It starts with a 2-inch block of wood – mere scraps to some woodworkers.
But in the hands of Charlie Quillin, the small pieces of curly maple, walnut and historic Pemberton oak turn into masterpieces – wood pens, wine bottle stoppers, pencils and shoehorns.
“Most of our things are made from local wood,” Quillin said, showing customers the items at the Quillin’s Quills tent on the first day of this year’s Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon. The two-week festival opened Saturday with a parade, games for children, street dancing and vendors peddling everything from handmade pottery to Hawaiian shaved ice.
Quillin and his wife, Heda, from Abingdon, have attended the festival for years, and have been making wooden pens and pencils for 10 or 12 years.
Heda Quillin cuts the blanks and drills the holes for the ink cartridge, and then her husband turns the wood to shape the pen. She then puts all the parts together and serves as the salesperson.
Charlie Quillin said the most frequently asked question from potential customers: How long does it take for a block of wood to turn into a usable writing device?
“It depends,” he said he always tells them, laughing. “My motto is, you seldom find perfection in nature, and you probably won’t find it here either. It may take three tries to make one pen, or you may make three pens in one hour.”
Another local artist, Michael Gamble, who recently moved to Dryden, Va., was selling at the festival for the first time.
His tent was filled with pottery – mugs, flower keepers and glazed tiles that looked like mountain landscapes.
“I paint the glazes on and I stand them upside down in the kiln,” he said. “It’s done with different thicknesses of glaze.”
The end result is a tile painted with scenes of trees, mountains and lakes.
“I don’t know anybody else who does this,” Gamble said. “It drives me crazy … because I have to balance the kiln … but I like doing it, it’s fun.”
Gamble said the flower keepers, which are tiny pots filled with holes for short-stemmed flowers, sell well.
“Lots of teachers buy them for when kids bring them flowers, plus they go great at place settings, too,” he said.
Not everyone at the festival was selling their handicrafts: clowns and a magician roamed the streets, impressing kids and parents alike with their skills.
Ronn Winters had a couple of packs of cards in his pockets, and was showing people tricks as he walked around, promoting a stage show later in the day.
Winters approached 4-year-old Spencer Williams with a small stick in his hand that had six different colored gems on it.
He asked Spencer to pick a number, and Spencer chose 4, which landed him on a sky-blue gem. Winters shook the stick a few times and all the gems changed to that color.
Spencer looked amazed.
“He likes magic,” said Susan Brockett, who was taking Spencer around the festival.
Her husband, Chuck, said the family has come to the festival nearly every year, and he especially likes the night activities, like the street dancing planned for Saturday night.
“I wish the booths were open later at night when it was cooler,” he said.
But, Susan Brockett said, she wasn’t too worried about the heat during the day.
“We have lots of water and we can buy drinks,” she said.
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