The Adirondack Museum will present its 28th Annual Rustic Furniture Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12 and 13, on its campus in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., with a comprehensive look at classic and contemporary uses of the rustic aesthetic.

The festival celebrates all styles of rustic creation, presented by more than 50 of today’s artisans and artists, chosen by the museum for their unique style as expressed in handcrafted furniture, household furnishings, and Adirondack paintings.

Rustic Roots

Rusticity is a quintessentially American expression, inspired by romantic notions of wilderness as untamed nature in the mid-19th century, when it was given imaginative form in an extraordinary output of Adirondack furniture, architecture, and art.

In many of the "great camps" built in the Adirondacks in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Morgans, Vanderbilts, Whitneys, and others, talented caretakers crafted fanciful furniture during the winter. They used natural, local materials - including acorns, antlers, bark, branches, burls, pine cones, roots, and twigs - to create furniture and furnishings that were perfectly suited to the rustic elegance of the region's vast, seasonal retreats for the wealthy.

Branching Out

At the Rustic Furniture Fair, today's rustic craftsmen and craftswomen from all over the U.S. will converge to showcase a wide variety of different materials, woodworking techniques, and painting styles in traditional and contemporary interpretations of the Adirondack rustic style.

These makers will talk with visitors about their inspirations, tools, materials, and methods, and will have a monumental display of rustic furniture and décor for sale. Click here for a full list of Rustic Furniture Fair participants.

Many will also demonstrate rustic craft skills, including chainsaw carving, fungus etching, painting, willow bending, wood carving, and more.

Entrance to the Rustic Furniture Fair is included with the cost of general museum admission.

Rustic Festivities

This festival weekend will also include:

∙ all the museum’s history and art galleries, including Bull Cottage, one of the finest displays of historic rustic furniture in the world, with pieces by Joseph Bryere, Ernest Stowe, and other legendary craftsmen;

∙ five new special exhibitions to explore – A Sense of Place: Ellen Phelan’s Kenjockety, Weaving A Legacy: Mohawk Basketry Traditions, Gone Camping: Outfitting the Adirondack Campsite, Arto Monaco and the Land of Makebelieve, and Sonic Hotel: Lost and Found Sounds of the Adirondacks;

∙ prime fall foliage surrounding the museum campus, spread across the ridges of Blue Mountain, and flowing down to sparkling Blue Mountain Lake;

∙ live mountain folk music provided on Saturday by Alex Smith and the Mountain Sound from Long Lake, N.Y., and on Sunday by the Blind Owl Band from Saranac Lake, N.Y.;

∙ many public programs, including staff-led tours, audio guides, and numerous children’s activities;

∙ sweet and savory treats by North Country Kettle Corn;

∙ and much more.

New to the Rustic Furniture Fair

Several of the artisans attending this year’s event are new to the museum’s Rustic Furniture Fair.

Pieces showcased by these new rustic makers will include rustic framed paintings (by Melissa Burnett of Paintings by Melly, Fort Edward, N.Y.), lamps made from Lake Superior stone (by Kevin Kaye of Rockin’ K Stoneworks, Traverse City, Mich.), hybrid creations combining natural and man-made materials (by Kevin Scheimreif of Steel & Grain, Lewisburg, Pa.), and more.

New rustic artisans carry on this bucolic aesthetic that was first seen in the Adirondack region more than 125 years ago.

On-Site Services

The museum’s Lake View Café will be open during the event, and shipping services for rustic purchases will be available on-site, provided by the Lake Placid UPS store. The museum has clear cell-phone reception in the midst of the mountains, and free Wi-Fi blanketing its campus.

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A variety of high-res images are available.