Fine arts are taught through classes, patience and critique. Home arts, on the other hand, are passed down between generations, redesigned and personalized with love and care.
That’s what makes them so special, according to Jessie Erickson, 40, of Chehalis.
Erickson grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in California, where she and her family participated in Gold Rush reenactments throughout her childhood.
In her youth, she learned to create clothing and quilts. Both her grandmothers also helped her finetune her crafts.
“I just grew up loving it. And understanding where things came from was a big deal, how much work it takes to make real things,” she said.
Now, along with her mother and sister, Erickson assists the superintendent of the Open Class Home Arts Department at the Southwest Washington Fair each year. Ahead of this year’s fair, from Aug. 16-21, Erickson wants to encourage entries in the eight categories of home arts: quilting and wall hangings; clothing; knitting, crocheting and weaving; stitchery; home arts (such as handmade decor and home furnishings); baked goods and candy; canning; and table settings.
Each category is broken down further to include as many variations of the crafts as possible and there are contests in the categories increasing the number of possible prizes.
“For me, there's a lot of heritage involved in being able to continue on these skills. There is also, conversely, a desire to continue handing that down and the knowledge of how to do it,” Erickson said. “And we do a lot of demonstrations throughout the week there. So if there's a discipline that strikes your eye or medium that strikes your eye, chances are that somebody is going to be demonstrating how to do that.”
For the last decade or so, exhibit numbers in the department have been dropping. After the event was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19, Erickson said the pandemic “sped up the trend” of fewer submissions.
When asked why, she said she felt especially with home arts, participants in the crafts tend to be in older generations, and may simply be aging out of the process. She also supposed the advent of sharing arts and crafts on the internet has meant fewer people joining in-person groups to share and learn from one another.
Erickson has been a member of a local quilting group called In Stitches since around 2012, which has quilt shows every other year.
“Through that group, I really got to know the discipline of quilting and then a lot of the quilters in the community,” she said, adding later that entrants in the fair have the opportunity to “get to know people’s work and what they’re really good at and what they love to do. That’s just a great way to spark conversations. Because when you don’t know someone, hobbies or passions are a great place to start.”
Besides the potential to gain knowledge and friendship, entrants can also win prizes, ribbons and sometimes small amounts of cash.
“There’s a lot of healthy pride in putting that kind of stuff on display,” Erickson said.
Open Class does not require exhibitors to be a member of a group such as FFA or 4-H, which makes the process accessible to participants of all skill levels. Registration is done through the fair’s website online ahead of time.
Then, along with the confirmation email from registration, participants bring their exhibits to the fairgrounds during one of two time slots.
Erickson said online registration is fairly new, and she and others in the department have worked with many folks who registered in the wrong category. She said no matter what, department helpers will work with anyone to get their registration sorted out when they come in to drop off their work.
“Go through the handbook and read it like you've never read it before,” Erickson said. “We've revamped it quite a bit and are trying to tighten things up. And there's just a lot of things that people don't think to enter because they never have and they've just never read the book.”
To find the handbook or register for an Open Class department, visit https://southwestwashingtonfair.org/exhibits/entries/open-class-entries/.
Home arts exhibits must be brought to the Community Events Building at the Fairgrounds on Aug. 9 between 4 and 8 p.m. or Aug. 10 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. For questions, call superintendent Kathleen Ament at 360-807-6727.
The department also has a Facebook group called Southwest Washington Fair Home Arts anyone can join and an Instagram page called @SWWAFairHomeArts.
