GREENVILLE — At just 15 years old, Lassandra Threewits proved the future of traditional crafting remains bright at the Great Darke County Fair.
Threewits earned the Gold Seal and Best of Show honor in Domestic Arts after her handmade dragon was selected as the top entry from among the department’s rosette winners.
Betsy Nisonger, who is in charge of the Domestic Arts departments, said workers gathered the rosette-winning entries and voted to determine the best of the best.
“We had all the rosette winners out here,” Nisonger said. “All of us workers in Domestic Arts vote on what we think is the best of all the rosette winners, and we felt her item was the best of all the rosette winners. So she has the Best of Show.”
Threewits, who is homeschooled and entering the ninth grade, said she spent about two months creating the dragon.
“I made a dragon, and it took a couple months,” Threewits said.
She said she enjoyed the time and work that went into creating the award-winning piece.
For Nisonger, having a 15-year-old take the department’s top honor was particularly meaningful because it demonstrated that younger generations continue to take an interest in crafts traditionally passed down through families.
“It is fabulous because I know the future’s in good hands,” Nisonger said. “We still have crafters that are young and have an interest in crafting and creating and making things to share and other people to love and enjoy.”
Nisonger said mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers continue to play an important role in teaching those skills to younger generations.
That interest can be seen among some of the department’s youngest exhibitors. Nisonger said children as young as 6 have entered items in Domestic Arts.
The department also added a category last year for homemade quilts made by exhibitors age 16 and younger. Four quilts were entered in the youth category this year.
“We had four entries this year,” Nisonger said. “Thrilled, absolutely thrilled about that.”
Threewits’ Best of Show honor came during what Nisonger described as another successful year for the Domestic Arts department.
“It’s a very good year for us,” Nisonger said. “Every year is good, and we’re thrilled that everybody that comes out and enters their items here with us hopefully has a great experience with us here at the fair.”
Nisonger also credited the Domestic Arts workers who spend hours arranging and displaying the many entries for fairgoers to see.
“I get lots of compliments about how nice the department looks, and they’re the ones that display the department,” Nisonger said. “I do all the thinking work and the hard work, but they do the hardest work of making the department look beautiful. It’s not one person.”
For Threewits, months spent carefully creating a dragon resulted in the fair’s highest Domestic Arts recognition — and, for those who oversee the department, provided an encouraging sign that the skills and traditions represented there are being carried forward by another generation.
