HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-07-22, Page 15Del Geddes of RR6 Goderich will display her leatherwork at the annual Festival of Arts
and Crafts in Court House Park this weekend. The leatherwork includes belts, purses,
wallets, guitar straps, watchbands,and key cases. Also shown here are a variety of belt
buckles which she sells to go along with her belts. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan)
Festival features
Del will display her leatherwork
BY JOANNE BUCHANAN
Despite the fact that Del Geddes of R.R.
6 Goderich holds down a full-time job and
has -a family of nine children, including
two sets of twins, she still manages to find
the hours she needs forr her leatherwork.
hobby.
"Everybody has to have a hobby. I find
mine very relaxing," she says.
Del will' be displaying and selling her
leatherwork at Goderich's Festival of Arts
and Crafts this weekend. She 'took up her
hobby about 10 years ago and has had a .
booth at the Festival for the last seven
years'. .
Del's work includes belts, handbags,
wallets, eye glass cases, watch bands,
guitar straps and key rings.
Working with leather is just something
Del always had in her mind that she would
like to try. One day while shopping in
London, she picked up a kit that helped her
get started and over the years,: she has
picked up the extra tools she has needed as
she gets more involved in her work.
She buys raw leather from various
tanneries in London, Toronto and Acton.
Then she cuts out the shapes she needs;
stamps or tools on her designs; and dyes
the finished products. She uses a special
heavy duty sewing machine for those
items which need sewing. (although in the
beginning she did all her sewing by hand ).
Some items, like the handbags and
wallets, are laced together with strips of
leather.
Del enjoys the • stamping and tooling
processes best because they offer the.
chance to be creative. Tooling takes longer
and she only does this process on special
request for a more personalized product.
Del says her belts usually sell the best.
She even makes them for The Old Mill at
R.R. 1 Blyth. She buys her buckles from
Waisted Belts in Toronto and lets people
choose their4 ovwg. These can then be
snapped on. She° also has special money
belts with hidden compartments:
Del can turn out a stamped belt in 10.
minutes but a tooled belt would take much
longer. She works away even while
manning her display at the Festival and at
the other fairs and shows she attends.
"People like to stop and ask you
questions when, they see you working on
something," she says. "A lot of people ask
me if I use real leather or if it's plastic. I
just tell them to smell it and see."
Cowhide is the leather most used by Del,
although she has tried all types. Belt
leather costs her $4 per square foot. When
she first took up her hobby, it cost $1.85 per
square foot.
While she doesn't lose money on her
hobby, she says she isn't getting rich
either. It is difficult to put a price on one's
time and creativity. That's why a hobby
must be something a person really enjoys..
Del has been busy for the past week
getting stocked up for the Goderich
Festival. Whenever she gets behind, her
children help her with some of the •
processes such as lacing. •
Del will' be the only crafter specializing
in leatherwork at the Goderich Festival
which is set up in Court House Park, There
are 52 arts and crafts persons altogether,
most of them from out of'•town, and their
work will include knitting, metal sculp-
ture, ceramics, woodburning, jewelry,
paintings, sewing and woodworking.
Several non-profit groups and clubs will
have promotional displays on the east side
of the park as well. And there will dlso be
an art and photography gallery in the park
featuring local work.
The Garden Club will set up a flower
show in the Court House and the mer-
chants will be holding their sidewalk sale's
around The Square. . '
Blind folk dispel misconceptions
BY JOANNE BUCHANAN
There are many misconceptions about
blindness and blind people.
Susan Bell of Goderich, who is herself
classified as legd'lly blind, hopes to dispel
some of these misconceptions with the help
of a display at the annual Festival of Arts
and Crafts in Court House Park this
weekend.
There will be at least two blind persons
and a sighted person manning this display
at a 11 times. Located on the east half of The
Square, it will be centered out by balloons
to attract people's attention. It will feature
a large easel with pamphlets about blin-
dness and some personal stories by blind
people on being blind. Gwen Watson, a
blind woman from Clinton; will write
people's names for them in braille.
The display will also feature various
crafts made by blind. people ('to show that
the blind can do things', explains Susan)
and various aids used by blind people such
as bra ille clock s, kitchen gadgets, etc.
Perhaps the most important feature of
the display will be a set of six different eye
glasses donated by Susan's father, Reg
Bell, Goderich optometrist. Each set of
glasses has been made up to.represent a
different type of blindness and people will
be invited to try them on and then go
through a series of 'life skills` to see how
well they can function.
Many people think blindness means total
blackout but the glasses will prove
otherwise. They represent central vision
loss which is like only being able to see out
of part of each eye; retinitds pigmentosis
which is like looking through pin holes;
cataracts which make everything look
fuzzy; total blindness; diabetic
retinopathy; and optimic glioma.
Since Susan started carrying a white
cane which advertises the fact that she is
blind, She has discovered different at-
titudes from sighted people. She finds
th em to be either one extreme or the other.
"They are either overly caring or they
won't come near you," she says.
She has also found that people talk
louder to blind people.
"I guess they think when your sight
goes, your hearing goes too."
And she has overheard' children asking
their parents questions like: 'If she is
blind, why are her eyes open?' and 'If she
is blind, why does she turn her head?'
She hopes to answer questions like this
with her display at the arts and crafts
festival.
"People will be able to try on blindness
for themselves (with the glasses)," she
Ton to page -2
en is pro
BY STEPHANIE LEVESQUE
At least one student has a summer job
that he describes as being so ideal, he
could not have designed a better one for
• himself.
Nineteen -year-old Ken Wood of Goderich
is spending the summer programming
computers. Specifically, he is employed
with the Huron County Board of Education
office in Clinton as an Experience '81 stu-
dent.
tudent. .
His first project was to update the
teachers' salary grid used by the board for
salary 'negotiations. He, is currently pro-
'
ro
` gramming the total cost of teachers'
salaries depending on increases allotted.
Ken is working his way through universi
rammin _ corn
ty, having just completed Grade 13 at the
Goderich District High School with an
overailEaverage of 96 per cent. In the fall,
he will be entering Harvard University in
Cambridge, Mass.
In April of this year, Ken received word
from the university that he had been ac-
cepted: He will take general courses for
the cust two years and in his third year he
will decide his major. His leanings are
towards math or computers.
With his overall average, Ken was of
course, an Ontario scholar.
Ken said he chose Harvard because
there is no university in Canada which
allows him to take general courses the first
two years of university. He added that
Godericth
123 YEAR -29
looking at the situation practically, a Har-
vard
arvard degree would carry a lot of weight.
When' he is finished his four years at
Harvard, Ken would like to come back to
Canada.
He was born in Manitoba, but has moved
around a lot as his father is a United
Church minister, presently at Victoria
Street United Church in Goderich. Rev:
and Mrs. John Wood also have three other -
children and Mrs. Wood is a teacher at
Goderich District High School. °
Ken has been working with computers
since Grade 10. tie saidbecause he was in-
terested in learning how to work with com-
puters, his teachers allowed him extra
time with the computer. Ken said the cur -
tern
rets computer pro + school are
advanced and noted the ' e is are learn-
ing more now.
Ken also has tithe to enjoy the carper,
as he has set up a bio -rhythm program.
The program is not unlike horoscopes and
Ken refers to the bio -rhythm program as
the "scientific version". He adds they are
about as reliable as the horoscopes found
in numerous newspapers and magazines.
Earlier this year, the bio -rhythm pro-
gram was used as a fund-raising project at
Ken's schooL
Other plans for Ken include sending ar-
ticles into computer magazines. He has
presently written two 'versions of a
Turn to page 2A' • '
SIGNAL
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1981
STA
SECOND SECTION
Kids at the Kin Carnival
Leander. Campbell, 6, of Goderich
drives a plane -there's nothing to it
Kim Dawson, Mary Jo Collins 'and Lisa Harris prepare for take -off
(Photos by Joanne Buchanan)
Victoria Whalen, 6, of Goderich has fun on the merry-go-round
� 1'1g1�C1 l edard. 7. of (lode-tieh ties agate candy floss