Getting all buttered up for this year's Tulsa State Fair

The Tulsa State Fair opened Thursday at the county fairgrounds. Eleven full days of fun for everyone. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Rick Wells visited the fair and tells us about one of his favorite stops

Thursday, September 30th 2004, 3:30 pm

By: News On 6

The Tulsa State Fair opened Thursday at the county fairgrounds. Eleven full days of fun for everyone.

News on 6 reporter Rick Wells visited the fair and tells us about one of his favorite stops at the fair every year.

I'm all about buttering you up; the butter sculpture on the lower level is something that changes every year at the fair. This year the sculptor got a bit of a late start so we get to actually see her work.

Sharon Bumann is turning 1,000 pounds of butter into a sculpture. This year the theme is Star Wars. "This is my favorite time of year, when I'm in the refrigerator no one can call me, I can just sculpt." She started doing this, years ago when the New York State Fair needed a butter sculptor, which was a lot of fairs ago. Now she does about five of these a year.

She sculpts in all the traditional materials too when she's not doing fairs, but butter is not bad. â€œThe main thing about butter, it's its own lubricant, the tool just slides through easily."

Lots of people stop by to watch. Lots wonder aloud if she's a little sick of so much butter, fact is, I think yes. "My husband likes to tease me when we go out to dinner. Do you want butter for your bread, I usually decline."

She says another surprise for many who come by is that this is butter on a wire framework. The basic shape is fashioned in wire the detail is in the butter.

There are about 85 hours of work in this by the time it's done, which she told me will be sometime on Saturday if all goes well.