62—Lancaster Fuming, Saturday, November 26,1983
Shorten Your Christmas List at Maple Croft
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
Homemade, handcrafted and
country if that’s the look you
want, then a visit to Maple Croft
shop near Willow Street, will not
disappoint you. Located where
Route 222 South and Penn Grant
Road intersect, the former
schoolhouse basement has been
turned into a veritable storehouse
of items which should shorten any
Christmas list.
Co-owned by Pam Rankin Hults
and her mother Ruth Rankin, the
shop has been open only since June
and offers a variety of decorating
ideas with brass, copper, tin and
wood along with gifts handcrafted
by about 40 local craftspeople.
The shop in many ways lodes
almost like a Santa’s workshop
work area is located in a well lighted stairway to the
basement, and allows Pam to work on her artistry while
tending the shop. Here, she works on her folk art and
painting the houses which are her trademark.
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The Christmas holidays are coming quickly, and Pam Hults and her mother, Ruth,
have decorated their Lancaster County shop to help put people in the mood. These
shelves hold a few samples of the hundreds of items available in their Maple Croft shop.
because of the wide variety of
things to choose from and because
Pam’s working desk is tucked
away in one comer of the shop.
One of the crafts for which Pam
is well known is making replicas of
people’s homes in solid blocks of
wood.
“We do houses by order and to
scale,” she explains.
When asked how she got in
terested in painting these small
replicas, she says, “Probably
because my parents always
worked on people’s homes.” Pam’s
father Earl is a contractor and
Ruth often helps with interior
decorating.
In a takeoff from the wooden
replicas, Pam also makes
miniature houses suitable for use
as tree decorations. While th
Ruth Rankin, left, and her daughter, Pam Rankin
naments which will help make their Maple Croft shop
holidays.
have fine details like stones and
bricks they are not replicas. Pam
explained that she added them to
her work because, “When you’re at
craft shows you have to have some
smaller items. These make good
hostess gifts and are more af
fordable.”
An art education major in
college, Pam taught for several
years before moving to this area
with her husband, and finding
teaching jobs in short supply.
About her art talent she says, “I
must have inherited it.” Her
mother points out, “Ever since she
was little girl I would find her
sitting with paper and pencil in
hand.”
The artist in her really comes
through in the franktur and folk art
die creates to sell in the shop.
“There are no copies,” she says.
“Every one is unique. I may use
pieces of original art, but I have
never copied what someone else
has done. As many different people
who do frankturs, that’s how many
different styles of franktur there
are.”
She said her interest in franktur
was a “family conspiracy” which
got her to take the lessons at
Landis Valley Farm Museum. She
explains that she was single at the
time and her grandmother said she
would cook dinner for her on the
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These houses are a trademark of Pam Rankin Hulls, who
began by making the larger homes as replicas of originals.
She added the smaller homes as tree ornaments.
Vfatnesfead
dotes
nights of the classes, since she The idea for the shop is
lived close by the museum. So something about which Ruth says,
everybody benefited: Pam got “I always wanted to do.” Ac
delicious meals, her grandparents cording to Pam, it was also an idea
enjoyed her weekly visits and now which she thought would never
the community can enjoy the come to fruition,
rewards of her talent. (Turn to Rase B 4)
Hulls, string some clay dough or
more decorative for the upcoming