Young animator among crafters at Prince William fair

Inside the home arts buildings at the Prince William County Fair this week, crafters are hard at work demonstrating quilting, knitting and ... animation?

A new addition to the fair this year, C. Pond Brothers IV, a 10-year-old from the Manassas area, brought some high-tech art to the home arts building when he set up his digital camera and laptop Friday to demonstrate how he makes stop-motion movies.

“Stop-motion animation is where you have some object and you take a picture and move it and take another picture until you have a lot of pictures,” C. Pond, a rising fifth-grader at Bennett Elementary School, explained before his demonstration Friday.

C. Pond uses a digital camera to take pictures of things like Legos, teddy bears and clay creations. Then he puts the pictures together, adding music and sound, using Windows Movie Maker.

“I just fix it up so it looks likes it moving,” C. Pond said.

C. Pond said he’s been making the movies for about nine months now.

“I saw it on YouTube and liked it so then I just started making them,” he said.

His first movie starred a teddy bear named Snuffles who takes a whiff of his dad’s work boots and passes out.

Many of 23 movies C. Pond has posted on his YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/dweezildna feature Lego men, including a Lego Darth Vader, walking and skateboarding around their Lego world.

At the fair Friday, C. Pond made a 30-second video of a Lego man walking across the floor, sitting down in a chair and saying hello.

“He does it all himself,” C. Pond’s mother, Andrea, said of his movies. “He just loves it. He’ll get up in the morning and go in and start working on a movie.”

At the fair, C. Pond’s demonstration attracted a pretty good crowd and “was especially popular with children,” Andrea Brothers said.

C. Pond, will be in the home arts building Friday from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. for a repeat demonstration.

Other craft demonstrators will be in the home arts building throughout the week.

Today, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. crafters will demonstrate Native American beadwork, quilting and knitting. Wednesday, from 12:30 to 3 p.m., crafters will demonstrate knitting and embroidery, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. there will be demonstrations of tole painting, decorative painting and wire jewelry and from 5:30 to 8 p.m., there will be paper crafting and crocheting demonstrations.

Thursday, from 3 to 5:30 p.m., crafters will demonstrate spinning and crocheted beaded rope and from 5:30 to 8 p.m. crafters will demonstrate tatting, crocheting and crewel work.

Friday from 3 to 5:30 p.m., there will be paper cutting and knitting demonstrations and from 5:30 to 8 p.m., three knitters will demonstrate their craft.

Saturday, the last day of the fair, two scrapbookers will hold demonstrations from 12:30 to 3 p.m.

For more information, see pwcfair.com.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.

To see stop motion movies by C. Pond, visit http://www.youtube.com/dweezildna.