Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBibalo\u2019s interest in history had a slow start, though. As a child, he remembers not being interested in history class.<\/p>\n
But, when his mother died, he became interested first in family history and then in the history of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt caught on for me like wildfire,\u201d he said. \u201cMuch like the ring of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Often he said, one piece of history \u2014 such as the iron furnaces \u2014 reflects on other parts of history, including railroading.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to teach people about our culture and to keep antique crafts alive.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And as always, Bibalo was also quick to take a minute or two to sing the Johnny Cash hit \u201cRing of Fire,\u201d with those who stopped by.<\/p>\n
Teaching what you know<\/p>\n
Chris Knight, of Taylor, was on hand to demonstrate the art of blacksmithing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love making things, building things, teaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Knight, owner of KnightSmith, was enjoying the crowd and the atmosphere, with visitors eager to learn and having a good time doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Such a historic place doing a historic craft,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to intentionally bring heritage crafts to others, especially the next generation, he said.<\/p>\n
Knight\u2019s interests also include woodworking, drafting, leather working and laser engraving.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of what I know I learned myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Knight will be holding two workshops on Sunday, teaching blacksmithing basics.<\/p>\n
Every workshop participant will leave with a handmade project, he said.<\/p>\n
Live iron pours<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s activities include live iron pours, with participants designing their own customer souvenirs from the festival.<\/p>\n
Organizer Jeff Kiefer said iron pours were an opportunity for artists to thoroughly engage with their work.<\/p>\n
Anthracite Heritage Museum director Bode Morin said this year\u2019s weather set the perfect backdrop for the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an alternative way of interpreting the past,\u201d he said. \u201cThrough a different medium.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event took a rough patch during the COVID pandemic, but it has since continued to grow, with a record number of vendors participating this year, he said.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s events included hands-on activities, craft\/artist market, live musical performances, and the Youth Arts showcase.<\/p>\n
The celebration continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, with a craft and artist market, and several workshops.<\/p>\n
The Arts on Fire Festival is presented by the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Scranton Iron Furnaces as a backdrop, John Bibalo used propane to engulf a metal locomotive wheel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-212634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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