CRAIK-After a four-year absence, the Farm Art Midlakes Exhibition (FAME) returned April 17 and showed that art is thriving in the region.

FAME is an art show and sale that allows artists to display their work to the public. It was started by the Midlakes Community Coalition. The first show was held in Bladworth in 1998. The April 17 show was the first since 2005 and it featured work by painters, sculptors, wood carvers, textile artists, potters, glass artists and photographers.

The artists were on hand selling their wares and explaining their craft. Others such as spinner Anna Hergert were there to demonstrate their skill.

She worked the treadles of her Ladybug spinning wheel, turning a handful of fluffy mohair wool into a thin fibre ready to be knit.

Hergert has been spinning wool since the late 1980s. She operated a spinning and wool store in Calgary and taught classes on the time-honoured tradition. She gave it up for a brief period, but says she got back into spinning about a year and a half ago after she and her husband moved to the Buffalo Pound area. Hergert says spinning is a relaxing and calming activity.

Hergert says she wants to keep the craft alive and notes that interest in spinning and knitting is coming back.

At demonstrations such as FAME's BLANK says she gets the most interest from children and men, who are fascinated by the spinning wheel.

Nearby, Bev Obrigewitsch was conducting a demonstration of her own. She was manning two tabletop looms that were the main attraction of the Prairie Wool Weavers' display.

Obrigewitsch is member of the weaving guild, whose members gather once a month.
At FAME Obrigewitsch showed how the loom works to produce intricate patterns from a collection of thread.