Helen and Marvin Riddle

     Marvin and Helen Riddle have spent 54 years living just off of Route 120 between Emporium and St Marys.  Upholstering furniture kept the couple busy as bees. 

     Speaking of bees, more than 200 hives share their homestead.  Helen has spent many years gathering wax from the honeycombs.  The byproduct of honey must be cleaned and then can be used for candle dipping.  She never uses scents, preferring the natural scent of the bees wax. 

     When Marvin retired from a manufacturing plant in the late 1970’s, he turned his attention to upholstery.  Since pieces of furniture came to his shop in needs of repair, he taught himself how to turn furniture legs.  It was soon, that he found a love of making bowls, and combining different types of wood into one of a kind cutting boards.  Marvin’s favorite woods include Maple, Tulip Poplar, Cherry and Ash.  The wood comes from his own trees on his property.  Sometimes English and Black Walnut is used when relatives share from trees on their land.

    This couple becomes the first husband and wife artists to sell items here at the Cameron County Chamber of Commerce & Artisan Center.