2021 Spruce Pine Potters Market Returns This October

The Spruce Pine Potters Market will return to Spruce Pine’s historic Cross Street Commerce Center in downtown Spruce Pine, NC on Saturday and Sunday October 9th & 10th, 2021 from 10am–5pm.

Noted for its small scale and intimate layout, this event offers visitors an opportunity to view a variety of pottery work as well as the chance to meet and converse with each maker. “Its a very friendly show, lots of lovely work and a chance to shop a wide variety of pottery,” noted one past-years visitor.

The Spruce Pine Potters Market was designed and built by a group of Mitchell County, NC potters as a collaborative venture. Currently the members of the Spruce Pine Potters Market work together on all phases of the show, from mamagement, promotion, display set-up and all of the many particulars of a very successful annual event. “The Market is unique because of the extraordinary quality of the work produced by its members”, says Spruce Pone Potters Market member Jenny Lou Sherburne. “Individually, the participating artists are some of the finest craftsmen in the country. Collectively, they bring their high standards, imagination and camaraderie together to produce a really outstanding show.”

This year’s participating Potters Market members includes: Stanley Mace Andersen, Terry Gess, Ken & Galen Sedberry , Michael & Ruth Rutkowsky, Cynthia Bringle, Pam Brewer, Gertrude Graham Smith, Nicholas & Lisa Joerling, Susan Feagin, Shaunna Lyons, Liz Zlot Summerfield, Teresa Pietsch, Linda McFarling, Shane Mickey, Melisa Cadell, David Ross, Michael Hunt & Naomi Dalglish, Courtney Martin, Joy Tanner, Jenny Lou Sherburne.

In addition, this year’s show will include visiting artists Lynne Hobaica & Rickie Barnett, Jason Hartsoe, and Reiko Miyagi.

While admission to the Potters Market is free, all visitors are encouraged to join the potters in supporting a selected local non-profit organization. This year, several participating potters have donated pottery door prizes for this raffle.

For more information:
Website: www.SprucePinePottersMarket.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sprucepinepottersmarket/ Instagram: @sprucepinepottersmarket
Email: info@sprucepinepottersmarket.com
Phone: 828 467-0166

Two Generations: Ken and Galen Sedberry at Toe River Arts

Two Generations

June 19th - July 24th

Toe River Arts Spruce Pine Gallery

Two Generations showcases the unique art created by artists Ken and Galen Sedberry. The work of this father and son duo involves the detailed craft of wood firing. Galen and Ken have shared physical spaces of studio, kiln, booth space, as well as shared aesthetic space where ideas are translated into pots. This father and son team aspires to highlight how these shared spaces deliver work that is both parallel and divergent.

Ken has been working in clay for thirty-one years and has focused on achieving vibrant colors at stoneware temperatures. With the development of chambered climbing kilns came decorative stoneware and porcelain. “Much of my work comes out of this tradition,” says Ken. He uses various resist techniques to contrast glazes in both color and texture. He has been working on a new body of work – animal sculptures, thrown and altered. “The idea of lifting the images off the pots and into three dimensions has been gestating for a long time. Layering slips and glazes that crackle and move and firing them in a wood kiln has led to an exciting new direction.”

Ken earned an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. He has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Catholic University of America in Washington DC, Penland School of Craft and John C. Campbell Folk School. He opened Sedberry Studios in Bakersville, NC in 1982. Ken’s work is collected all over the world and he has participated in hundreds of invitational and juried exhibits including exhibitions at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Contemporary Ceramics Museum in Hokkaido, Japan, the University of Iowa, Blue Spiral in Asheville, the Columbia Museum of Art and Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston.

Galen Sedberry says, “Growing up as the son of a potter and using almost exclusively handmade pots for meals, I am keenly aware of the gravity of holding and using handmade objects. Their weight, balance and texture are individual and unique, becoming over time as comforting as holding the hand of someone you love.” Galen’s training began as a child just through spending time in his father’s studio.

Galen graduated from Mitchell High School and earned a BS degree from Appalachian State University in 2012. He began assisting and working with his father in 2016 and has been there ever since, working as a studio assistant and developing and exploring his own style and techniques. Galen says that he is currently investigating the possibilities between deliberate surface decoration and the limitless variables of wood firing.

Galen has been exhibiting his work since 2018 at the Spruce Pine Potters Market, Green Hill Art Center, Charlie Cummings Gallery, Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery, Winston Salem, Cedar Creek Gallery, Taupe Gallery in Wilkesboro and In Tandem Gallery in Bakersville.

Two Generations will open to the public for viewing at Toe River Arts, 269 Oak Ave, Spruce Pine during normal operating hours, Tuesday – Saturday 10:30 AM – 5 PM. More information can be found at toeriverarts.org.

(image: article from the Mitchell News-Journal)

Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Seconds Sale this weekend

Odyssey ClayWorks Summer Seconds Sale
Saturday and Sunday, June 12th and 13th
11am-5pm
Odyssey ClayWorks
236 Clingman Ave Ext
Asheville, NC 28801

From the email invitation:

SUMMER SECONDS SALE

Join us this weekend for our Summer Seconds Sale here at Odyssey ClayWorks!

Pretty Pots
We will have beautiful seconds for sale outside on the side walk in front of the studio and in the kiln yard on the side. Of course you're more than welcome to come in and check out the amazing firsts in the Gallery!

Refreshments
There will be beer and a lemonade bar! Buy a cup and we'll fill it up!

What is a "second"?
A second is a ceramic piece that has an imperfection. These pretty pots are discounted 25-75%.

www.odysseyclayworks.com

(image from the Facebook event page)

Applications open for the Greening Up The Mountains Festival in Sylva, NC

Greening Up The Mountains Festival

Sylva, North Carolina
Festival date: August 28, 2021
Application deadline: June 30, 2021

Applications are being accepted through June 30th for the Greening Up The Mountains Festival in Sylva, NC. The festival is a celebration of spring through both traditional and contemporary forms of Appalachian art, music, food, and beverage which honor our community and local artisans.

The festival has COVID-19 compliance requirements:

The planning committee will continue to monitor the ongoing status of COVID 19 protocols statewide and locally and will issue further guidelines regarding festival participation in compliance with any COVID 19 restrictions and protocols which may remain in place at that time. However, the GUTM Planning Committee has made the decision that all vendors will be required to wear masks throughout the duration of the festival, including unloading and loading times, regardless of the status of the statewide mask mandate in place at that time and regardless if you have received a vaccine. By submitting your application, you are agreeing to 100% compliance with the mask requirement, as well as any additional guidelines which will be issued to all vendors prior to festival day. NO REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED DUE TO LACK OF WILLINGNESS TO COMPLY WITH COVID 19 PROTOCOLS. Please take the time to consider this issue before applying, as no exceptions will be made to the requirements once they have been determined. This includes the mask requirement, which has already been implemented.

If the festival has to be cancelled due to COVID 19 restrictions which may remain in place at that time, all vendors will receive a full refund of their application fee.

More info and link to application: www.greeningupthemountains.com/vendors.html

Burnsville potter seeks Raku kiln shelf

Here are the details from Martin Stankus:

Looking for a local supplier for a 13” round Raku kiln shelf. Contact Martin at mstinroofpottery@gmail.com

Open Studios, Pottery Sale, & Mountain Music at Township10 near Marshall, NC

 

Open Studios, Pottery Sale, & Mountain Music 

June 12 & June 13

12-5 p.m.

We are hosting our first open house at Township10, a new ceramics residency near Marshall, NC. Come by for ceramic DEMONSTRATIONS and pottery SALE by current Resident Artists Chris Suarez, Yoon Hwang and Kyle Lawson, CHAT with residency director Marjorie Dial, & enjoy LIVE old-time mountain music by local treasures, Don Pedi on dulcimer and Bruce Greene on fiddle. Sale starts at 12. Music from 3-5 pm. There will be Mexican inspired street food for light snacking.

This event is FREE. Please bring a water bottle and chair if you want to sit for the music. Closed toe shoes recommended for the farm. Please tell your friends who are art & mountain music lovers!! We are 40 minutes north of Asheville at 310 Ras Grooms Road Marshall, NC 28753

www.township10.org/post/open-studios-pottery-sale

Mica Gallery Presents Two Featured Artists in June

 

Mica Gallery - the members owned cooperative fine craft gallery in downtown Bakersville, NC presents a special “Featured Artists” exhibit in the month of June with the work of two of its member artists, Sondra Dorn and Gertrude Graham Smith.

For her exhibit, Dorn will share a sampling of work from a series entitled “Imaginary Topography: Daily Paintings”.

 “A few years ago I took time to try out some new materials and ideas,” Dorn states. “I started small, mostly working on a TV tray from the couch. That began my series of ‘Daily Paintings’.  I used materials new to me: water-soluble graphite, color pencils and ink sticks, Micron pens and watercolor paints, which led to some very fun discoveries. I enjoyed the small format as well since I could finish a piece within the same day.”

Dorn later returned to these works and continued by scanning them into her computer. “I focused in on details, removed color and built up a whole new series of black and white compositions and abstractions generated from the original.  Similar but different!”

Mica member Gertrude Graham Smith will exhibit a special collection entitled  “Baskets” - clay vessels with handles over the top.

She notes, “Because my pottery celebrates the soft, tactile, responsive nature of porcelain clay, as it's thrown on the potter’s wheel, I find the form of baskets especially satisfying - a handle directly invites the hand to touch.”

Smith fires her pots to a very high temperature inside a soda kiln, where flames decorate textured surfaces and glazes respond with brilliance to the kiln’s atmospherics. She says, “These baskets remind us to enjoy life's pleasures - especially the senses. A piece of pottery filled with fruit or flowers is a fragrant and colorful delight.”

Mica showcases the craft work of its 15 artist-members including sculpture, glass, jewelry, fiber, wearables, painting, and functional pottery. This extraordinary collection, enhanced by a yearlong rotation of guest artists and the welcoming and beautiful setting, make Mica a must-see destination for those who appreciate the hand made. 

Mica is located at 37 Mitchell Ave, Bakersville. Mica is open daily, Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 12–5 p.m. For more information call 828.688.6422 or visit micagallerync.com. Follow the gallery on Facebook at Mica Gallery NC, or on Instagram at micagallerync.