A Harvest of Artists at Festival

In an age when machines stamp out household widgets by the thousands, a festival whose main attractions include hand-carved brooms, fireplace bellows with a face chiseled in wood and handmade clocks may seem out of step.

But to a group of craftsmen from the Ozarks, many of whom have never left their small Arkansas community, they are carrying on a tradition handed down for generations.

“Centuries ago, people never ever made anything plain,” said blacksmith Steve Miller. Miller hammers out delicate flowers in metal from his home in Mountain View, Ark.--a community of some 4,000 residents about 100 miles north of Little Rock.

Miller and more than 300 artisans from 30 states will set up shop at the 15th annual San Diego Harvest Festival this weekend. The festival runs Friday through Sunday at Golden Hall.

From September though December, the show of ceramists, weavers, leather workers and toy makers travels a circuit of 16 cities in seven states, said Norma McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Petaluma, Calif.-based festival. More than 25,000 people attended last year’s show in San Diego, one of 10 cities on the California trail.

“When we come into a convention center, we transform it into a 19th-Century marketplace,” McLaughlin said.

Many of the artisans demonstrate their work at the festival, and everyone--from the crafts people to the banjo and rub board band to the Polish sausage vendor--wear period clothing from the 1800s, she said.

San Diego artisans represented at the festival include Louise Reding, who turns out crystalline glazed porcelain; Ray and Wilma Gordon, who have handcrafted more than 75 varieties of clocks from exotic woods; Karen and Tom Hale, known for their corn husk dolls like those once made by American Indians, and Dorene Foster, who makes whimsical versions of moose, fish and other big game animal trophies out of cloth.

Festival goers who bring a can of food or other nonperishable food item will receive a $1 discount off the $5.75 adult admission price. The food will be donated to the San Diego Food Bank.