This is another episode from the first season of FOLKWAYS in 1982. While most of the artists in that first series are no longer with us, this is a chance to visit them again and see some of the very best and authentic folk art practiced in the southern Appalachians. Although the production tools available then can't match the quality of today's digital video, it's still a fascinating look back at part of our cultural heritage.

The dark mountain cabin had splashes of color in the beautiful and intricate overshot woven coverlets, mats, and hangings.

Wilma McNabb, in her eighties at the time of production, learned the art on her great-great grandmother's massive rough hewn loom. Her work is acknowledged as some of the finest in traditional weaving. She displays examples of her work and demonstrates how she works on a modern loom.

Barbara Miller of Pisgah, North Carolina explains the intricacies of overshot traditional weaving, from reading patterns to warping the loom and weaving the finished product. But before anyone could begin weaving, the person had to make the wool and flax into fiber and then dye it the proper colors.

Two ladies from Tennessee demonstrate these two very vital arts of rural life. Mary Frances Davidson, author of the book The Dye Pot, shows some of the many sources of dyes, from flowers, bark, plants, and insects. She illustrates the dyeing of indigo, a most prized color. Persis Grayson demonstrates the tedious craft of spinning thread from the raw materials a farmstead would have had available.