81st American Crafts & Historic Homes Tour
Master wood carver Adam Willie has been practicing the trade since 1990 and specializes in hard-carved wood signs and customized horse (tack) trunks and stable products. Adam works with each client to ensure a unique and distinctive design and uses only the finest materials to create a one-of-a-kind product that will leave a lasting impression.
Parsonage has specialized in creating handmade, sustainably sourced personal care products since 1997. Our goods are handmade from start to finish using original recipes, and our ingredients and packaging are carefully selected to maintain a minimal ecological footprint. Parsonage produces bar soaps, solid lotions, body sprays, room sprays and candles. These goods are made with all-natural, scientifically supported ingredients designed to bring intention and calm to your daily grooming ritual.
My love of bright colors and whimsical designs and has found a perfect home in the medium of polymer clay and epoxy resin sculptures. The wide variety of techniques fills my need for always wanting to try something new and different in creative arts. Each technique is a wonderfully organized chaos that leads to the final product.
Roger Kirk makes wheel-thrown and handbuilt work, creating minimalist forms with earthy textures.
Kirk’s pots are thrown and trimmed precisely. However, he uses slip or poured glazes when decorating his work to give it a more earthy, handmade feel.
Kirk makes his own glazes and often pours them over his pots to achieve surface variation that would otherwise not be possible in Cone 6 oxidation. He favors neutral and earth-toned colors, reflecting the aesthetic he enjoys in his own home.
Kirk hopes the functionality, earthy design, and handmade feel of his pots helps make people’s homes a happier place to live.
As a specialist in hand forged and woven/braided metal, I use a mixture of traditional silversmith, blacksmith, and goldsmith techniques and equipment to create wearable works of art with meaning, predominately through the use of a modified repousse’ technique I developed in 2002. A second technique, based upon a 15th C. technique is acid etching in sterling silver, copper, bronze, and german silver. Other techniques used include hand forged gold & sterling silver; 14K, 18K gold & sterling silver sand casting, and hand made/hand soldered bracelets & chains in sterling silver & 14K gold. I am a native of North Carolina, trained in historical archaeology, with a subspecialty in metals. I am a trained jeweler and a self taught traditional silversmith.
Most of my tools date from the 18th and 19th C. Many of the tools came from a German Jewish goldsmith who survived the Holocaust and come from the camp where he was imprisoned.
With respect to style, my knowledge base is heavily influenced by historic texts, paintings, etchings, and probate inventories while many of the techniques have been reverse engineered using methods learned as a graduate student in archaeology and museum conservation and restoration. Many of these techniques are based on hours and weeks of trial and error in an attempt to recreate lost techniques. Examples of these techniques include traditional sand casting, shot peening/burnishing, chain link construction, hand forging and folding, chasing, embossing, and metal weaving/braiding. Many of the techniques are similar to traditional blacksmith techniques, albeit slightly different. The result is a unique blend of current and historic metal smithing techniques and design.
From initial design to final polishing, all work is done by hand.
Born the oldest of five into a modest family, I learned early on that to have the material things I fancied I would need to make them myself. I soon became adept at seeing a piece of clothing or an accessory and reproducing it using the materials at hand. This ability to thrift and fabricate came in useful in my early career where I not only wrote and acted but designed sets and costumes for the theatre. Later, on a whim, I took a workshop in metalsmithing, and my love of sterling silver was born.
In learning to manipulate hot metal; bending and diminishing, piercing, adding granulation, fusing, and soldering, I soon realized my uncanny talent at reproduction had found an artistic home. I love to see something that piques my interest and then figure out, first, how it is made and second, how to make it my own using mixed metals and unusual components like glass, leather, and metal clay. Often working in a series or with a particular design element, each of my creations is one of a kind. My customers enjoy choosing from the different looks that spring from the same design family. Together in our studio my husband and I produce sterling silver jewelry with pearl, gemstone, 14K gold, and bronze accents.
I am truly inspired by other jewelers, art deco architecture, and kinetic sculpture.
I weave rugs in a range of designs that evolve to reflect the changing tastes and moods of our society. I adapt simple weave structures to become devices for showcasing color, enlarging the scale and using nature for color inspiration. Because my rugs are often ordered on a custom basis, I also work with my customers’ palettes as well. The interplay of design, color, and woven structure gives each rug its integrity and individuality.
I am moving in a direction of greater sophistication in weave structure. Twills, Swedish Ripsmatta, and multi-harness block designs are finding their way into my repertoire. These offer more depth, texture, and intrigue without becoming too complex visually for a large item that will be integrated into a unique interior space.
Materials include cotton, wool, linen, and strips of cotton and wool fabric recycled from industry wastage when possible.
Wood
Turning found wood on a lathe is an act of discovery and hope. Each creation was originally hidden within a stick of firewood, a wormy log, or repurposed lumber. Is it solid? A little rotted? A lot cracked? Can I stabilize that knot? The will of the wood and the whim of the turner, the lucky guess and the right sharp tool reveal beauty and utility.
Grains and colors are natural. Highly figured woods are ‘spalted’ by the early stages of decay. Knots, cracks and critter holes are filled with epoxy.
Bowls and utensils are finished with clear, food-safe, boiled linseed oil. Bowls should be used for ‘dry’ foods, such as salads or whole fruit, but not for liquids.