Celebrating 75 years, the Village of Yesteryear is an exhibit that demonstrates traditional handicraft and heritage skills. Held every year at the N.C. State Fair, the village has featured more than 100 artists and crafters creating, displaying and selling time-honored handmade crafts. “A Maker’s Dozen” is a series that tells the stories of these artisans and educates about their heritage crafts.
“I’m nothing special. I do nice work, but the Lord gave me a talent, and I just put the work in,” said Dexter Sonny Gibson, a craftsman of the Village of Yesteryear at the N.C. State Fair. Living in Troy, Gibson has been part of the Village for almost a decade with his craft of Ornamental Wood Turning.
Ornamental woodturning is a precision craft in which wood is rotated on a lathe, allowing an artisan to use specialized carving tools to etch intricate patterns and detailed textures into the material.
“Twenty years ago, I attended a demonstration at the Folk Art Center in Asheville that inspired me to try woodturning,” said Gibson. “I bought the tools and began practicing, though I struggled at first. I eventually joined the Piedmont Woodturners for additional lessons, but the real breakthrough happened in Georgia. There, I learned a specific grinding technique from Mark Saillay that allowed me to finally achieve the level of detail I had been searching for.”
“How I got involved with the Village was actually by my pastor,” said Gibson. “He had been a part of it and recommended I do it too. So, I went through the process of getting into the Village and was successful. I’ve been doing it for over eight years now. I did miss two years during the COVID pandemic.”
“What makes my craft different is that a hollow form is, well, hollow,” said Gibson. “First, the wood is carved from the inside, and all the pieces are blown out. This is important because of how the wood dries. Wood dries like skin: The outside dries first. So, if it isn’t hollow inside, it cracks the inside when it dries. When it is hollow, the inside and outside dry at the same pace with usually no cracks.”
“Turning a passion into a job is still a job,” said Gibson. “I still really like my craft, don’t get me wrong, but not as much passion as when I first started. It’s like driving a car after a while: you just do it.”
“It takes a varying amount of time for each piece,” said Gibson. “The range is from two hours to two days. It’s a very time-consuming task. I have to turn them, let them dry, sand them and prepare them to finish. Then, there is also building the base, stem and every other piece of the hollow form. Usually, there are five pieces.”
“Before I did wood turning full time, I worked almost sixteen hours a day,” said Gibson. “I was always busy with something. I had my own pesticide application business, did mowing, worked for the Department of Transportation for 12 years, and was a correction officer for a prison system.”
Gibson’s only showcase is his booth at the Village of Yesteryear, which he runs alongside his wife, Kimberly. Their daughter, Alia, is also there, working with pottery vendor Deborah Garner. “It’s a great place,” Gibson shares. “Everyone looks out for one another, the atmosphere is family-centered, and it’s just a wonderful group of people to be around.”
“I never get to see the full extent of the Fair,” said Gibson. “I’m usually at the Village 11 hours out of 12. That one hour is usually used for lunch or the occasional ice cream run. At the Village, if you are the artist and people want to buy your product, they want to talk to the person that made it.”
“Our main goal at the Village is to inspire and educate,” said Gibson. “Our arts are dying ones. Some are making a comeback, but even so, we do what we can.”