Ozark Folk Center welcomes fresh faces, ideas to Village

By Amy Widner

LITTLE ROCK — The Ozark Folk Center may be a place people can go to learn about the crafts of yesteryear, but that doesn’t mean the craftsmen and women in the center’s Craft Village aren’t working to keep things fresh for visitors.

The summer has brought change to the village in the form of several new crafters, some of whom have opened new shops and added to the variety of craft offerings at the park. Other longtime employees have taken on some new roles or mixed things up a bit. It’s all part of keeping traditional crafts alive and relevant for visitors, craft director Jeanette Larson said.

“I just became craft director earlier this year, and I kind of thought things in the village were a little stale,” Larson said. “The historic crafts are still the focus, but I am actively looking for crafters. The other crafters I would love to see here are a shoemaker, a hat maker and tin smith.”

Larson convinced Jim Purdom, 60, of Mountain View to come back to the center earlier this month after a 20-year hiatus. He doesgunsmith work on Wednesdays and Fridays at the village, where he first learned his craft as an apprentice in 1979 and ran his own shop until 1985. Purdom was born and raised in the area, where his family and his wife’s family have roots as far back as the early 1800s.

He said there’s something about the mountains - with their rich history, great music and friendly folks - that gets in your blood, and he’s glad to be back in a position where he can both put his skills to good use and celebrate the area’s heritage.

“This that I’m working on right here is some of the wood I had in my shop waiting for me to get interested again for 20 years,” Purdom said.

He said educating others about Arkansas history is one of the best things the Folk Center does. As he works, he tells visitors who come to his shop about how the gun-making skills the Europeans brought with them to this country developed into a unique American style.

“Really it depends on who you’re talking to,” Purdom said. “I start by feeling them out to see what they’re interested in - if they’re really a gun person or maybe someone I should talk to about the gun’s art and form. Usually it’s a boy, 10 to 12 years old - he might be standing at the door staring and trying to get his parents to come in. I can tell by the look on their face if they’re a gun lover.”

Styles differed by region and were an important part of life on the frontier. Guns like the longbarreled muzzleloaders he makes could be beautiful, with elaborate carvings and inlay (detail work that Purdom also does on his own guns), or utilitarian.

“If you were in Philadelphia, the center of the world back then, sure, a gun would be a beautiful thing that you might have hung on your wall or you would take with you to the town meeting,” Purdom said. “But your gunsmiths were always out on the very edge of the frontier, which could be a wild and woolly place where youhad to have some kind of protection and something you could feed yourself with.”

With that history in mind, Purdom would like to work in his shop on more Tennessee, or Mountain Style, rifles, which would have been common in the Ozarks.

“It’s about saving our heritage and teaching about our heritage,” Purdom said, “and I’m trying to stick to that theme in what I talk about and the guns I make.”

Purdom is thinking about teaching some beginning gunsmith classes, expanding his hours this year and opening a full-time shop next year. In addition to gun making and decorating for the guns he sells, he also does repair and cleaning work on old and modern guns for customers.

Another newcomer, Mike Green, 30, of Mountain View, has set up shop next to the open-air Music Pavilion at the heart of the Craft Village. He said the oldtimey music that drifts into his shop during the live performances provides the perfect atmospherefor his business, where customers can dress up in clothes from the 1870s-1890s Old West and take the photo home to prove it.

Green is from Mountain View originally and has returned to town after about 10 years away attending film school and working as a fashion and live-music photographer in Florida. Larson recruited him, and he brought his photography skills to the job along with an 8-foot saloon bar for customers to pose on. In addition to the bar, Green has enough props - like swinging saloon doors and a poker table with cards, chips and pistols - for customers to make their Wild West experience unique.

Green said the Craft Village hasn’t offered such photos in 20 years or so. His shop has been open for five weeks and has been a hit with young and old alike.

“As soon as I got it all set up in here and opened up people sort of attacked me,” Green said.

Green’s shop is open full time, and he offers 8-by-10 and 5-by-7 prints of the saloon scenes in oldlooking brownish tones or color. He also does special requests outside or in his studio inside the shop, which has moveable parts and props to accommodate different needs.

“I’ve got this whole park to use as a backdrop,” Green said. “We can do photos in here of just about anything you like.”

Across the Craft Village, the herb garden has gotten an addition that its caretakers, Cynthia Cox, 50, of Fox and Kathleen Connole, 56, who lives near Rush on the Buffalo River, hope will make visitors’ gardening experience more complete. Before, if people bought one of their plants, that was the end of the story. Now Cox and Connole have opened an adjacent shop where visitors can get gardening tools, books and advice.

Customers can browse more than 50 species of plants and more than 30 varieties of seeds and consult Cox and Connole, or their extensive on-site library, for gardening tips.

“It’s tough to garden in the Ozarks,” Connole said. “We need all the help we can get.”

Cox has worked at the park since February, and Connole has worked there for two years. They maintain the plants in the landscaping throughout the park and grow, in an on-site green house, all the plants they sell, which includes cooking herbs and native plants, among others. They plan to expand their offerings with interactive programs for adults and children.

Perhaps most importantly, they said they are excited about sharing their love of gardening and want visitors to learn about nature and appreciate the work that goes into growing the food we eat.

“It’s fun letting people know how fun it is to garden,” Connole said. “Even if they don’t choose to grow plants themselves, hopefully, they’ll support the people who do.”

Also new this year are Amy Lawrence, 36, of Mountain View, who has opened a leather-workingshop, and Jonell Green of Zion, who works in The Country Kitchen. Shawn Hoefer, 41, of Fox has worked at the park for 10 years, but added broom making to his craft résumé (which includes spinning, weaving and woodturning) by taking an apprenticeship at the park. He started working in the broom shop a few days a week this year and can offer brooms in 27 distinct styles.

In addition to the newcomers, the Craft Village features morethan 20 crafters who practice traditional crafts - everything from blacksmithing to basket weaving. The Craft Village is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children. The Ozark Folk Center is part of the Arkansas State Park system. More information is available by calling (870) 269-3851 or visiting www.ozarkfolkcenter.com.

- awidner@ arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 128, 131 on 08/24/2008