81st American Crafts & Historic Homes Tour
We have been crafting timeless, quality woodcraft furniture and accessories for decades. Using local Virginia Hardwoods and a discerning eye for detail, each piece is thoughtfully designed and made in our Southwestern Virginia woodshop.
Maureen Anderson, teacher, goatherd, beekeeper, shepherdess, soapmaker, mother of 8 and grandmother of 13 has had a lifelong interest in farming, homesteading and herbal medicine.
She began this journey of learning when she was a child, taught many of these skills by a grandmother who instilled a love of herbs, family life and wildcrafting.
Maureen hosts workshops and classes at her historic Home Farm on sustainable living, herbal medicine making, wild food foraging and cheese making.
In March of 2020 she created the Toano Open Air Market in response to the community’s need for a safe and reliable place to shop and local farmers’ and artisans’ need for an income during the Covid closings.
Maureen is the creator of The MotherVine radio program and owner of Tasha’s Own Goat’s Milk Soap and The Home Farm.
Hawksbill Pottery is distinguished by a colorful pallet of studio mixed glazes. These stoneware pieces are high fired to 2300 degrees. They are food safe, ovenproof and dishwasher/microwave safe. Some pieces are thrown on a potter’s wheel while others are hand built with slabs and extruded pieces. Embossments are made from stamps that are hand carved from clay, then fired and impressed into wet clay. Our glazing technique is similar to a “batik” process. Wax is painted as a resist between layers of glaze to create colorful designs and patterns. The pieces are painted free hand with a brush giving spontaneous life to each piece. We believe that this direct process infuses the object with human energy.
The ceramic wall reliefs are composed of handmade interlocking clay tiles specifically made to create each image. Expanding on traditional ideas of tile work and mosaics, the work describes a new form which is both painterly and sculptural.
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.
The founder of Kirk Ceramics, Roger Kirk, makes functional and decorative ceramics in his studio in Washington, D.C. He also teaches high school and adult ceramics classes in Montgomery County, MD.
Roger has been making ceramics since 2009, when he took his first ceramics class at UCLA. Many failed and successful pots later, he sells his work at markets and through his website.
Roger’s style is inspired by traditional English and Japanese pottery, but with a contemporary twist. He hopes the handmade feel, functionality, and professional finish of his ceramics will help to make people’s homes happier places to live.
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.