Trip to the Museum of Appalachia

Our trip to the Museum of Appalachia was very entertaining.  I loved how the area was very big and there were so many things to discover there.  I loved the home-like atmosphere.  Some of the many highlights in my opinion though include the wall of verious instruments (some that I had never even heard of or seen before), the old-time feeling, the small houses furnished with things that would most likely be seen at a house from that time period, and of course, the animals roaming around the large fields.

It was difficult to focus on one of the person's work in general because there were so many different arts and crafts to pick from.  However, Dollie Hoskin's work stood out to me.  She was a basket waever from the Appalachian area who was born in 1922.  Below is a picture of Hoskins with a basket that she wove.

Hoskin's remembers working on baskets from an early age, especially in the 1930's when she began to really love basket weaving both as a hobby and as a job.  She stated that she weaved with her family and friends in her spare time.  Baskets would be sized small, medium, or large, depending on what was going to be the use of the basket.  In those days, tuberware, grocery bags, or other types of bags were not made, so the only solution to holding anything was a basket.  This made Hoskin's hobby and job an important one.  She remembers her baskets being used every day, whether it was to store other craft materials, hold food for dinner, or simply to sell for other items.  She says that she would frequently go to the store with her baskets and trade them for food or other neccesities that were available to her for her work.

In earlier times, the baskets included a cotton or wool lining in it, but what made Hoskin's baskets different were that they were made out of corn husks.  This way, she could make a sturdier basket that could hold more goods.  Some examples of corn husk baskets are shown below.

The corn husk baskets are unique to Appalachia because this is likely where they were first made.  Corn is frequently grown in the Appalachian area and the people there were very sufficient in using the resources without wasting many things.  Besides corn being a good vegetable to eat, the husks were also good for making things such as the baskets.

More information can be found here about Dollie Hoskins:

http://www.museumofappalachia.org/Basket_Collection.html

Asheville Trip

The field trip to Asheville last week was very intrguing and educational.  I learned much about the culture of the Appalacia and about the arts and crafts that they made. The River Arts District has gained many new studios, galleries, and restaurants in recent years.  It hosts about 150 different artists with much variety between twenty buildings in Asheville.  Here are some of the important things that I gathered:

The Folk Art Center had numerous exhibits that I found intriguing.  The Craft Guild was pretty much started with Frances L. Goodrich during the 19th century.  She had not planned to be working with crafts and selling her pieces, but rather doing crafting as a hobby.  People began to have an interest in her works though and so she decided to sell them for a small amount.  This is how the Craft Guild was originated.

Tom Brown was a woodcarver from Indiana who had small wooden pieces of people or animals.  Below is a carved and then painted person that he made.

Handmade in America was nice because their goal was to support local businesses around Asheville and keep the culture prevelant in Asheville.  I feel that it is very important to buy from your local area to help your own town.

My favorite piece was from Alice Pratt who had a weaving pattern that was cotton and hand woven.  I really loved the colors that she incorporated as shown below.

I must say that the Oriole Mill was my favorite place that we visited all day.  I just found it very interesting how the fabric is made with the machines and how much intense labor actually goes into thier work.  Also, I found that the people there had much passion for thier work which is always nice.  

The mill is quite large and spacious which provides for a perfect and ideal working area.  There are actually few workers there but that is what they prefer.  One lady noted that she had been working there since the mill opened, but before that, she had been working with mills similar for about fourteen years.  Many threads are streched on huge spools to a machine shown below:

Getting the threads lined up in the perfect positions can be, at times, quite challenging.  They need to be spaced perfectly with no overlaps.  This can be difficult because there are so many threads and they span a large distance which means the workers have to check the entirety of it for precise work.

Above shows the depth that the threads are spun upon.

Entering the mill in more depth, I noticed these threads arranged in a unigue way hanging from the ceiling.  I thought it was so beautiful looking so I just had to take a picture as shown below.

The crosses made are helpful when making a patterned fabric piece like the one shown below.

There are many designs that they can make with the fabric and fortunately, we were able to see the machine stitch a few lines of the fabric.  The machine speeds extremely fastback and forth, printing a design and ultimately making a whole piece of fabric.

Above shows threads of many colors on one of the looms.

Lastly about the Oriele Mill, I must mention some information about the Jacquard Loom; the machine that makes the beautiful works.  It was invented by Joseph Jacquard who was a silk weaver.  He improved the textile loom significantly into what is now used at the Oriele Mill and many other mills.  Jacquard was born into a family of weavers in 1752 and wanted to speed up the long, tedious process of making intricate designs.

The Center for Creativity and Design was small inside, but that didn't stop it from having great quality works.  The artist presented was Lia Cook, a textile painter.  Cook is still living today and continuing to make things.  She designs a picture by using different colors (mostly balck and white).  The whiter areas usually make up the faces and the darker areas usually make up the background.  Looking closely at her work, it appears that a random design is made but when you step back and look at the picture as a whole, you can really distinguish the picture clearly.

Above is a common idea that Cook has created - a close-up shot of the face with little color.  She focuses much on the emotion that something gives to people.

Below is a weaving of a child again, but this time, the foreground adds another element.  In color, there is another person.  It is intriguing how Cook seperated the two people with adding a color element.

Trip to Asheville

Our class recently took a field trip to Asheville, North Carolina. We went to celebrate crafts week. Out of our many stops in Asheville, the place that is most memorable for me is the Center for Craft Creativity. When I first entered the building, I was amazed. The art looked so realistic, just like photographs. But, it turns out they were actually made from thread. These pieces were designed by Lia Cook. Overall, I loved her work and all the pieces at the Center for Craft Creativity were very interesting I thought, especially by the detail and splash of red thread in some of the pieces.

The image above shows a thread piece done by Lia Cook.

Trip to Appalachia

On our class trip to the Museum of Appalachia, I decided to focus on metal objects. The metal object that stood out to me the most is the object in the picture shown below. I liked the shape of the jail cell, and thought it was very interesting that this is what prisoners basically lived in when they were in prison. Basically a metal box, with wooden floors, and no comfortable mattresses. Today's prison cells, as we know, are much different now than they used to be. 

the picture above shows two jail cells at the museum of Appalachia.

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.