust, my favorite. Dessert was Tiramisu.  

 The mushrooms I found while walking the campus.

I walked this path nightly. The scene is one of my favorites. 

Smoke in the mountains. Actually it's coal smoke from the forges of the blacksmith shop in the distance.

 My blacksmith is on the left.  On the right is another Missouri blacksmith, Bob Alexander.

The meeting of the minds, teacher Jerry Darnell of Mill Creek Forge in Seagrove, NC shows Bob and Bernie a technique.

 Thought I'd do a little house hunting on campus. 

Since I didn't take a class this time, I would spend my mornings in the Casita sewing away. I was surprised at how much work I could accomplish without the internet and TV. 

One night, upstairs in the blacksmith shop, there was a little jam session.  Music is a big part of the Appalachian area. In the eight days we spent in the area, we went to 3 jam sessions and 2 big performances. 

 Here I am watching my smith from the second story of the beautiful timber frame shop.

Friday at Folk School is always show and tell. Here are some of the quilts completed in just 4 1/2 days. 

 My friend Bryanna Alexander made this box. Can you tell she is Bob's wife?

All the materials in this basket were harvested Monday and finished by Friday in a natural basket. 

Bernie made a lot of projects this week. His are on the bottom left side. 

 This timber frame stage is new since we were here last year.

I stumbled upon this in the museum. Doug Hendrickson was a founding member of the Blacksmith Association of Missouri (BAM). He passed away in 2007 from Lou Gehrig's disease. 

On the last Friday night at John C. Campbell Folk School, the Chuck Nation Band performed. 

My friend Pattie (love that name), who is the resident basket making instructor at John C. Campbell, made a beautiful little pin cushion for me.

On both Friday evenings we attended  jam sessions at Clay's Corner. It is well known for it's possum drop on New Years Eve. We also enjoyed hand dipped ice cream cones every time we were there.

Last but not least, I got to pick up another order of mugs and steins from Rob the potter. Smoke in the Mountain Pottery Shop is always a stop I make, some times twice! 

If you want to read some of my post about previous trips there just click here. Be sure and click on the link at the top to check out the John C. Campbell Folk school. It's a wonderful place.

Another fantastic week at the John C. Campbell Folk School

We did it again!  We went back to Brasstown, North Carolina to the school. 

If you have never been to this folk school you must  put it on your bucket list. We've been there 5 times!

We went a day early to attend the gala and auction. 

For your ticket you got "heavy" hors d'oeuvres, and two drink tickets.

 Grilled steak skewers

 Boiled stuffed mushrooms

 Mini peppers filled with party spinach 

 To die for Tiramisu Shooters. I may or may not have had more than one of these!

The flowers, all picked at the school, were beautiful. 

There was a lot more  food but I was too busy eating to take pictures, like Feather Beds stuffed with Sorghum Glazed Ham, Smoked Trout Dip with Bacon and Almonds, Falafel with Tahini Sauce and Cucumber, Camembert, and Walnut Truffles, Watermelon Popsicles, Chocolate Cherry Clusters, and again, to die for, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, and last, Jam Thumbprints, which I never got around to tasting. 

 The Puddle Jumpers were playing early in the evening. 

In the live auction was one of my favorite potters pieces, a Rob Withrow face jug! 

Here is an  interesting thistle plant made in the Francis Whitaker blacksmith shop. There was a silent auction and a live auction, so many beautiful things all donated to raise funds for the school.

I took this picture during one of the many rains we had early in the week. I like to think it was raining hammers in Brasstown, instead of cats and dogs. This is part of the front porch at the timber frame blacksmith shop. 

I found a barn quilt on the fiber arts building!

Watching the Tuesday evening contra dance is always so much fun. 

Walking the grounds is so refreshing. This was my evening walk from the Keith house to the blacksmith shop. 

 See the smoke? That's all the forges going in the shop. 

The blacksmith shop is a beautiful timber frame building. 

 Jerry Darnell and my blacksmith are having a little discussion of the day's lesson.

 Looking out the front door of the shop, you can see the spring house. 

This is the beautiful blacksmith shop.

On Friday afternoon, for the closing ceremony of the week's classes, everyone brings what they made to the Keith house. 

My hubby's week's worth of work. Eighteenth century hardware was the title of the class. 

 Our friend Pattie Bagley made all these shaker boxes in her woodworking class.

 The weaving class made some awesome coverlet samples. 

 19th century whirligigs were also awesome!

 This table represents most of the blacksmiths' work.

Pioneer quilts class was taught by Cindy Brick. 

After dinner we went back for a concert. It was a packed house! It's a good thing we saved our chairs before dinner. 

Another week comes to a close. Someone mentioned how can you go to bed on Sunday night and wake up and it's Friday morning already. It's just that time flies when you are having fun. It's good to be renewed, re-spirited, and refreshed with the friends of John C. Campbell Folk school.

John C. Campbell Folk School

I just spent 4 days with Blacksmiths

We headed to Sedalia on Thursday for the 2010 Blacksmith Association of Missouri conference. Our first stop was Eddie's drive-in restaurant. They serve breakfast anytime of the day! I'm pretty sure the inside hadn't been updated in decades. They serve a goober burger there. It's a hamburger with peanut butter, tomatoes and lettuce. I passed on that as it was only 11:00 AM, I went for breakfast.

This is the BAM logo done in metal.


Not all blacksmith wear pants! George could pull this off quite nice, tat and all! These work kilts are not cheap! Pants would have been a whole lot cheaper. But not near as sexy.



This is the swine barn where the conference was held. It's an awesome old barn.

The storms rolled in on Saturday. The lightning hit and the power went out. If you look closely you can see the recloser is off. Luckily for us it was repaired in less than 15 minutes.

This grill was made by Clay Spencer, an awesome blacksmith.

He also teaches at John C Campbell folk school.

Flowers for the ladies, made by Pat McCarty.

Would you believe this coffee table was made by an apprentice? He's willing to sell it too!

Mona bought her jewelry. She does some beautiful work.

Basket classes were taught. Here Jenny and Carla show their baskets in the making.

Jo Nietfeld taught broom making classes.

An auction was held Saturday evening. Here Tim Ryan, who also teaches at John C. Campbell tries to pull a bidder in. I unfortunately gave Tim a duplicate bidder's number. Something that should not be done to the auctioneer!



To see more about the conference and more pictures visit

OsageBluff Blacksmith's blog.