By Keizertimes staff
Kiah Frank’s winning sunflower card.
Kathryn Messer works her loom at the Oregon State Fair last week.
Salem Fiberarts Guild photo
Kathryn Messer’s winning yarn entry.
David Zaitz/Special to Keizertimes
Kiah Frank strolled into the Oregon State Fair last week, curious to see how she did in art competition with other Oregonians.
The lifelong Keizer resident found one of her entries – and a blue ribbon.
Then another.
And finally, a third blue ribbon.
Frank was among 13 Keizer residents who landed first-place wins for everything from jelly to crocheted toys.
Every year, the state fair opens the competition in dozens of categories. A primary requirement is an entrant has to be an Oregonian.
They compete in the kitchen, in the garden and in the shop. They paint, draw, photograph and weave.
“There remains something fundamentally homespun and hands-on about making or doing something worthy of state fair recognition,” according to the state fair website. “Call it a throwback to simpler times if you like.”
Frank won her ribbons in the category of paper arts, a craft she knew little about until recently.
One ribbon came in the letterpress section of the paper card mechanics competition. She made a personal card with a cover of sunflowers and the phrase “Fall into autumn.”
She used a machine attachment to form the card.
“I wanted it to pop more so I used pastel watercolors to give it more dimension and to make it shimmer,” Frank said.
She also won in competition using alcohol markers, which dry quickly and can produce vivid colors and she won the “card themes-fall” competition with the entry described to fairgoers as an “electric pink Halloween card with witch kitty riding in the night on a broomstick.”
Frank entered the fair for the first time last year but brought home no ribbon.
She said she only recently learned the card-making techniques she now uses.
She traces the start to an inheritance from her grandmother.
“I knew my grandmother made a lot of cards,” Frank said. “When she passed, I got all this stuff. I had no idea what to do with this.”
That changed after she went to work for Runaway Art & Craft Studio in south Salem. There, she learned the techniques of card making.
“It’s very much craftmanship,” she said. “You have to keep your corners straight and be sure the adhesive and glue doesn’t show.”
A crafter doesn’t want to be even “a smidgen off” on the elements, she said.
She said she now loves making cards to give to friends and relatives.
“I love it when I can give them a card and they can smile,” she said.
Each card is unique and time involved varies.
“If I’m in a hurry, I can whip out a card in a couple of hours,” Frank said.
THE LOOM ARTIST
Every year, Kathryn Messer takes time off from her job as a technical writer to spend days at the Oregon State Fair.
She sits before her Navajo-style loom, patiently threading yarn through, hour after hour, to bring her latest design to life.
Messer fields questions from fairgoers who watch her. The most common: How long does it take to make a rug?
She doesn’t have a solid answer because “I’ve never really timed myself.” She estimates it can take her two hours to add just a half-inch to a weaving project.
Messer is also a competitor and won six blue ribbons in this year’s state fair competition.
She got a blue ribbon in “designer/novelty yarn” for blending three fleeces to create a yarn.
“You take different types of fleeces from different types of sheep – different colors, different textures. I like to mix them up to make a nice designer yarn.”
Her winning entry had black, tan and gray coloring.
“Without going to the store, you can get nice yarns,” Messer said.
Another winning entry was a tapestry competing in “handwoven articles – any fiber.”
She used a design from a Mexican-style saddle blanket for her tapestry.
Messer got into the fiber arts after raising her own sheep.
“One of my biggest customers was also a spinner,” Messer said. “I thought to myself, ‘There’s got to be something to this.”
She loves the process from start to finish, from carding the fleece from sheep to spinning the yarn to weaving a rug or other design. She buys her fleece from shepherds in Corvallis, Lebanon and eastern Oregon.
“I like to make up my own designs,” she said.
Once she has sketched a design she likes, she makes the yarn specifically for that project. They can be anything from a small wall hanging to large rugs.
“A good yarn is one that works for my project – the right weight, the right color,” she said. “I can get the exact color and exact weight I want.”
She has entered fair competitions for six years and has been a winner before.
“It’s not about the ribbons,” she said. “It’s about enjoying and being part of the fiber community.”
THE GARDENER
Laurie Klein is almost shy about her winning entry in the category of “cut herb display.”
“It’s very tiny,” Klein said, describing her stems of lavender.
She entered the lavender competition. There were competitions for other herbs such as sage, dill, mint and oregano.
Klein, who has lived in Keizer almost three years, has entered before. Her spaghetti squash was a big winner two years ago, she said.
“I didn’t have a garden this year,” she said, but she is fond of her lavenders.
She typically cuts her lavender blooms in June or July for dried flower arrangements.
“After you cut it, then it can come up with a second bloom,” Klein explained. “One plant in particular was putting out a very beautiful second bloom – ‘You’re looking really good.’”
No one contacts winners to alert them to their ribbons. Klein learned of her win in a visit to the fair.
“It’s really fun to do some entries and then you get to go see how your entries fared,” she said.
Klein and her family have been entering state fair competitions since their days in Alaska.
Her three daughters later moved to Salem and Klein and her husband followed in 2011 to be near their families. Klein recently retired after 25 years as a mental health therapist.
One daughter, Carley Klein-Peters of Salem, had her own entries this year, getting ribbons for a quilt and for quilling – an art form using rolled paper strips to create designs.
“I encourage everybody to enter things in the fair,” Klein said. “It’s just a fun way of participating in the community.”
KEIZER’S BLUE RIBBON WINNERS
Kathryn Messer
Fiber arts:
•Handspun yarns – designer/novelty yarns
• Handspun yarns – wool, plied
• Handspun yarns – wool, singles
• Handspun yarns – fiber blends
•Handwoven articles – tapestry
•Hand dyeing – naturally died yarns
Kiah Frank
Paper arts:
• Paper card coloring techniques – alcohol markers
• Paper card mechanics – letterpress
• Card themes-fall – Halloween
Sandra Staats
Handcrafts:
• Hanging crafts – mixed media
• Hanging crafts – string art
Quilting:
• Other quilted items – wall hangings
Tiffany Ball
Baked foods: Alternate dietary needs – gluten-free cake
Laurie Klein
Farm & garden: Cut herb display – lavender
Logan Kirkland
Handcrafts: Miniatures/models – other
Gary Jack
Needlework and clothing: Counted cross-stitch – chart
Dee Smith
Needlework and clothing: Crochet – shoulderette/shrug/stole
Amanda Schuck
Needlework and clothing: Crochet – stuffed toy
Deanna Stutzman
Paper arts: Junior (9 – 12 years)
Stephanie Burckhardt
Preserved foods: Jelly – grape
Anna Linder-Skach
Quilting: Adult division – paper pieced
Christina Patterson
Quilting: Adult division