Arts Craft Arts

SHCG Hosts Daily Demonstrations at Folk Art Center

Kim Adams making glass beads

Through December, the Southern Highland Craft Guild will host craft demonstrations at the Folk Art Center from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Each day will feature two artists who work in different media and visitors will have an opportunity to learn about their craft, see it in action and purchase items from the artist.

David Crandall and his wife Nancy will demonstrate their dovetailing work twice, once in August and once in September. “Although our primary demonstration is actually cutting and fitting a dovetail joint, we spend much more time talking about the different woods of the world, which is Nancy’s specialty; the history of joinery, especially dovetailing; the development of tools over time; and how various processes influenced the development of joinery,” says David.

Fiber artist Sandra Rowland hopes to be demonstrating outside on a hot day, so she can use light-responsive paints on white cotton fabric to produce images of leaves. “There’s a ton of science in the work, although I use an artistic approach,” she says. “The results are outstanding and using a variety of leaves fits in with the beauty of the Blue Ridge.”

Ronnie McMahan, a woodcarver, will do a step-by-step demonstration of a woodcarved wild turkey tail feather. “I show traditional woodcarving tools, power tools and a woodturning pen, and I discuss and sometimes demonstrate the process I use to paint my carvings with acrylic artist colors,” he says. “It is important that people see that Guild artists make their crafts by hand. A lot of time, creativity and skill goes into my woodcarving, as well as the work of the other Guild artisans.”

The Folk Art Center is located at 382 Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. For more information visit SouthernHighlandCraftGuild.org.

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