BMancwter Farming, Saturday, Dacambar 12, 1987
Mother and Daughter Team Up
For Christmas Show Exhibit
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster Co. Correspondent
HARRISBURG “We’re
making memories,” Evelyn Crid
er said with a laugh as she stood
with her married daughter Diane
Lorah behind the table of their
craft booth at the Christmas Show
held at the Farm Show Building in
Harrisburg.
Diane has been selling her
dough figures in craft shops for
about a year, but Evelyn insists,
"I’m a novice when it comes to
crafts.” Nevertheless, when Diane
suggested they join efforts to dis
play their handiworks at a craft
show, Evelyn agreed to lend a
helping hand.
Evelyn says, “Diane didn’t
want just dough figures, she also
wanted something to do with dried
apples. She turned to Mom.” Their
enterprise is appropriately named
“Mom and I.”
After deciding to do a show, the
mother-daughter team searched
for one that would conveniently fit
their full schedules. The only time
that suited was the five-day slot in
Harrisburg, a craft show which
features over 2SO different exhibi
tors. Both laughed and agreed that
they had “started at the top” as far
as size of the show. Starting at the
top did mean a hefty fee for then
space, but Evelyn says, “We just
want to have a good time and break
even.”
To prepare for the event was no
small task. Evelyn says she had to
look at it as her fall time job during
the two weeks proceeding the
show. Normally, her fulltime work
exhibit Diane Lorah and her mother Evelyn Crider had at the
Christmas show in Harrisburg last week. With an all country
theme, their exhibit brought a lot of attention with some
Interesting new ways of using dried apples, and attractive
dough ornaments.
the Christmas Show. This mother and daughter team worked toget
crafts to sell at this show which featured over 250 exhibitors.
includes helping her husband Fred
take care of their 60,000 pullet
operation near Nottingham, Lan
caster County.
Diane agreed, “You have to
treat it like a job. My husband
helped me set goals. I had a goal of
what I wanted to accomplish each
day.” Diane, a psychologist,
works part time at a country gift
shop in Danville where she lives
with husband Kevin, head resident
at Geisinger Medical Center.
Actually, at times, the whole
family became involved. Both
Diane’s husband and Evelyn’s
husband offered unflagging
encouragement throughout the
process. Other family members
contributed to the venture. Diane’s
father-in-law built a wooden
Christmas tree as a backdrop for
her tree ornaments and sister Deb
showed up to help with sales one
day at the show.
Diane’s dough figures, the
foundation of the craft show idea,
are something she began making
about two years ago as gifts for
family and friends. She got her
original recipe from a magazine,
along with the basic ideas for mak
ing the small figures.
Her dough recipe is 1 cup flour,
'A cup salt and approximately 6
Tablespoons water. This is mixed
with the hands, then shaped into
animals or other shapes. For varie
ty, Diane sometimes adds 2 teas
poons of instant tea to have a dark
er colored bear. She said the con
sistency is much like commercial
play dough.
Most of Diane’s figures are ted-
dy bears, but what a wide assort
ment. Some have wires for attach
ing to a tree as ornaments, and
some are figures designed for sit
ting. She’s got boys and girls, and
many different activites repre
sented, such as one holding a bag,
and one holding a basketball.
There are also enchanting sheep,
and her most popular item at this
show has been her Santa Claus fig
ures, some carrying toy bags with
tiny teddy bears peering out.
If the figures are to be used for
tree ornaments, Diane says a short
piece of lightweight wire can be
wound around a pencil or pen to
get the circular “hanger,” and
then the open ends are stuck into
the dough before baking.
After the animals are shaped,
she places them on a cookie sheet
and bakes them for 2V4 hours at
275 degrees. At that point, they are
“real hard,” and ready to be
painted.
- Diane considers the painting to
be a crucial step, and says, “The
key is a good brush, like a tole
painting brush.’’ She also uses
stenciling paint
An added touch is making San
ta’s beard and the wool on the
sheep by pressing some of the
dough through a garlic press. This
step, repeated throughout the day
of concentrated work, led Diane to
having a “dough elbow,” with
symptoms suspiciously like “ten
nis elbow.”
Evelyn, who gladly agreed to
share the booth with Diane, found
herself working fulltime toward
having enough crafts for the five
day show. Her kitchen became her
workshop, and she set up an
assembly line process to prepare
the apple crafts which were to be
her contribution. Remembering
the hectic preparations, Evelyn
said she worked on crafts prior to
Thanksgiving, cleared the table to
serve Thanksgiving dinner and
then began all over again as soon
as the festive meal was over.
The results of her intense effort
are impressive. The women said
they wanted a country theme, and
succeeded in making their booth
an attractive reminder of country,
including having a rocking chair in
the display.
Evelyn chose to make apple
crafts because of their popularity
this year, but she said she simply
let her imagination go when creat
ing the many crafts she has on dis
play. Another reason she chose
to prepare
jgi g appi
this show. She made wreaths of all descriptions as well as
baskets and garlands.
makes and sells as tree ornaments. Her first attempt was for
friends and relatives and now she has them for sale in craft
shops throughout Lancaster County.
apples, Evelyn says, is “I knew a
recipe for drying them.”
Generously, Evelyn shares her
recipes with any of the passers-by
who question how she keeps the
apples so white. It is simple: 2 cups
lemon juice, 3 Tablespoons salt
and 3 Tablespoons ascorbic acid
mixture.
Evelyn neither peels nor cores
the apples. They are simply sliced,
soaked in the solution for three
minutes, then put on oven racks
and dried for 6 hours with the
temperature at “warm.’ ’ The oven
door must be slightly ajar during
the process to allow the moisture to
escape.
Evelyn says she keeps the pro
cess going at the kitchen sink, slic
ing while a batch is soaking, then
placing them on the rack which is
placed over the drain to catch the
dripping.
Her motto for the purpose of
preparing the crafts became,
“Have gun will travel.” Evelyn
says she never could have made
the crafts without her hot glue gun,
which, according to her, will * ‘glue
everything but the kids to the
wall.” *
She makes her efforts sound
simple by saying, “It’s just a mat
ter of being creative.” After the
decision was made in late October
to do the show, Evelyn said she
was always looking for ideas that
could be used in her crafts.
Admitting to a few moments of
self-doubt, Evelyn said, “Some
times I’d think, ‘Who will buy
this?* ” She was very happy when
purchases were made at the booth,
including the first* purchase of a
dried fruit wreath that Evelyn
wmesfead
C H/ofes
almost hadn’t brought along
because she didn’t like it.
She put her glue gun to work on
each of her projects. One of her
popular crafts was apple wreaths,
arranged either in circles of heart
shaped, which were simply apple
slices attractively glued in place on
cardboard and trimmed with
pieces of cinnamon stick and
ribbons.
Another very attractive wreath
and artificial greens, trimmed with
a bow and ribbon, with several
apple slices and pieces of cinna
mon stick glued in place.
The fastest seller for Evelyn was
her solution to leftover apple
slices, not attractive enough to be
used on wreaths. She simply
decorated a simple red or green
basket with some ribbon trim, then
filled the basket with apple and
cinnamon pieces and it became
instant potpourri, with a wonderful
fragrance. Evelyn noted that a drop
of oil of cinnamon could be added
to make the fragrance more
intense.
Evelyn also created baskets
which could be used to hold other
kinds of gifts. She used round
baskets, about 10-inches in diame
, ter, and glued apple slices and
greens or moss around the rim.
Purchasers may fill these with
jams, guest towels or fruit for a
lovely gift idea.
A dried apple tree, a unqiue cre
ation, has apple slices, greens, cin
namon, and bits of dried ted pep
per glued to a styrofoam base. This
could be an attractive centerpiece
for any table.
She also used her dried apples in
(Turn to Pago B 4)