Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Karl Newell, Terry Hofer, and Jim Hofer brought their creative work to Waitsburg Art Gardon for three days in August. Newell said the show was successful, however, showing in a gallery is a very different experience from their yard sales.
WAITSBURG-However you define the distinction between garden art, metal sculpture, and a retirement hobby, Terry Hofer, Jim Hofer, and Karl Newell saw many of their creative wood and metal pieces walk out the door at Waitsburg Art Garden (WAG) August 4-6.
Terry and his younger brother, Jim – a recently retired farmer – showcased unique tables and benches from locally-sourced wood, many of them elegantly supported on legs of black metal.
"We get some of our wood from others in town," says Terry on the closing day of their show-and-sell. "Other stuff we find ourselves."
Newell and the Hofers work the raw materials into beautiful and functional pieces, sometimes in collaboration with local miller and woodworker Ed Lambert.
According to Karl, eighty-seven people stopped at WAG just off Main Street in Waitsburg during the weekend to take in the fruits of their labor. Karl enjoys carefully welding old tools, engine parts, and crusty cast-off hardware into whimsical and imaginative pieces that were popular during the weekend. This would include a "dragon" sitting on a table that has yet to sell. "The average sale for the weekend per person was $26.00," says Karl. This was no yard sale.
"All these artsy types told me to leave the metal stuff all raw and rusty because that's what sells," Karl explains. "Well, after the first day, I took home a tulip sculpture I'd made, painted it bright colors, brought it back the next day, and it was sold by nine in the morning. All that stuff sold."
Karl and Terry have worked together, collecting and selling vintage objects for many years. Eventually, the pair upped their hobby into the realm of art.
Examples of the few items that remained after the sale were painted "orbs" crafted by Jim from wine barrel hoops, benches created from elm and walnut slabs intended for stairs but never completed, and lustrous clear-coated tables inlaid with colored acrylic.
This merry band of creative collectors intends to continue fashioning "objets d'art" for future sales. Always on the hunt for interesting raw materials, the pair asks anyone who would like to offer any excess pieces of wood for furniture to call Terry at 509-337-6300. Have an old saw or other well-used hardware you'd like to see fashioned into something new? Call Karl at 509-629-3032.
These guys will work some magic.
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