Berkeley Pit in Butte

I've lived in Montana most of my life, but have never seen the Berkeley Pit, where an entire mountain was removed to provide copper for the rest of the world. We paid our $2 and walked down this long tunnel to get to the viewing area.

I guess I never will see the bottom of the pit, nor will anyone . . . the pit is full of mineral laden water. The reddish water is a toxic soup of naturally occurring minerals.

They've started pumping and purifying the water that gets above a certain level.

Apparently the only living organisms include a bacteria that appears to feed on iron and a small amoeba. Both of these are being researched by biologists.

This was an intriguing visit . . . might inspire a quilt of some kind . . .

Saturday at the National Folk Festival

This is the view south and down the hill from the Montana Arts Marketplace Area.

I was fortunate to have Parks Reese, a Livingston artist on one side of my booth. He paints humorous wildlife paintings and lithographs that are really wonderful. He brought in these new benches in which he collaborated with a metal artist. Joe and I really like the one with the cowboy riding the fish. One of the best things about vending is the camaraderie with the other artists. Parks brought up the idea of making a trade - his work for mine . . . we will talk later today and might be lucky enough to bring home a new piece of art!

On the other side, is this wool artist. He brought his spinning wheel and has been demonstrating the entire show. This has attracted a lot of interest. He does wonderful felted wool bags with fabulous handles - need to get some pictures for the next post . . . and I cannot recall the unusual name of his business. . . . will get that in another post, as well.

Just as the heat was getting uncomfortable, clouds rolled into the valley. We never had rain, but the sunset was spectacular!

National Folk Festival

Well, here we are the the 71st National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana.
The event was kicked off last evening.

Since Joe came along to help, there was one slow moment when I was able to slip away to check out the performers at one of the stages.

A Chicago Blues band called Magic Slim and the Teardrops. Excellent!

There was a lot of interest. The booth was very crowded at times. We had a good steady stream of sales.

I haven't blogged much about the paper art I do . . . I added these fun paper covers to these blank sketchbooks. I thought they would be brisk sellers, but no takers last night!

The most interested people were, of course, fellow quilters. Sadly, they are rarely buyers, though. They want to chat and ask how things are done, but they nearly always walk away empty handed.