Asheville Trip

Folk Art Center

The arts and crafts community in the Appalachian area started from a Presbyterian missionary woman named Fracis Goodrich who's goal was to unite the Appalachian women in their daily chores and hobbies to produce quality craft and boost the local economy. Eventually, the crafting community grew along with the demand for their craft and evolved into a unified guild that is committed to producing high quality craft.

Out of this guild, the Folk Art Center was established to provide a gallery and marketplace for various types of arts and crafts and also to inspire and teach others about the individual genras.

The artist I chose out of the Folk Art Center is Shadrick Mace who works with wood, specifically green wood, to make various types of chairs. His technique of using green wood provided extra strength in the chair as the wood dries out and starts to shrink and tighten around the joints. Picture taken from a bought brochure/catalog belonging to Colleen Trapuzzano from the Folk Art Center Handmade in America

Interior Designers can promote craft through their work by informing clients about the unique qualities craft can provide for their home or business and the benefits of buying locally made craft to their economy.

  The artist I chose from this exhibit is John Sharetts-Sullivan who is a cabinet/box maker. This specific box is a jewelry box made out of Brazilian tiger wood with white oak dovetail drawers. The story behind as to why this box was being displayed is that it has been difficult to sell due to its awkward size. Its shape is too cumbersom to sit on top of a vanity like a normal jewelry box and too short to be used as a functional surface if it stood by itself.    

 Center for Craft Creativity and Design

I participated in a research program at the Center for Craft and Creativity for the Lia Cook whose work was being displayed. Her work centered around weaving images using computer software and Jacquard Looms. Her survey was researching the emotional impact of a traditional picture verses a woven image has on the viewer.

The Oriole Mill

The Oriole Mill is a weaving company that specializes in custom orders and prints. This company advocates quality in their products and continually researches and tests out new products, designs, and materials.

The Jacquard Loom is a completely automated loom that is capable of producing intricate deisigns at a high level of quality.The software runs through computers that are connected to these orange cords that have eye rods on the ends. Each individual warp string is threaded through its own eye rod. As the textile is being woven, each orange cord will be pulled upand released acordingly to produce the design as the weft strings are woven through.River Arts District

I visited the Pottery studio in the River Arts District. I met a potter named Sarah Wells Rolland who was in the middle of producing a set of oversized cups to sell in the studio's front room store/gallery. She stated that she had been working with clay for 20 plus years. In speaking with her about how she came up with her forms she explained that her forms are just transformations and maybe infatuations from previous forms she has created. When it came to technique, she described herself trying to perfect a certain technique (image one) for more than 20 years because of its difficulty. Image One

McClung Museum:

My material focus was shell/wood.  The shell artifacts were mostly used for showing the status of one's social placement in society.  Shell jewelry was normally presented to thos of higher status in the hierarchy of the natives.  

Wood, on the other hand was used in multiple fashions.  One way wood was used was for transportation.  The natives carved boats from tree trunks to help with travel for trade.  Trade is the way in which the natives obtained shells to create their jewelry

Wood and jewelry use is still done similarly today:

modern day shell inspired jewelry

Asheville Trip

Traveling to Asheville to immerse ourselves in Appalachian art was truely a great experience. I had never been to the area before, which led to many different surprises that helped me learn about Appalachian culture, art, and textiles. Our first stop was to The Folk Arts Center, then Handmade in America, The Oriole Mill and then a Potter's workshop and gallery. Each visit was extremely different, but yet I could still see where all the places are little puzzle pieces that fit together to create a whole genre called Appalachian Art.

Folk Art Center

Our visit to Folk Art Center helped us learn more about the history of the area and how people settled down and survived in this area. We learned that missionaries were traveling through, when they decided that east Tennessee/South-West North Carolina was where they wanted to settle. The easy access to fresh water and fertile ground helped them create a growing community. They relied on themselves to make their own furniture, quilts and blankets, which generated them to also create art. I was intrigued by the set of wooden rocking chairs that we were shown, because they came from an area called Berea, Kentucky, which is located right next to my hometown. I was proud that such a small area could be showcased through these magnificent rocking chairs. An artist who I also loved in the exhibit was the story of the little boy who took his dad's clay scraps to create little clay pigs, and from this he became famous because the First Lady absolutely loved them while traveling through the area. This story is inspiring because it shows how it doesn't take much to create great art.

Handmade in America

Handmade in America was an informative stop that helped us grasp what they did as a society, and how they supported crafters and artists in the area. I enjoyed seeing this exhibit because it allowed me to see how as an interior designer it is important to incorporate crafts in interiors because it will not only be add intrigueing aspects to the interior, but it will more importantly supporting artists and their craft. The artwork below is a teapot that I found witty and creative, because it visual replicates a tree branch. It is created from clay, and is worked with to create the woodlike grooves all throughout the pot. The artists are Maud and Austin Boleman, who I have learned also create a whole line that contains mugs and other such pieces that use witt and creativeness different pottery.

The Center for Craft Creativity and Design

The Center for Craft Creativity and Design displayed an extremely different kind of Appalachian Art that I found really modern and cool. They were textile rugs that contained blurry images of peoples' faces on them. Each face on the textile was different, making expressions that were mysterious and puzzeling. I personally liked the wall that contained a line of textiles each containing different facial pieces. You had to really study each one carefully to identify what the part was by getting close to it then stepping back to analyze.

The Oriole Mill

Our stop at The Oriole Mill was my favorite. I thought learning about the process of making such amazing textiles while seeing it being done right in front of us was so informative and a great experience. Textiles are made by first choosing the type of fabric they want to use for the fabric, and then they put it through the warp beam to get it prepared before it goes to the jacquered loom where the textile will be produced. I thought it was interesting learning about the different types of threads, and how some are thinner then others, and how that little aspect completely changes the process of making the textile. It was also cool hearing about the different types of looms, and how each one has a different design that is made to create a certain type of textile. Hearing about how the design is originally created on the computer, and is then hooked up to the loom to where it automatically creates that design just amazes me. It was funny coming from The Folk Arts Center and hearing about how quilts were made from hand looms, and then coming to The Oriole Mill where these highly developed mahines can whip quilts out in a couple hours.

River Arts District

Our last stop was to a Potters's gallery and workshop. I also thought this was another highlight to the whole trip, because it was cool to see how these potters are so skilled in what they do and how they can create magnificent pottery in a couple minutes on a wheel. I was intrigued by Sarah Wells Rolland, because we got to see her work in the workshop, and then see her finished product in their art gallery. She described how she loves making a series of one thing such as a drinking cup, but then changing each one slightly to see what she likes best in the end after she fires them. I was also amazed by one piece that she does which is a bowl that contains tons of cut outs, createing a new dynamic to a typical potter's bowl.

Field Trip to Asheville

The Folk Art Center

This centThis is an example of another work from Laura Simser's history began in the 1930. The guild was started by missionary women. One in particular was Frances Goodrich, whos job was to set up a Prebyterian Church, and she wanted to get women involved in a community together. The guild was set up as a way of life for the people of Appalachia during the depression. The guild now has 900 plus members from 9 states and is still a way of life for some people.

The artisan I selected is Laura Sims. She is from Bakersville, NC, 40 minutes north of Asheville, and she works at Indigo Stone Studio. The piece displayed in The Folk Art Center was called Surviving Light. It was made in 2012 out of silk organza with discharge color removal. Not being able to take pictures, I do not have a photograph of the work, but it was two pieces of material. On the silk was a birch tree with cut outs that made it look like the bark was hanging off. I enjoyed the way it was transparent and the way the light hit it.  Laura says, "The intuitive designs from ancient cultures provide inspiration and encouragement for my creative journey.  Visually recording my surroundings through images of western North Carolina and other travels is a way of connecting to place."

Handmade in America

The way interior designers can successfully use craft in their designs is by going to local craft guilds and artist workshops to meet people and network. An interior designer can make a binder of these places to get crafts, decorations, furniture, cabnetry, etc. for the home. This binder will be helpful if one has a client interested in craft in there project.

The piece I chose from the Handmade in America exhibit was called complements by Teena Tuengue. It is made of wool and rayon. It is a shawl of orange, blue, and purble tones. Teena has been weaving for 40 years. She says this of her dearly loved hobby, "Making something new, maybe similar, but different, one idea leading on to another, it was the endless possibilities that attracted me, that I would not come to the end of the possible variations. It is something I will always be able to do with new delight."

Center for Craft Creativity and Design

I really enjoyed the work by Lia Cook in this gallery. When I walked in the door I was hit with numerous

faces peering at me. At first it looked like paintings, but then I walked closer and I noticed all of the stitches. I particularly loved this work because the children seem to be curious and wondering who you are.

 Oriole Mill

 "The Oriole Mill is founded on education, quality and innovation." This mill is run by Bethanne Knudson and Stephan Michelson and was started in 2006. Bethanne has a long history of working in textiles. Before starting the mill, she worked in education, texile soft-ware design, and Jacquard studies. Together, they currently have 2 Dobby looms and 5 Jacquard looms. Jacquard looms simplifiy the process of making complicated patterns. Dobby looms are not able to create as detailed weaves as a Jacquard. They produce high quality blankets, coverlets, pillows, upholstery fabric, and other home textiles out of mostly specialty wools and cottons.

The River Arts District: Asheville Glass Center

 The Asheville Glass Center is a safe place to learn glassblowing and flameworking. We were able to explore their studio space and shop. I took many interesting photos of glass objects, some for show and some usable. The way the light shown through the glass was mesmerizing. We also saw a student learning to make glass beads.

Field Trip to Museum of Appalachia

Indian Pottery in East Tennessee

As my object I chose a storage pot that was presented with several other objects of Native American pottery in a glass cabinet. Among those obejects there were pots used as water bottles, cooking pots, serving bowls, storage bowls and ceremonial dishes. Many of the pots were adorned with abstract effigies of various animals, for example frogs, owls and turtles. All of the pots were made out of clay and shaped into functional round form.

Indian Pottery

Big Indian Storage Bowl

A large piece of indian pottery was created for storage purposes by East Tennesseean indian potter sometime between 1200-1600 A.D. The bowl was shaped out of red clay, dried and then burned in a ground oven. It looks like it has either been repaired by adding more clay on top of it to fill out the cracks. It was found from Jackson County near the border of Tennessee. To me it tells about Appalachian culture with its function - people were settled to live somewhere there since they would not carry a large storage dish with them anywhere. The pot was supposedly used for storing corn, acorns or seed.

Large Storage Bowl