Vikings & British &

   I'm chatting with Dustin of Viking Blade Supply in Historic Gatlinburg while tourists "off-roading" from "tourist traps" do the eight-mile loop of the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community.

 

 His place also gets called Viking Blade Forge, the non-profit side of the company, "which gets veterans into forging as a form of therapy," Dustin explains.  "We tell people, it definitely helps."

  Dustin's getting stuff ready for a show tonight.  Headed to a beverage oasis in Sevierville, TN to see what sells best.  He's one of the best conversationalists I've met on this leg of my journey.

  Really exuberant energy.  He dug out a Viking blade for me to check out.  It's not ready yet and has a duskycharcoalish type film on it.  I dig the weight of it and can see choosing it as my one tool for an into-the-woods-sojourn from glamping and car camping.

  We easily fall into talking about getting ready for holidays.  Artisans and crafters have instincts about yearly schedules like farmers.  In this area of Tennessee where mountain meets farmland people are always tending to multiple projects.  Even when we find ourselves away from home and studio...we're thinking about that hot pepper, or being inspired by the shapes and sounds of nature and others' inventions.

  Next door Don's striping the edges of leather belts.  He's been here building up his mountain arts practice--Smokies' Edge--for many, many years.  In his early twenties he'd bicycled through the many states of the New England region.  While we're talking a visitor from Ohio stops in and the conversation touches upon the Wright Brothers and the Outer Banks' Kitty Hawk.  The Chimney Swifts nestling in the chimney don't rouse the cat.  I look over handmade arrowheads.  And post Don's picture sporting the shop here, buy local logo.

Don,

Owner of

Smokies' Edge 

for 40 years!

  I'm making way to a British watering hole in my 13th annual British Car Show tee from Historic Rugby, Tenn.

  At Two Ravens Tool & Craft I check in with Brooke Mitchell.  She and her husband Alan, started their craft loop shop in October of '22.  She shows me what they carry, like: handmade jewelry by Brooke; "My husband does the woodturning," she says.

I have to ask, "And what is woodturning?" She explains it has to do with using the wood lathe to sculpt wood.  The store has local cherry bowls at this time.  As shopowners Brooke & Alan are ever balancing issues like keeping inventory on the shelves and pricing items for the particular market of Smoky Mountain Tourism.

  I ask how they're feeling about being here.  Alan's stopped in for a break from landscaping.  Brooke shares that there's "a bit of a learning curve but coming up on our second year, we're feeling pretty good." 

  "We love the mountains that's why we're here," Brooke says.  "Well," Alan says, "The fishing could be better." "He gets tired of trout fishing," Brooke laughs.  Alan says he likes "Bass and Catfish fishing best, but it's too far to drive." Alan likes a challenge but Brook explains, "We rarely close the shop."

  Down the road apiece the Hungry Bear BBQ's picnic tables are getting sunbathed in the mounting Tennessee summer sun.  The cooking smells mingle with an occasional breeze that helps weather a dumptruck-size woodpile.  It's a Crow that squawks on pole-and-line.  But I have no idea what's being said.