WEAVERVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —

An owl made of handsaws, a frog built from horseshoes and a real-life beekeeper are a few sights visitors to Weaverville’s Craft Fair and Bee Festival are likely to see this weekend.

Craft Fair and Bee Festival will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 8, at Salem United Methodist Church, 9 Salem Church Road, Weaverville.

Stevie Joe Franklin, the festival organizer, is also one of its vendors. Papaw’s Critters, as his grandchildren affectionately call his crafts, are playful animal sculptures built from scrap metal.

“I’ve been doing it for, well, close to 10 years myself,” Franklin said. “Most of the stuff I get is junk, really.”

Junk or not, Franklin humbly transforms old tools and trash into treasures. His handiwork will be joined by other local crafts.

“We’ve got a list of woodworkers, artists, some jewelry-makers, crocheters. Just mountain crafts,” Franklin said. “Most all of it, I try to keep it local people. Just local crafters. Some of them coming from Burnsville, Marshall. All around Buncombe County.”

Weaverville are as cute and gigantic as the ones on the walls of the Honey Hive.
Stevie Joe Franklin shows off three of Papaw’s Critters: two carved faces and a horseshoe owl.

The special guest of the event is the festival’s beekeeper.

“He’s gonna come out and do presentations, you know, about the nature of bees. How to raise ‘em, get ‘em drawn in. Stuff like that. I’m anxious to hear it myself,” Franklin joked. “I don’t know nothing about bees. Except that they hurt.”

The beekeeper will have honey and other bee products at his booth for sale.

Baked goods are another festival attraction.

“We furnish coffee and put it near the baked goods,” Franklin said. “We were pricing it, but come to find out, if we just ask for donations, we get more money than we do by pricing it out. You know, if somebody come by and get them a muffin and a cup of coffee, they throw in $5, while we’d charge maybe $2 or $3 for it.”

That community spirit is what powers the festival. Franklin thinks the goodwill probably comes from the cause the money goes to.

“Most of them know it’s going to the church,” Franklin said.

Proceeds from the festival are a fundraiser for Salem United Methodist Church.

More information about Craft Fair and Bee Festival and Papaw’s Critters can be found on their Facebook pages.