Craft Fest

BY RUTH ANNE LIPKA, Times-Union Staff Writer

NAPPANEE - Perfect weather conditions greeted visitors to the opening day of the 35th annual Amish Acres Arts & Crafts Festival Thursday at Nappanee.

Warm - but not too warm - temperatures, accompanied by frequent breezes gave festival-goers the incentive to spend many hours scouring the more than 350 booths of arts and crafts at the juried show.

Opening day not only brings out the crowds, but also the selection of the best items entered in the competition. The Midwest and West were well-represented in the best of show categories, with Jacqueline Gnott of South Bend taking the prize in the two-dimensional division with her painting titled "White Magnolia," and Don Payne of Colorado Springs, Colo., walking away with the purple ribbon in the three-dimensional category with his handcrafted hammered dulcimer.

While Payne is a first-time winner (and first-time participant in the festival), Gnott is no stranger to the Best of Show prize. This is the fifth such award she has received at the Amish Acres Arts & Crafts Festival. After setting a record in 1995 for winning four consecutive "Best of Show" ribbons, Gnott did not claim the coveted title in 1996, but returned this year to capture yet another.

Always demure when accepting praise for her work, Gnott diplomatically stated that she wished she wouldn't always win - that she'd like someone else to have the chance to be in the spotlight. "I want everybody to win," she said.

Richard Pletcher, chairman of the festival, noted that this is the second time in the history of the festival that a dulcimer has won the top prize in the three-dimensional category. Payne's solid citrus spruce, handcrafted selection caught the eye of this year's judges and took the purple ribbon.

Payne admittedly doesn't know how to play the dulcimer, "but I know how it's supposed to sound," he said. Traveling three to four months each year in his fifth-wheel trailer with his wife and dog, Payne sells his instruments for $400 to $4,000 each, depending upon the type of wood and the amount of detail. Payne's booth also offers CDs of dulcimer music, and many people at the festival donned headphones to hear a sample there.

Gnott and Payne were each awarded a check for $1,000 for winning the Best of Show prizes.

This year's judges, both past Best of Show winners from the festival, also chose the top three winners in each of 11 categories.

Coy Jankowski of South Bend said that it was "really difficult to look at the work today. Two different judges would have chosen other winners, (but) we bring some of our own dynamics to judging. It was difficult."

Robert Smogor, also of South Bend, agreed: "Some of the calls were tough calls."

Local winners in the various categories included Robert Lutes of Nappanee, who won first place in contemporary and traditional crafts with a curved knife, and Steve and Scott Rozow of North Webster, second place in the same category for a wooden train.

Second place in the ceramics, pottery and blown glass category went to a chip 'n dip platter entered by Jess Showalter of Goshen.

First-prize winners were awarded $200 and a blue ribbon; second prize, $100 and a red ribbon; and third prize, $50 and a white ribbon. In all, more than $7,000 in cash was given away to the top winners.

Prizes also will be awarded to the top three winners in "Best of Marketplace," "Most Popular Marketplace" and "Most Popular Competition." The winners in these categories will be named at the close of the show.

The four-day festival continues through Sunday and is open from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. today and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 per person (children under 12 are free) and parking is free.

Amish Acres is located on U.S. 6, one mile west of downtown Nappanee. For more information, call the Visitors' Information Center at 773-4188 or 800-800-4942.