Last year, I received the honor of being selected as a juried artisan into the PA Wilds Artisan Trail. It's a really cool program, but rather than give a rundown of all it entails, here's a link to the program in specific, as well as the PA Wilds website for other resources spanning this 12.5-county portion of Pennsylvania.
What I'm really writing about today, is the video I was contracted to produce for the Artisan Trail. Ta, the program director, contacted me in November to see if I'd be able to quickly produce a promotional piece to better explain the benefits of the trail to new members, and have it ready to publish by January 30th.
Of course, my response was an enthusiastic "Yes!"
So I spent the past two months trekking back and forth across the icy tundra of northern and central Pennsylvania meeting, interviewing, and being inspired by, a dozen artisans, business owners and generally influential folks.
People like Joe and Andrea, owners of The Laughing Owl Press. They've resurrected a bunch of antique equipment and are producing traditional letterpress printing materials for people and brands all over the world.
And Stephanie, who makes gorgeous jewelry in her garden studio by hammering copper and other metals into designs inspired by all of the best things in life.
And Doug, who is keeping alive the methods of the traditional blacksmith. As he told me, he can turn a wagon spring into a sword, or a sword into a wagon spring, using only heat and a hammer. No wonder the kings of old feared and respected blacksmiths - it truly is alchemy :-)
Anywho - if you've got sixteen and a half minutes to spare (don't we all?) please take a peek at the resulting video. I'm quite proud of it.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur in the region, it might set off some light bulbs, or at least reveal a few tidbits you might not have known about our area.