May 22 and 23
9am to 2pm

Museum field trip for Moorefield and East Hardy students

The Lost River Museum will play host to 60 second graders from East Hardy Early Middle School on Thursday, May 22, and 110 from Moorefield Elementary School on Friday, May 23.

The children will move in small groups through a series of activities. Judy Moyer will lead the museum tour, Mary Dailey will sing and play traditional instruments, Mary Umstead will teach traditional storytellling, Kathy Welch will guide them in candle-making, and Tim Wheeler will lead traditional games.

The children will also walk to the Lost River General Store where they will be treated to ice cream.

The program merges instructional areas such as music, history, language arts, physical education and art with heritage and folklore instruction.

May 24 and 25

20th anniversary celebration!

For a party 20 years in the making, the Lost River Craft Cooperative is pulling out all the stops.

The artisan cooperative, which opened its doors in the summer of 1988, is hosting a range of craft demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, May 24 and 25, on the lawn around their gallery in the 150-year-old Harper Barn along WV 259 in Lost River.

Many of the artisans are friends of cooperative member Priscilla Blosser-Rainey of Timberville, Va., who is active in several heritage fiber craft organizations in the Shenandoah Valley.

“Fiber has traditionally been one of our strongest crafts,” said Nancy Powell, a member of the cooperative’s board of directors.

To represent the full range of fiber artistry, from raw fiber to finished product, Powell has made arrangements on Saturday with Sharon Music of Harmony Hill Farm near Wardensville to have some llamas on hand, and for Debbie White of Forevermore Farm of Mathias to bring some lambs. White is also planning a sheep-shearing demonstration.

Saturday’s animal displays will be complemented by spinners Lynn Eggleston of Lost River and Christina Parham of Timberville; weavers Mary Ann Gentry of Woodstock, Va., and Nancy Voas of Harrisonburg, Va.; and lace-makers Clyde and Judi DeWitt of Yellow Spring.

Blosser-Rainey will demonstrate spinning on the Tusing sisters’ “Great Wheel” spinning wheel, an important piece of the Lost River Museum collection. The museum, a sister organization to the craft cooperative, is located on the lower level of the Harper Barn.

Powell explained that the great wheel is also called a wool wheel or walking wheel.  “It was called a great wheel because of its size, a wool wheel because wool was spun on it (as opposed to the smaller flax wheel) and a walking wheel because the spinner does not sit but walks toward and away from it,” she said. This particular wheel had belonged to Ora and Lynn Tusing, two Mennonite sisters who lived a traditional lifestyle on a remote homestead on Branch Mountain overlooking the Lost River Valley.

Saturday’s events will also include entertainment beginning at 10:30 a.m. by folk musician Mary Dailey of Green Sulphur Springs, followed by the valley’s Dave Gant and his bluegrass band Deer Springs at 3:30 p.m. A children’s art tent is also planned from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m with a variety of activities available.

Saturday will be topped off with a celebration and program beginning at 4 p.m., which will include the announcement of the inaugural James E. Leiss Volunteer Award.

But the weekend’s activities don’t end there. On Sunday, Blosser-Rainey and the DeWitts will return, joined by joined by spinners Cheryl Gerhart of Mt. Solon, Va., Marianne Kennel of Harrisonburg, and Sue Ober and Nancy Sly, both of Broadway, Va.; and rug hooker Pat Koch of Woodstock. Children will also enjoy watching Sherri Huffer of Mt. Sidney, Va., spin yarn from the hair of a rabbit while it sits on her lap.

Also, many additional craft cooperative artisans will also be on hand throughout the weekend demonstrating jewelry design, stained glass, plein air painting, and more.

“Our 20 th anniversary is a special event,” said Powell. “We wanted to showcase our many talents, and we should have a nice range of demonstrations and activities available.”

The Lost River Craft Cooperative and the Lost River Museum are located on WV 259 in Lost River. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Beginning Memorial Day through the end of September, the cooperative is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sept. 27 and 28

Hardy County Heritage Weekend

Saturday, April 12
from 10 to 5

LRCC opens for its 20th season!

On Saturday, April 12, the Lost River Craft Cooperative will mark a milestone as it opens for its 20th season.

Created during the summer of 1988, the group first opened the gallery in the Lost River General Store building. After nearly a decade of growth, the cooperative moved down the road a few hundred yards and took up residence in a converted barn owned by Verdie Teets Muntzing in the spring of 1998.

That move could have spelled the end for the still-fledgling group, but the task of refitting the bank-style barn, led by the late Jim Leiss and the late Will Weatherholtz, both master woodworkers, may have created a greater determination to succeed.

“After all, the strength of a cooperative/member-owned group is that everyone is a part of the organization,” said Albert Hutchings of Washington, D.C., a glass artisan who is serving as the current president of the cooperative. “The last to join is as important as the first because we all share a common goal.”

Moving to the Harper Barn, as the historic structure is known, also provided space for the development of a museum for the valley, a special wish of Teets Muntzing when she offered the barn to the cooperative.

The Lost River Museum was created on the first floor of the barn, largely under the direction of Pete and Ginny Mondale and Bill and Nancy Powell, comprised of exhibits representing the history of farming and homesteading in the area. Raymond Daugherty, a member from Mathias, points to the museum as a singular achievement. "A source of my enjoyment [as a co-op member] is just the realization of what the co-op, especially Nancy and Bill, have done to preserve the culture and history of this area, which would have otherwise been lost.”

The upper floor of the barn houses the cooperative’s artisan gallery, where products range from fused glass, fine furniture, regional books, original paintings, pewter jewelry, and hand-dyed yarns. The handcrafted products are complemented by the sturdy craftsmanship of the barn. Artisans also work in cooperation with the museum, particularly fiber artists who demonstrate on two antique looms, to share the history of many of the crafts represented in the gallery.

The years since the move have brought more growth to the cooperative, which now includes nearly 100 members, a diverse group comprised of consigning artisans and “friends” who support the cooperative’s operations and programs.

Plans are under way this year to offer some classes, as well as continue a tradition of artisan demonstrations through the summer months. “It’s another big step for us to offer classes,” said Hutchings. “We have lots of changes and new ideas on our agenda for the 2008 season. It's exciting just to look forward see all the things we have ahead of us.”