The Alternative Press

LAYTON, NJ – Residents from across the county and beyond visited Peters Valley’s annual open house and Bevans Day event yesterday.

The day featured hands on activities for children, food and beverages, live musical entertainment, and demonstrations throughout the day.

From noon until five, free shuttle buses transported visitors up to the various studios for demonstrations, along with the chance to take in the scenery, with nestled within Thunder Mountain. Included in those demonstrations were woodturning, forging/blacksmithing, ceramics, weaving, stained glass, woodcarving, batik eggs, photography, jewelry, leather embossing, and more.

The open house was chance for the public to sample the crafts created there, and learn more about upcoming workshops. Workshops run from May 19 through September 17, and include courses in blacksmithing, ceramics, fibers, fine metals, photography, special topics, woodworking, and youth art programs.

Maggie Tarris Bauer was one of the featured artists who demonstrated her craft, to show what can be created in her upcoming course, “The Art of Batik Eggs”.

Tarris Bauer’s Pysanky or Ukrainian Easter Eggs, were on display, and she described the process of making them, as well as the eggs’ purposes. Chicken and goose eggs were among the types Tarris Bauer showed.

“Psyanky eggs were used to keep illness away,” Tarris Bauer told spectators at her workshop. “There was a lot of superstition and magic.”

Creating Psyanky or Batik Eggs consists of “writing” the design with hot bees wax, and then overlaying dyes. The class, Tarris Bauer said, focuses on the “Drop Pull” method. At the end of the process, a varnish is applied to the eggs. Tarris Bauer teaches students to apply the decorations with special styluses.

“People who have come to the class have said, ‘This is so relaxing, and like meditation,’” Tarris Bauer reported.

The Peters Valley Craft Center was founded in 1970 as a non-profit 501(c) (3) educational facility, and is located within the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area (which spans 40 miles of the Delaware River), which partners to operate Peters Valley. It originally was part of the Village of Bevans, originally settled in 1767, and Peters Valley was a community within the village. Bevans had its own general store, and Dutch Reformed Church. It experienced a resurgence in the early 1900’s, in terms of tourism, and in 1965, was absorbed into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

The Bevans Church and cemetery were open as well during the open house.

Peters Valley Craft Center receives funding from The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Hudson Farm Foundation.

Peters Valley Craft Center offers opportunities for artists to pursue their professional endeavors, consign their work in the store, and hold exhibitions. Summer Studio Assistants, Artist Fellows, and Artist Residences are additionally possible.

For more information about Peters Valley Craft Center, click here to access the organizations website.