Asheville

The first stop I made it to was The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design where they had Lia Cook's exhibition on display.  I loved her work & its intricacies.  She uses a Jacquard loom to weave her images.  Her work is composed of compelling close-up images of children.  It was interesting participating in her research about the difference between looking at a digital photo versus a woven image.  

 

Next was the Oriole Mill, which was perfect.  They told us more about the Jacquard looms because they have 5 of them.  These looms can weave any picture unlike the Dobby looms which have a more limited result.  This mill has 2 Dobby looms.

The Oriole Mill is unique for a few reasons:

1. It gives tours.  Many mills are focused on productivity, so they have their looms extremely close together.  Because of this, those mills are not safe enough for people to tour.

1. It has natural lighting.  Most mills rely on fluorescent lighting.  Natural lighting is much better for looking at color and other significant details.

1. Also, they use a technique that makes their woven pieces look like they've been quilted.  They put a shrinking fabric like wool between 2 fabrics that don't shrink much.  This produces the quilted look when you wash it.  This mill is not the only one that uses this method, but they are one of the few.

 

I found Melanie Robertson's pottery particularly interesting.  She was the Raku firing artist.  This is a method of pottery that can be quite dangerous, but the results are interesting.  You never know what you're going to get.  It creates a crackled effect. 

 

Marty Libman is a woodturner that creates incredible bowls.  It's amazing how much work goes into making a simple solid bowl.  He gets chunks of wood & roughs them out into a bowl shape on his lathe, and, for most woods,  must let them dry for an entire year.  As the wood dries, the bowls warp, so he has to do more lathe work.  Finally he gets amazing bowls containing the original wood patterns.