Homestead Crafts

Hand-Craftmanship

At the craft booths throughout the Fairgrounds, you'll find handcrafted items made by the craftsmen in our community and their apprentices as well as their students. The work of our master craftsmen and their apprentices is available year-round at The Barn in our Traditional Crafts Village. Each item has been carefully fashioned by hand, resulting in hundreds of distinctive, one-of-a-kind pieces.

Special Displays

At many of the craft booths, you'll find student projects that are of exemplary quality displayed for viewing only. Writings that are part of the student’s home-school curriculum often accompany these special pieces, as well as photo essays that students and/or their instructors have assembled.

Ongoing Demonstrations

In nearly all of our booths, either craftsmen or students demonstrate their crafts continuously throughout the day. Feel free to ask them questions about their crafts.

Make-Your-Own Activities

Many booths have make-your-own activities for children nearby. Once you arrive at the Fair, check the handout for an up-to-date listing. There is a nominal charge for projects.

Craft Booths

Woodworking

In our Woodworking booth, you'll find a wide variety of solid wood projects on display and for sale. Each item has been individually shaped by hand using hand tools and traditional joinery, or hand-turned on a lathe.

Children's Activities:

Carve a Wooden Spatula
Construct a Bird Feeder or Tool Tote

Homestead Furniture

Be sure not to miss our furniture exhibit featuring hand joinery. It includes early Texas styles in solid cherry, mesquite and longleaf pine, as well as many of our own designs made by our craftsmen and their apprentices.

Leatherwork

In the Leather booth you'll find a variety of leatherwork, including stitching, rawhide work and saddle making.

Children's Activity:

Make a Leather Key Fob or Bookmark

Blacksmithing

Visit Heritage Forge, our blacksmith shop over in the Gristmill area, and see our blacksmiths and their students demonstrate hand techniques they use to forge raw iron into dozens of attractive and functional household items—hooks, hangers, lamps, pot racks, fireplace tools, bed frames, table bases and more.

Children's Activity:

Make a Brass Spoon

Metal Casting

Take time to see the metal casting demonstrations and displays at the blacksmith shop. You'll see custom-designed items made of brass and pewter molded in sand casts.

Pottery

On the pottery shelves you'll find hundreds of stoneware and porcelain kitchenware, tableware and household items in a wide variety of colors and styles. Our pottery students demonstrate how to throw a variety of vessels using a potter’s wheel.
Tableware: mugs, plates, bowls, pitchers, salt & pepper sets, platters, butter plates
Kitchenware: garlic keepers, colanders, juicers, batter bowls, mixing bowls, butter bells, spoon rests, utensil holders
Household Items: oil lamps, candle holders, electric lamps, vases, soap dishes, stoneware baskets, bells and more

Children's Activity:

Make a Pinch Pot or Coil Pot

Broom Making

Watch our broom makers assemble and stitch a variety of broomcorn brooms by hand from start to finish.

Kitchen Brooms • Cobweb Brooms
Hearth Brooms • Turkey Wing & Standard Whisks

Children's Activity:

Make a Baker's Broom

Basketry

Watch as students and instructors weave a variety of serviceable, functional baskets.

Melon Baskets • Potato Baskets • Bread Baskets
Hearth Baskets • Muffin Baskets • Cheese Baskets
Market Baskets • Pine Needle Baskets

Children's Activity:

Weave a Basket

Fiber Crafts

Watch ongoing wool combing, spinning and weaving demonstrations, as well as knitting, crocheting and felting by hand.

Children's Activities:

Weave a Woven Coaster
Make a Felt-Covered Soap Bar
Knit a Headband

Sewing & Quilting

Ongoing demonstrations include hand quilting, hand sewing and sewing by treadle machine. This booth also includes needlework, such as embroidery and cross-stitching. Allow a few extra minutes to look at the intricacy and beauty of the hand-pieced, hand-sewn quilts, and multitudes of carefully sewn projects, from pincushions to full-sized quilts.

Dresses • Jumpers • Aprons • Place Mats • Napkins
Quilts • Pillowcases • Baby Quilts • Table Runners
Cloth Dolls • Doll Quilts • Totes • Hot Pads

Children's Activities:

Hand sew a Keepsake Bag
Cross-stitch a Bookmark or Magnet
Quilt a Coaster or Tissue Holder

Music

Just outside the music tent, you'll find a listening station for the recordings of the Homestead Choir and Orchestra, as well as our CDs of children's Scripture memory music.

Soap Making Booth

All the soaps in our Soap Making booth are made by hand in small batches. These mild soaps retain their natural glycerin—available wrapped or unwrapped.

Bath Bars • Shaving Soap • Goat's Milk Soap
Herbal Bars • Baby Bars • Natural Lotions

Children's Activity:

Make a Soap Ball

Candle Making

In the Candle booth, you'll find 100% natural beeswax candles in an array of colors.

Tapers • Wildflower Candles • Pillars • Honeycomb

Children's Activity:

Dip a Beeswax Candle