The blacksmith's workshop. Monkeyman & I both found this stop particularly fascinating.
I liked this sign at the entrance...
He is making an S-hook, which was used to hang pots over the fire for cooking. You could use a chain of several S-hooks to hang the pot lower and closer to the fire, or just one hook to hang it up higher away from the fire, when you just wanted to keep the food warm. This was their only way of temperature control in their cooking.
Putting the decorative twist in the S-hook.
Here he's showing the "before" and "after" states of a kitchen spatula.
A few of the handmade tools on display.
Notice the rose and the snake. He said the snake was made out of a worn-out file.
Monkey: Oh, you're taking pictures? (Yeah, imagine that.) Take one of me, Mom!
The broom maker, demonstrating making a corn broom.
The glassworks. Although I was really looking forward to this part, I was a tiny bit disappointed that the artist was inexplicably not in period costume or character. She demonstrated making a glass rose (so it was really glass-sculpting, not glass-blowing) but didn't seem particularly enthused about it, and whipped out a cell phone right after her demonstration. One of the most interesting things I learned is that back when they used wood to fuel the furnace, the amount of wood it consumed per day was about equal in volume to the size of the huge barn we were standing in. Let me repeat that: a whole barn full of wood. Per. Day.
Adding color to the hot glass.
Forming the petals of the rose.
Some of the blown glass items made here.
The pottery.
This guy was pretty cool. He told us all about finding clay and the surprisingly long process of getting it to be of the quality needed for making pottery, and about the process of making pottery itself.
Potter's wheel. The potter kicks the bottom wheel to get it spinning, and the weight of the huge concrete slab is what keeps it going.
We learned that this is how they tell the temperature of the kiln. Each spike is made of a different kind of clay with a different melting point, so by seeing how many of the spikes melt you can gauge the temperature. He said this method has been used for thousands of years and is still used today.
This is the one-room schoolhouse. We waited a long time for the group inside to be finished so we could go in, but we all finally got tired of waiting and left to try to squeeze in a few more things before the place closed for the day.
BUT, during our long wait there, a really cool thing happened. There was a creek beside the schoolhouse, and the kids spontaneously began throwing things in from the bridge above and watching to see how far they'd drift down the creek before being hung up on an obstacle. They experimented with different kinds of leaves and sticks, and cheered each others' items on heartily. It was great fun to watch.
The Goldsmith house. Definitely the fanciest place in the village. We very quickly breezed through right before closing.
I thought this tiny bed was very cute until I realized it was in a room the size of a closet and must have been a servant's bed.
Nearby covered bridge we passed on the way home.
All in all, a great field trip. I can't believe I've lived in this area my whole life and had never visited this fascinating place before. Monkeyman & I both really enjoyed it. Plus as we were walking between buildings, he had lots of fun running and playing with the kids in our group, and I enjoyed talking to some of the moms whose faces have become familiar to me now. So we both got a healthy dose of socialization too. :)
This may warrant a field trip someday. My husband's great grandfather was an Italian immigrant and had his own blacksmith shop right in the neighborhood. So cool. I love this stuff.
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