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By LISA G. CURRIE
Rappahannock N*w« Staff Writer
Betty Smith has created a real zoo for herself.
Her bears—and sheep and pigs and elephants—are making a name for themselves.
Located between Gid Brown Hollow and Old Hollow on U.S. 211522, the CraftSmiths showroom stands inhabited with furry and wooley friends of various descriptions.
‘CraftSmiths’ has an ‘s’ on the end because while Mrs. Smith is busy with her wildlife, her husband, Stewart, is busy with clock repairs, cleaning and assembling.
Mr. Smith began fixing clocks years ago.
It started as a bet—Mr. Smith won. A friend brought a broken clock to work and dared Mr. Smith to fix it. After months of work, the task was finished, and his reputation as clock repairman spread like wildfire.
“I had hoped in retirement I would have a shop where I could build and repair clocks," said Mr. Smith, adding at present, with retirement nearly two years old, he has but one room in the upstairs of his home.
In it he keeps his clock repair tools—tools like general mechanical tools but in “miniature.”
He uses them to repair and make clocks.
The movements are purchased while the cabinets are designed and made by Mr. Smith.
“I have always been a woodworker," he said.
Besides building clocks, Mr. Smith repairs and cleans others.
Specializing in clocks that are mechanical, with battery movements, Mr. Smith keeps busy by servicing clocks from as near as Culpeper and as far as Manassas.
Grandfather clocks can be repaired at the owner’s home, but other clocks should be taken to Mr. Smith’s workshop-home.
Clock cleaning—necessary at various times due to various conditions but recommended every five to seven years—costs $45 and up.
A warranty repairman for Ridgeway Clock Company, Mr. Smith has worked on clocks of various descriptions from cuckoo docks to 200-year-old grandfather clocks, but he doesn’t fix electronic or digital timepieces.
Clocks he has reconditioned or built can be purchased in the shop, tick-tocking away amid beasts of various descriptions.
The other half of CraftSmiths— Mrs. Smith—has made each and every one of them.
Moving about the shop, she calls them by name, talking with each one, as if they were able to respond.
A retired instructional aide from Prince William County Schools, Mrs. Smith and her husband moved to the county in 1986, finding the shop—once a fruit stand—and house that fit their needs.
Mrs. Smith had hopes of opening a craft stand for her pillows, baby items and other items.
She had no idea her bear influ
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