American Craft Week

Folk Art Center: In 1890 Frances Goodrich from and idea of a cottage industry that would assist mountain families grew. Then she moved her business to down town Ashevill in 1908 and network with other leaders of the Southern Arts and Crafts movement. They met at Penland School of crafts and the idea of the Southern Highland Craft Guild was formed.

Connie Brown  Connie Brown is crafted in Fiber. Originally from Memphis and they mher family move to Ashevill, NC. Her husband and her are beekeepers and have several bee hives in tir back yard. She can make all kinds of  Traditional and contemporary quilte . She started in 1990 after taking a beginner class at a local college. She have wonnumerous local and national awards and have been mansion on  magasine and books.

One of her work was in the black and white area it was a peace sign wade with flowers on a peice of white fabric and fame with a black boarder. This was one of her work i got intrerest in her. She may have been in spired by her bees.

Handmade in America: Interior designers can use craft in their interior because there are handmade and can be functional and/or beatiful for interiors.

Suzanne Gernandt Suzanne Gernandt is a textile artist. she use her own hand- woven and hand-dyed cloth for her media and yuse layer of colors,depth and complexiRed Matisse Shawlto creat texture and paterns. 

Big Tera

Center for Craft Creativity and Design: Is an interresting place with woven digital images. 

The Oriole Mill: Fabric made in this mill go throung a simple proscess. It start by getting the thread  and warping it through this machine . Then it is put on a spool.  Next it brought to a Jacquard Loom . Then the jacquard loom make the pattern my weaving.

River Arts District: Roger Parramore a quest teacher in Asheville Glass Center. He work in glass. he was fascinated with it back like 37  year when he saw lamp maker at the mall during holiday session. He went to aapprenticeship in scientific glass blowing at university of Florida. He usesItalian Glass through out his work.Roger ParramorePiece in the ashville glass center

Trip to Asheville for American Craft Week

Folk Art Center

The Southern Highland Craft Guild was started in 1930 with only 8 memebers. It is an organization of crafts people that serves the Appalachian region. Its purpose it shared resources, education, marketing and conservation. Now it has 900 members and over 2400 artworks. These works are displayed at the Folk Art Center and some are sold there.

Frances Goodwich (1856-1944) was native to Asheville. She did watercolor paintings, carving and weaving. She started the weaving movement and taught many women of the town how to weave. Weaving is still a very important part of Asheville's craftwork today much because of her influence.

Handmade in America

Using craft for interiors gives a better quality though it is more expensive. It is more expensive because it takes much more time to produce and it benefits the local economy.

Connie Molland, a local crafter, grew up in her father's woodshop where the smell of sawdust was farmiliar. As she grew older she started experimenting with wood and its different functions. She produced a purse cutting board (as shown below) which has an interesting and different look for a cutting board, and function with the handle. Her use of different woods adds a beautiful color change.

Purse Cutting Board I (Bird's Eye maple, walnut and oak)Purse Cutting Board I (right), Purse Cutting Board II (left)Purse Cutting Board II (Bird's Eye maple, Purple Heart and Rosewood)

Center for Craft Creativity and Design

 Lia Cook has been doing work since 1980 around the United States. She mostly works from Berkely, California. Her Bridge 11 exhibit at the Center for Craft Creativity and Design "explores the sensuality of the woven image and the emotion connections to memories of touch and cloth." This exhibit evokes emotion in the viewer because when you look at the images close up they look like weavings, but from far away they make a beautiful face. This exhibit was very interesting.

Lia CookClose up

The Oriole Mill

The thing that sets The Oriole Mill apart from every other mill in the United States is that it is lit naturallly. Its large windows give great light even on a cloudy day. This mill produces beautiful custom blankets, pillow covers, ect. that will last a lifetime. The jacquard loom simplifies the process of making complex patterns. It is ultimately controlled by a computer which signal individual punch cards which control one individual row in the design. 

River Arts District

Judi Harwood is a Raku Artist and Sculptor. Judi has been making pots for years, selling in galleries and shows. She is an experienced ceramics instructor, teaching in private schools, private lessons and retirement communities. her encouragement and gentleness coupled with her eagerness to learn new techniques makes her a wonderful teacher. Judi is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.

Ceramic Raku horse

beautiful use of color

Onward to Asheville

FOLK ART CENTER

The Folk Art Center was started by missionaries. The Southern Highland Craft Guild was chartered in 1930 and represents close to 100 craftspeople today. The guild was started by Frances Goodrich, when she found a few women still weaving traditional coverlets in woool and cotton. This associated with her idea of a cottage industry that would help mountain families. 

I selected a piece of work done by Lori Anderson in Bryson City, NC. She did a sculpture using cornshuck, dye, driftwood, paint and whitewash. The piece is called Black and White #2 and is selling for $650.

HANDMADE IN AMERICA

Handmade in America was a gallery that was to show the community the work done by interior designers and to also sell some of their work. The gallery shows how interior designers can successfully use craft by using them in kitchen ware or just a decoration.

Autumn Tree Pot This is the Autumn Tree Pot by Maud and Austin Boleman. It's made out of high fire stoneware, ash glaze, and oxides. It's selling for $375.

ORIOLE MILL

At the Oriole Mill they make baby blankets, bending, coverlets, etc. usingfive Jacquard looms and two high-speed Dobby looms. " In-house warping, winding, finishing and sewing facilities support the weaving process to produce high-end, luxury fabrics and home goods."  It was an old warehouse that had been turned into a mill, which no one had every really done before. They use a lot of natural light which also don't go by old mill standards. It was very interesting watching how technology has spead up this process of making textiles and making them at the speed of light. We got to watch a slowed down version of the loom and it was quite amazing all the work that happens in a split second.  http://www.theoriolemill.com/pages/about-us 

making the spool for the loom

loom for making blanketsclose up of the different colored thread

Asheville:

The Folk Art Center of Asheville, NC was all started by Frances Goodrich.  She had an idea of a cottage industry that would help mountain families to prosper.  She founded Allanstand Cottage Industries in 1897 in Madison County, which then lead to Allanstand craft shop.  In 1908, Goodrich moved her business to the downtown area of Asheville.  In 1928, the Guild met up and they collaborated with the outcome of the Southern Highland Craft Guild.  

John D. Richards was an artist that stood out to me at the Folk Art Center.  He had on display a rooster lamp that was made with a twisted wire frame, eight to ten layers of tissue paper, all glued together with  what looked to be water colors with ink lines.  John D. Richards was born in 1936, in Fond Du Lac, WI.  He came from an artistic background with his father being a writer, and his mother being an artist.  He earned a BA in English from Union College in Schenectady NY.  He also taught Spanish, Art, and English for about four years.   He then moved to NYC to attend courses at Pratt Institute to begin his art career.  Today he lives in Burnsville, NC with his wife.  

this is another piece of his works found online, similar to the rooster in the craft centerIt seems as though he has been inspired by his mixture of country and city life experiences through his works.  The animals he creates (representing the nature of the country life) is mixed with graffiti-like exterior (possibly inspired by the city).  The fact that he works through fiber art seems to incorporate his Literature background by using similar materials from which books are made.  

In interior design, craft plays a vital role in finishing a room as well as pleasing the client.  Clients ask for original works to be incorporated very often, and by knowing the world of craft, a designer will know how to please their clients.  My focus throughout this class has been on metal.  The metal wiring for the artwork above is what drew me to it.  The delacate manner of the wiring with tissue paper combination creates a beautiful light source, and can be used in many different spaces when designing.  The simplicity of fiber art is beautiful to me and thus I was drawn to Richard's work. 

The Oriole Mill:

The Oriole Mill creates beautiful, environmentally friendly fabrics that are woven on looms that use specialty software.  It is a wonderful, state-of-the-art mill in which natural fibers such as wool and manmade fibers like nylon are used to create fabrics of all kinds for many purposes such as bedding, rugs, and much more.  It was started by Bethanne Knudson and Stephan Michelson to help improve working looms for students from  The Jacquard Center.  

Glass Blowing in Asheville:

My group and I went to a glass blowing shop in downtown Ashville where we discover some amazing works by Robert Gardner.  This glass blowing shop gives workshops to those who want to learn the art of glass blowing.  We found some great pieces-

Museum of Appalachia

The Museum of Appalachia was a neat place, because it was different from the other museums we went to.  It was a much homier place.  My favorite part of the museum was the cafeteria, which has food that is so great that people come there just to eat.  Of course, the museum itself was impressive as well.  The sheer number of items in the museum was amazing.  In fact, they have so many that they've lost count.  Another unique aspect of the museum was the animals.  It was like going to a zoo, a museum & a restaurant all in one trip.  

"The graphophone was the trade name for this 1st cylinder record player patented in 1886. It was acquired from Rebecca & R. B. Ward of Knoxville."

I am not in the metal or glass groups, but I found these glasses very interesting.  They come in so many different forms as people were still experimenting with the best shapes, sizes & materials to use.  They tried out various colored lenses, shapes for the bridge, metals for the rims, etc.  I think it's amazing to look at how they experimented to make the glasses efficient as well as functional.  

 This wagon was outside walking up to the first building we entered.  It was just something sitting outside, so I wasn't able to get any information on it.  I just liked the vibrant colors, and I was actually surprised to see them.  Old items aren't always dark & dreary.