Photographers & quilter help author-fiddler benefit festival

Visitors to the mountains who attend the upcoming Wild & Woolly Wine Tasting & Author-Fiddler Festival can count on a heady mix of authors, fiddlers, poets, food, wine and a few native plants for sale, all for the benefit of Georgia ForestWatch, the well-known non-profit forest conservation organization.

And now add two talented photographers and an expert quilter to the mix.

Local artist Pat Calderone of Scaly, North Carolina, and photographer Peter McIntosh of Clayton, Georgia, are donating two beautiful prints to the cause, which will go home to the winners of a raffle that will be held that day. (Cost: $1 per ticket, six tickets for $5.00. Winners need not be present to win. Also to be raffled: Assorted gear from Patagonia and a rain barrel, courtesy of the Rain Barrel Co.)

Cara Busch, meanwhile, a noted quilter from Ellijay, Georgia, is donating a handsome quilt for the raffle, a cotton wall hanging, 16.75 X 35 inches in size, entitled “Wild Columbine.”
In addition, the noted environmentally minded, free-lance photographer, Kathryn Kolb, will be one of the presenters at the event, set for 10-5 p.m., Saturday, May 2, at Tiger Mountain Vineyards in Tiger, Georgia. (See www.gafw.org for directions to the site and a detailed schedule of presentations, as well as greater information on each of the six authors speaking that Saturday: Mildred Greear, Helen, Georgia; George Ella Lyon, Lexington, Kentucky; Thomas Rain Crowe, Cullowhee, North Carolina; John Lane, Spartanburg, South Carolina and Janie P. Taylor, Tiger, Georgia.)

Three talented local fiddlers will fiddle while visitors enjoy a taste of red and white from the award-winning farm winery and some mighty delectable local food fare: Scottish-style fiddler Marie Dunkle, Tiger, Georgia; old-timey fiddler Kelly Smith, Salem, South Carolina; and John Harper Duncan, maker of down-home Appalachian music, Asheville, North Carolina.

For the raffle photographers, see www.web.mac.com/patcalderone as well as www.mcintoshmountains.com. For Busch’s work, see: www.etsy.com

Georgia ForestWatch has strived to organize the event as an “affordable fundraiser,” and asks for a $20 entry fee per each adult, good for the plant sale or authors and fiddlers, or both, as well as the food and wine. Several of the authors’ autographed books also will be for sale.

Rabun Walk. Photo by Pat Calderone. Up the trail leading to Rabun Bald.

Betty’s Creek. Photo by Peter McIntosh. A wild waterway in Rabun County.

Wild Columbine. By Cara Busch. Machine piece, hand quilted with color washes.