Ift—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 6,1969
Mrs. Hess Assumes New Role
As County Farm Women President
By Mrs. Charles McSparran
Lancaster Farming Stall Writer
The new president of the So
ciety of Farm Women of Lan
caster County, Mrs John N. Hess
(Helen) of Columbia R 2, is a
very busy person. Assuming her
role as county president Novem
ber 1, she has attended Dauphin,
York and Cumberland county
banquets and December 2 held
her first county board meeting.
In February they will decide on
county projects for this year.
Her husband and son are proud
of her and happy to have her fill
this position and will gladly as
sist with some home duties such
as meal preparation when she
has to be away.
Mrs. Hess is particularly busy
at this season of the year as she
has a fascinating hobby of mak
ing Christmas decorations and
decorating eggs She shares the
.know-how with many people as
f she takes her exibit to Farm
Women’s meeting, church wo
men’s groups, senior citizens
groups, fire company auxiliaries
and Scout meetings and shows
them how to make them. When
she puts on a demonstration she
often gives a door prize of one
of her creations. If you could
see all, the little bottle caps,
curtain 'rings, tin cans, partly
burned candles, weed seeds,
leaves, broken jewelry and the
like she uses and comes up with
beautiful and new ideas in dec
orations I’m sure you’d agree
she is a genius in this field.
Her basement is all aglow with
a Christmas tree decorated with
ornaments she has made. There’s
satin balls of various colors dec
orated with sequins, beads and
gold foil medallions; a little
green bird made from pieces of
an egg carton and covered with
glitter; a little red drum, the
MRS. HESS has an electrically lighted,
glass shelved display cabinet (upper left)
for some of her decorated eggs. In the low
er Lancaster Farming Photo, she is hold-
FOR THE
FARM
WIFE
AND
FAMILY
base of which is a little tin can
cheese came in for a pizza mix.
It is decorated with gold trim
and the drumsticks are made
from toothpicks and beads, then
gilted; there’s styrofoam balls
concealed under velvet, satin and
flowered ribbons, metalic braids,
beads and jewels; there’s real
sparkling ornaments made from
egg cartons, elongated with cor
sage pins and long crystal beads
and cut in shapes like flowers
with different colors of glitter;
and a deviled ham can decorat
ed with a couple little deer in
side. Atop the tree is a little
white angel with a skirt of white
turkey feathers. Beneath the tree
is a white felt skirt with red
fringe and a jolly red Santa face
and red and green balls decorat
ed with varicolored sequins. This
tree has a string of red candles
with electric flames and beneath
each one is a red and green vel
vet bow.
i \ •. T 1 ' f 1 I
One very unusual piece is a
della Robbia wreath made ffom
a garland of colored plastic fruits
and green leaves mounted on a
styrofoam wreath which has
been covered with green satin
ribbon. Small white electric fire
proof Christmas tree bulbs are
inserted in several of the pieces
of fipit muchjek-
in ine center of *th§
wreath is the 1 traditional Madon
na and child cut from an Ideals
magazine cover and mounted on
a red velvet covered disk.
Mrs. Hess makes a very simple
inexpensive hurricane-style can
dle holder from a 46 oz juice can
and a dimestore snerbet. She re
moves one end of the can, per
forates the can in some design,
then glues the bottom of the
sherbet to the bottom of the can,
thus having the large end of the
sherbet as a base. She sprays
yarrow, cockscomb, okra pods,
, ~, , , , , , desert flowers, wheat, etc. Most
mg a decorated black enameled, red lined 0 £ flowers and weeds are
jewel box she made. Also shown are an dried by hanging them upside
antique coffee grinder, a set of scales and down until dried. A glycerin and
a hand-made Madonna. water mixture is used to dry
THE NEW PRESIDENT of the Lan
caster County Society of Farm Women,
Mrs. John N. Hess, shows a kissing ball
the whole thing with a dull-fin- brocade material and making
ish black paint and applies eith- turbans to match. Pearls, gems
er gold or silver me talk braid to sequins tfyem. very
the top and bottom of the can rich look. Slie also makes a kiss
and to the bottom of the base ing ball by using ,a large styro
(the sherbet top edge). She then foam ball and decorating it with
places a shorter candle than the satin, flowered and velvet rib
can on a jar lid, which serves to bons. A cluster of grapes on top
collect the melted wax. This is and a hanger loop and on the
placed in the can. This makes a bottom a tiyig of mistletoe. J
very romantic type of light Mrs. Hess makes beautiful cer
which can be used anytime of a mic pieces. She made a* white
year can even be used outdoors.- c g oni? £ W*wo
forlightmg in summertime. F°rt.nran 'With
patm lights or emergency lights a semicircle*" of' sytrofOam" with
when the electric goes off, she o i d pi as ti C , satin or dried flowers
removes the wick and globe hold- on t o p These were sprayed with
er from a kerosme lamp and in- about three coats of dull fimsh
serts a candle, replaces the globe wbl t e paint then a coat of pearl
and puts some colored marbles looking pamt Y ou’d think this
in the lamp base in place of was a ceramic piece also She
kerosme to give it some color. bas made Madonnas, pitchers,
Helen made the three wise halenna dolls, bowls etc. She
men from light weight card mad e artificial grapes out of
board, rolling it into a cone P ara ® n wax and colored them
shape for the cloak and smaller with purple and green crayons,
cones for sleeves A styrofoam '“ ien attached grape leaves to
ball serves as a head Then cov- her ceramic bowl
ering them with satin, velvet and takes a peanut or coffee
can and sprays it with a dull
black paint and covers it with
two inch perforated metallic rib
bon She puts metallic braid
around top and bottom Artificial
or real flowers, fruit 01 nuts can
be put in this contained and used
throughout the year
Mrs Hess makes pictures, us
ing dried flowers on a back
ground of burlap She made one
picture with an antique white
frame She painted the back
ground cardboard yellow, in
serted half of a papiei-mache
flower pot in it, touched the flow
er pot and frame high spots with
gold paint She puts artificial
flowers in the flower pot and
changes them with the seasons
She also made three pictures
from different parts of the scen
ery of drapery material and us
ed white frames then hung them
over her bed. She used the same
material to make drapes and
bedspread.
She dries flowers, leaves and
weeds to make arrangements
She uses dock seed clusters,
and a Christmas tree full of ornaments she
made. L. F. Photo
colored leaves. It preserves sie
color and makes them
Helen, has made -gorgeOnS pine
cone wreaths and other arrange
ments in the shape of a tree. She
uses all kinds of cones, nuts,
acorns and slices of dried hedge
apples and decorates with a Vel
vet How. n*
Decorating eggs of all binds
and sizes is probably her great
est talent. She makes hinged
jewel cases, some lined and s&ne
painted inside. She decorates
the eggs with beads, gems, se
quins, metallic medallions and
braids, ribbons, curtain rings,
plastic and metal bottle caps,
little artificial flowers, little
plastic or china figures such as
deer, angels, bride, groom and
bridesmaid, flowers and scenes
from greeting cards. One un
usual one so many people want
to buy is one that looks like a
Shnner Another unusual one is
made into a vase with dried
flowers in it Some are decorated
with little flowers, painted white,
and look like china It as delicate
work to blow out the egg yolk
and white from the shell, then
saw out the desired shape. Last
Mother’s Day her husband gave
her an electric saw She says
“I bet I’m the only mother that
ever got a saw for Mother’s Day.”
He gave her eight geese last
Easter so she could produce her
own goose eggs.
The Hesses live on a 30 acre
farm at 288 College Ave., Mount
ville. The buildings are in Mount
ville borough and the ground in
West Hempfield Township. It
was much larger before 'the By-
Pass and the Mountville Elemen
tary School took a lot of the
ground Prior to that their farm
v/as principally a dairy farm.
Now they fatten 15 to 20 Black
Angus steers a year. They for
merly raised some chickens and
sold the eggs locally. They raise
about six acres of tobacco, also
corn and wheat and have a small
garden They use the corn and
straw for the steers. Helen help
ed to drive the tractor, plant the
tobacco, string it up and strip
it until this year. Now their 16
year old son John C. takes her
place. It gets a little confusing
when the telephone rings and
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