Steve and Arlone Folkers – ON HIATUS
In 1973 Arlone and Steve Folkers moved to a remote valley in the Ozarks and raised goats, chickens, rabbits, a horse, dogs and cats and two sons; they canned produce from their organic garden, cut wood and hauled water. Steve’s woodwork and Arlone’s weaving spring from and reflect this simple way of life. They have marketed their work primarily through the shows and shops of the Arkansas Craft Guild for more than 25 years. A move to a hilltop at the end of a road south of Mountain View gives them the seclusion they love, as well as better access to town for Steve’s work as a craft interpreter at the Ozark Folk Center, and Arlone’s searches through local thrift stores for colorful materials for her twined rugs and loom-woven runners and placemats.
Arlone’s work is rooted in a deep conviction that her money-earning work should reflect the same values that she tries to live by. Her goal has been to develop well designed, functional, long-lasting crafts using materials that are either recycled or grown in a sustainable and preferably organic way. The recent availability of color grown organic cotton (USA grown) and organically grown hemp (from a cooperative in Romania) has helped her accomplish this goal.
A variety of teaching experiences have played an important part in Arlone’s 30-year weaving history. These range from teaching an inkle loom class, to one-on-one floor loom instruction, to being recognized as a Master Weaver by the National Endowment for the Arts and receiving two grants to teach an apprentice, to giving free rug weaving classes at the local thrift store, and most recently, adapting a technique, designing a simple frame loom and compiling a handbook of instruction for a five day rug twining class at the Ozark Folk Center’s Folk School.
With a formal education in biology, and fascinated since childhood by the varying ways ancient and foreign cultures have related to nature, Steve aspires to a close connection to the environment, without reducing it to mere “natural resources”. Primarily, he hand carves individually designed spoons and bowls directly from the tree, very much influenced by traditional methods. Working the wood this way, by splitting, hewing, shaving and carving, allows the hand tools to respond constantly to the grain, aiding in forming a strong design which emphasizes the beauty of the material, serving a function naturally.
Steve has been a member of the Arkansas Craft Guild since 1985. In 2000, while working at the Ozark Folk Center, he also apprenticed as a white cooper (dairy, that is: buckets and churns) to longtime John C. Campbell Folk School teacher Keith Bowman. These vessels are made with the same hand tools, plus a few more specialized ones, usually using red cedar for the staves and heads, and white oak for the hoops.
Arlone and Steve continue their simple lifestyle (now with one dog and one cat), expanding their organic gardens, grandchildren, canoeing and hiking, and refining their crafts.
