“Best Newcomer” Fiddlers Jamboree Craft Award Goes to Half Past Clocks (View Video Here)

July 6, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Fiddlers Jamboree Director of Crafts Dana Scott today (Saturday) presented the “Best Newcomer” Award to Jennifer Ernst of Arizona with Half Past Clocks, the original “door knob” clocks.

“I create clocks from antique door hardware, with a skeleton key that swings as the pendulum. All clocks are one of a kind. It’s Functional Art! I use the original hardware pieces including the knobs, plates and keys. I collect all the individual pieces and when I get the right fit I like I turn them into clocks. I create steel pieces and cast bronze pieces. It’s a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.  I’ve been doing it for 11 years.,” said Ernst.

To learn more visit halfpastclocks.etsy.com

July 6, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

A Greenbrier girl won the top Jamboree award Saturday as the best fiddler in the National Championship for Country Musician Beginners.

Hailey Bryant won the coveted James G. “Bobo” Driver Memorial Award, named for the man who started the children’s competition during the 1980’s as part of the annual Fiddler’s Jamboree and Crafts Festival. Members of Mr. Driver’s family presented the award to Bryant including Mickey and Debbie Driver, Logan Michael Beachamp, Jimmy Driver, Kim and Bill Luton, and Bert Driver

Meanwhile Sarah Brooke Richardson of Arrington was named winner of the Nolan Turner Memorial Entertainer of the Year award. The honor is presented to the best overall instrumental entertainer among winners in the dobro guitar, mandolin, five string banjo, and flat top guitar competition. Turner, who died in October 2017, was a long time Fiddlers’ Jamboree supporter and photographer. Richardson won the Flat Top Guitar and received second place in the Dobro Guitar and Mandolin categories.

The National Championship for Country Musician Beginners showcases the talents of children up to age twelve in seven categories of competition.

This year’s winners are as follows:

Fiddle: First Place- Hailey Bryant of Greenbrier; Second Place- Noah Goebel of Elkton, Kentucky; and Third Place- Radnor Walters of Lebanon..

Buck Dancing: First Place- Jacob Fennell of Dickson; Second Place Arlee Fowlkes of Hurricane Mills, and Third Place- Treble Chunn of Greenbrier

Clogging: First Place-Emily G. Brown of Hartsville; Second Place-Treble Chunn of Greenbrier; and Third Place- Shelby Ballington of Columbia.

Dobro Guitar: First Place- David Wheeler of Smithville; Second Place- Sarah Brooke Richardson of Arrington.

Mandolin: First Place-Noah Goebel of Elkton, Kentucky; Second Place- Sarah Brooke Richardson of Arrington; and Third Place- Harlan Cope of Spring Hill.

Five String Banjo: First Place- Gideon Shepherd of Henry, Tennessee; Second Place- Conner McMeans of Athens, Alabama; and Third Place-Joseph Palmore of Springfield

Flat Top Guitar: First Place- Sarah Brooke Richardson of Arrington; Second Place-David Wheeler of Smithville; and Third Place- Isaiah Bush of Gordonsville

July 6, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Fiddler’s Jamboree Director of Crafts Dana Scott today (Saturday)  presented the  “Best of Show” Award to Dale and Claire Penn of Penn’s Pens in Hendersonville.

Dale, a custom woodcrafter, has been making pens and pencils out of exotic and domestic hardwoods since 1996.  Since then, he has started making pens out of different materials, including rifle shells, corn cobs, rattlesnake skin, antler, computer circuit boards and coconut shells.   Each pen is handcrafted individually with great care.  All pens use standard Parker style or Cross style refills for the ballpoints. Roller ball pens use Zebra, Hauser or Schmidt refills.

Dale makes pencils as well, mostly to go with a pen as a pen and pencil set.

All of the woods that are used are typically exotic woods however some wood that is used is historic in nature.  Dale makes pens and pencils out of wood from Jack Daniels aging barrels, Olive wood from the Holy Land as well as wood from the trees lost in the 1998 tornado that hit Nashville and the Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson.  These pens from the trees from the Hermitage include Walnut, Cherry, Honey and Tulip Poplar, which is the state tree of TN.  All of these historic wood pens come with certificates of authenticity.

For more information visit www.pennspens.com