A World of Folk Arts With A Local Artist

What do you think of when you think of art? How about painting, drawing, and photography, perhaps? Have you ever thought of blacksmithing, knitting and weaving as art?

Elizabeth Belz, 25, practices all of the aforementioned, her favorite is blacksmithing and she is currently spinning yarn; wool yarn, alpaca yarn and llama yarn.

Belz started painting and drawing when she went to Perpich Center for Arts in high school. After she graduated from there, she headed to Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

“It’s a place with a bunch of hippie artists on top of a mountain,” says Belz, while knitting a sock. Here is where she took woodworking, but hated it. So, she spent most of her time in the blacksmithing and weaving studios.

Belz says her interest in fibers grew because of her teacher, who was also a yodeler.

Blacksmithing is Belz favorite medium; however, she doesn’t quite have the space for a studio. Her studio, for the time being, is her room at home where she can spin her yarn. She never duplicates. Belz has spun anything from wool to camel.

“It’s more like black lab fur, short and more hair like,” says Belz. Right now, she has been working on taking color schemes from her photos of her travels.

This summer, Belz is planning a trip to tour Europe.

“Almost a pilgrimage in Europe,” she says.

Starting in Iceland with a farm stay, where sheep are raised for their wool. Next on the trip will be Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to learn more about intricate and very detail-oriented lace-knitting.

She usually has the option of couch surfing as she moves around on her travels. She would love to travel more in the Eastern Hemisphere because it is so different than Western culture, and cheaper.

Another place Belz loves to go is John C. Campbell Folk School down in Georgia.

“Lunch is the best time there because it’s a time when everyone can bounce ideas off of each other,” she says when explaining the school is a mixture of older and younger people just doing what they love.

Asheville, North Carolina is where she is when she isn’t in Stillwater.

She explains it is like Stillwater with an incredible art scene. The town is filled with different people, such as; train hoppers, hitchhikers and other artist. There are about 40 blacksmiths that actually make money. Restaurants pickle and make their own wines. There are 12 breweries, and of course, the local moonshiners, too.

“Everyone should go at least once,” Belz says.

Belz sells her yarn at Darn Knit Anyway in the Brick Alley building. She likes to do custom orders and sells her one of a kind yarn on Esty.com.