Dec 11, 2015 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – The eighth annual Holiday Craft Blast, which continues to draw in new artists, both locally and from surrounding states, is returning to the Greene County Fairgrounds this weekend.

The show that gives shoppers an opportunity to buy homemade gifts for the holidays will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Many artists have been selling at the Nathanael Greene Community Development Corporation’s largest fundraiser since the beginning and their success continues to draw in new artists who come to sell their wares, which includes pottery woodwork, jewelry, soaps, jellies and much more. Organizer Brenda Shiflett said the event has more than 50 vendors coming this year.

“There’s something for everyone, from primitive to modern art, T-shirts and baked goods and some direct sales vendors too,” she said.

Potter Jennifer Adamson remembers the first Craft Blast and how it helped to spur her new business.

“I remember being impressed with the support Nat Greene offered artists and also how good my sales were,” she said. “It encouraged me to continue working in clay and develop my business.”

Adamson Pottery has now grown into PA Mug Co., with a studio and sales gallery on Richhill Street in Waynesburg.

Adamson will be at the fairgrounds again Sunday with mugs, bowls, crocks, ready for holiday giving.

Elanore Steiner, another crafter, is also back with her unique, handcrafted log and stone cabins, country houses and, new this year, a tiny wooden outhouse.

“I’ve done Craft Blast for five years now and it’s a good show,” Steiner said, holding up this newest addition to her line of old fashioned decorative art.

Steiner uses 100-year-old lath strips salvaged from old houses and returns to Grafton, W.Va., to gather layered sandstone along the roads. She brings the material back to her studio in Waynesburg and splits into tiny flat pieces that she fits together like puzzles for the stone walls.

“My son-in-law asked me to make him a log cabin and it was so bad I made him another – then another,” she said laughing. “Now, here I am.”

Nat Greene organizers have found that Sunday is the best day for the show because it gives people a place to go after church and have lunch while they shop, board President Mary Shine said.

“Our homemade soups are a real crowd pleaser and we always sell out, so come early,” she said.

There are sandwiches to go along with the soups and holiday baked goods, including cookies, nut rolls and candies served up for sale by local vendors.

For more information, call Shiflett at 304-276-1865.