State

Many years ago. when it look aa day to go ten nut**. Sa»y StreaOwicfc Cathy, of Tryon. went into the most inaccessible гедюп i of th* Blue Ridge Mountains. discovered the beautiful hand craft of the hill people, and deeded it should be put on the market We Make Our Own lobs Sally Slr<»ad\«i<*k Cathy's pioneering era I' I shop in Tryon was a venture whose time* hail come. «»/ I JI.LI.W MILLS MOSSKLI.KR "We make our own jobs. We make dolls from corn cobs; rag nigs to riches, we're busy with stitches: puppets and pots for haves and have-nots. Cakes without ale and cookies for sale. We cut the grass for any class: we rake leaves in mass. We clean your stoves, make bread in loaves; name it. we'll do it and serve you in droves." The Southern mountaineers have been making their own jobs since early colonization. Many of these people, with their inherited skills, have con¬ tinued the family production of arts and crafts. In the old days they worked to¬ gether. farming their own land, build¬ ing their own homes and barns and fences, cutting their wood for the fire places, and in many works, developing self sufficiency from childhood. In the evenings, after a usually early supper, came the relaxation which was crafting, hooking rugs, making baskets, or corn¬ cob dolls, and a long list of ingenious artifacts. Many continue this "recrea¬ tion" today. Tryon was once said to be the heart of the mountain crafts of the south. To¬ day. Saluda, ten miles west up the mountain, runs a close second. It was Sally Streadwick Cathy, of Tryon. who many years ago went into the most inaccessible regions of the Blue Ridge Mountains w hen it took all day to go ten miles. The chief mode of travel was with horse and buggy or horseback. Oxen and wagon were often used by the mountaineers. Sally discov¬ ered the beautiful hand craft of the hill people and thought it should be put on the market. Sally and her husband. George Ca¬ thy. opened a little shop in Tryon. the first of its kind, and established a mar¬ ket for this work from the back woods, as it was called, At first they sold only hooked rugs which were startlingly attractive to the first customers. They were made of rags, cut in strips, hand dyed in a large black kettle, over a fire out in the yard. The men and boys made the frames on which burlap was stretched with tech¬ nique similar to the canvas of painters preparing for. perhaps a landscape ren¬ dered in oils. Most of the rugs were made of mixed fabrics, predominantly cotton, from cut strips of abandoned clothes of any member of the family. A few were mixed with Lindscy-NVoolsey yarn and some strands of ral'ia. have been discovered mixed with the other fabrics. The tool for making these rugs was not a hook. Actually, the rugs were punched— or tufted from the back of the burlap pattern. The result from the right side was the same texture of rugs made with a hook. It has been said that the shuttle-tuftcr was invented by the Scot¬ tish sailors w ho made rugs at sea to fill the long hours of boredom. Today this method is used in making "hook" rugs in many countries all over the world. The hooked rugs and woven goods sold so rapidly that the new proprietors felt obliged to build an addition on the roof over the rooms below. This addi¬ tion was larger than the original shop and enabled them to include all hand¬ icrafts of these talented mountaineers. Valhalla Weavers Continue The men of the mountains contrib¬ uted carpentry, chairs, tables, porch furniture, screens, stools and brooms. Even the children gained an interest, some begged to work on rugs, some collected arrow heads and received re¬ wards. The Cathy shop was an advance in the art market of the region, of the nation and of the world. The future of this hand work was not predicted, said Sally in later years, not even in their dreams. Sally Streadwick Cathy today, has re¬ tired and lives in Tryon. She is a widow. Although she no longer has a shop, the outgrow th of her pioneering could be The Valhalla Hand Wavers located on Highway 176 between Tryon and Saluda. The writer and »on Ronald making Ihelr own jobs Lillian Mills Mossellcr gained national attention, prior to her retirement in 1968. by combining tine art with the ancient Appalachian craft of rug punching. That's Ronald a sketch on the page opposite THE STATE. JUht 1987