Village Squire, 1975-07, Page 17Just a cosy country
cottage full of arts
and crafts
BY KEITH ROULSTON
In the old days, the summer kitchen on our
farm was a place where we stored the things
we didn't use anymore but we just didn't
have the heart to throw out.
The old woodshed was an even more
unglamorous setting for "junk". One
wouldn't consider the articles on display in
the old summer kitchen of Stonecroft or in the
old woodshed behind it as junk by any means.
Orme and Dorene Kilburn put a lot of love
into the articles in those areas. They turned
the old summer kitchen and woodshed of
their 120 -year old stone cottage near St.
Paul's, six miles southwest of Stratford into a
studio for art, crafts and antiques last year
and now the studio is open for the second
season.
Those who like to "discover" interesting
little shops will have fun discovering this one.
You drive through a good deal of countryside
before you come to the little cottage up a
laneway off a concession just off Perth County
road 17.
The Stonecroft is unique in that nearly
everything in it is the product of the hands of
the two owners. Yet the variety is impressive.
Orme is responsible for the painting and
sculpture in the shop. He's a teacher of art
and other subjects to elementary school
pupils and admits he'd like to be able to
devote full-time to art and still be able to
make a living. He gave it a try several years
ago when he took a year off teaching to paint
professionally.
His large paintings dominate the shop,
particularly a huge one depicting a girl
passing a poster for the movie West Side
Story and called Reach Out for Happiness.
The paintings draw a good deal of attention,
and admiration, Dorene says.
Recently he has devoted more and more of
Dorene Kilburn works away at crafts while visitors browze in her shop.
his time to a new interest, sculpture. He
does his sculpting in wood, and the warm
smooth lines of basswood and teak create
interesting pieces in the shop.
The sculpture grew out of his painting,
oddly enough. He was working with the
palate knife technique where the painting is
virtually carved in the hard backing of the
painting. He took the next step and began
carving wood.
Dorene meanwhile looks after many of the
other beautiful items in the shop. She grew
up in Toronto and received a diploma in
commercial art from Western Tech in that
city. She worked for some time in commercial
art but found it too tough a life, particularly
for a girl at the time, so she went on to a
variety of other jobs. But she always kept her
interest in things artistic. Unlike her
husband, however, she hasn't touched
painting for years.
The two were married only five years ago
after each had waited for several years to
meet the kind of person who could share their
interests in things artistic. They've shared
more than things artistic though, like a lot of
sweat and blood when they decided to buy
and restore the old stone house that now
provides both home and studio.
They first discovered the house four years
ago this summer when Orme was in Stratford
taking a university credit course at the old
Stratford Teacher's College (they lived in Port
Burwell at the time). He'd taken a course in
Canadian art and architecture and they
became interested in driving through the
countryside around Stratford and looking at
the old farm houses. That's when they
discovered the old house and saw the for sale
sign out front. They bought it.
But they had a problem: they were still
living in Port Burwell.
But then that was just as well. They had a
lot to do in the house before they were ready
to call it home. They began work at Christmas
time of the first year and from February on
came up every weekend. They gutted the
inside of the house, right down to the stone
They got rid of the giant octopus of a furnace
which didn't throw any heat anyway. They
insulated the walls. They worked for days,
with the help of Dorene's father to level the
sagging floor where it had dipped because
someone cut a notch out of the main beam to
accommodate the old furnace. They knocked
down walls that made the little house look
more like a maze.
The next fall they moved in to live, but the
fun wasn't over. The main part of the house
was to be heated by electricity and that fall
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JULY 1975, 15