SPRING MILLS — The ninth annual Holiday Craft Fair was held Dec. 9 at the Old Gregg School Community Center in Spring Mills as a fundraiser supporting the center’s year-round activities.
Vendors filled the gymnasium and first-floor hallway in the building, and wide variety of craft and food items were being sold to a large crowd of shoppers, who also enjoyed live music performed on the old school’s stage.
In the vendor area was Chris Croft, of Lock Haven, an instructor of automotive collision repair and restoration at Penn College who has his own business making metal signs, ornaments and other decorative items.
Croft uses a computer-controlled plasma cutter to cut very ornate patterns into 16-gauge steel. Working from verbal descriptions or sketches, Croft draws the patterns using computer-aided drafting software, then programs them into his cutting machines. “If you can draw it, I can make it,” he said.
Among the items he was showing at the fair were Christmas decorations in the shapes of snowflakes, snowmen, trees and angels, as well as many non-holiday wall decor.
Lauren Tomasch, of Boalsburg, was representing The Felted Tree, with its miniature felt trees and other items for the construction of fairy garden dioramas.
Tomasch offers miniature gnome houses with simulated moss-covered roofs, picket fence, furniture, animals and other items for constructing unique displays. She also sells the miniature garden scenes in kit form, with all the required items included.
Melanie Phillips represented Village Eatinghouse handcrafted sauces. She and her husband, Clay, of Pleasant Gap, have been making the line for 2 1/2 years. They offer a wide variety, including Italian sauces that can be had in tangy, spicy, sweet and sour, smoky and other varieties.
Greg and Mary Kay Williams were at the fair representing Cooke Tavern Soups, located in Penn Hall, just east of Spring Mills. Their line of gourmet soup mixes is made for busy people who want to serve a great pot of homemade soup without the work of starting from scratch.
The Williamses sell their products to gourmet food stores in Pennsylvania, nationwide and in several foreign countries. Their mixes are hand-packaged, using only high-quality air- and freeze-dried vegetables, herbs and spices, and are free from preservatives and artificial flavoring.
In a basement room of the school building, the Nittany Valley Model Railroad Club held an open house for the public to enjoy their large HO-scale model train layout. It is still under construction, but featured several running trains the day of the fair.
This club has about a dozen members who have been working on the multi-level layout since the spring of 2012. The layout features several scale miles of track, and realistic landscaping and trackside buildings are continuously being added.
The club also helped to construct a train layout in the Foxdale Village retirement community in State College.
The Nittany Valley Model Railroad Club meets in the layout room at the Old Gregg School on Tuesday nights for work sessions.
