Sunday, February 20, 2011

Q Evon Jewelry

North Carolina jeweler Susanne Q Evon - or Q as she is known - was a top model in NYC and traveled the world for photo shoots. When she retired from that business at age 40 she began to pursue her passion for creating jewelry.

Q’s interest in jewelry began at a young age. “I was the kid who went to garage sales and bought beads to cut up,” she says.

The oddest thing is she spent 2 years at Siena Heights College in Adrian, Michigan - the same tiny college I went to - she was in the business department and I was in the art department - at the same time - what's that they say about six degrees of separation?!!

She transfered to UNC and one day someone asked if she had ever modeled, the next thing she knew she was. During her modeling years, she lived near the Parsons School of Design, where she took classes in jewelry design.

After retiring from modeling, she moved back to North Carolina, where she found a mentor in master metalsmith Bill Churlik of Earthspeak Arts.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Wonderful whimsy from our Justine

Justine flying mermaid

Justine Mermaid

Justine Nativity
Justine Crab


Gold skirted dangle lady by Justine

Turquoise dangle lady by Justine

Blonde flying lady by Justine
We always love it when Justine shows up with new work!
See more by clicking here!

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Glass demonstration by Kay Coburn Rice

We are having a lampworking demonstration during the March ArtWalk in Downtown New Bern March 11 from 5-8 pm.

Glass artist Kay Coburn Rice of New Bern will be working with her torch demonstrating how she makes her glass sculptures and beads.

A New Bern native Kay has recently returned to her hometown after spending many years in Texas.

Kay has been working with glass for 11 years and torch worked glass for 7 years. She started out doing fused glass jewelry in a kiln while living in Texas. She studied metal work for three years then found her true calling when she started working with a torch. She took classes with Kip Maley at  the Craft Guild of Dallas and developed her still at making glass beads.

Most recently through her study with Josh Mazet over the past 3 years she has developed her skill with torch worked sculptural Borosilicate glass. She has also studied with Corina Tettinger, Deb Crowley, Gail Crosman Moore and other accomplished glass artists.

Kay enjoys recreating things found in nature, especially flowers and fish and making jewelry with her fused glass and her lamp worked beads.

Lamp working is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking.

Lamp working has been done since ancient times but it came into prominence in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. Lamp working differs from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a blowpipe to inflate a glass blob known as a gob or gather, inflating it by blowing air into the blowpipe, whereas lampworking manipulates glass either by the use of tools, gravity, or by blowing directly into the end of a glass tube.

Meet the artist during ArtWalk and enjoy some refreshments, for more information call the gallery at 252-633-4369, or email us by clicking here!.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Carolina Creations Bags Travel the World

For years our customer have been toting our bags all over the world - here are a few of the latest photos we've been sent!


Daisy says "I'm anxious to get back to Carolina Creations to fill up my bag again!"



Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse both LOVE shopping at Carolina Creations!
Turn left for Cuba, Right for Carolina Creations!


Wednesday, February 02, 2011

New glass artist Wes Hunting

When talking about his work Wes says that he did not have an early interest in glass in particular but always had an interest in creativity.

Wes started his creative journey at Ken State University where he majored in painting. He had a part time job at Hale Farm, and early American historical village just outside of Kent, Ohio.

Hale Farm has a small glass shop along with other craft areas for visitors to walk around and ponder. One afternoon, the head gaffer at the glass shop walked off the job after getting into a tiff with the grounds manager. The manager looked at Wes and said, “Hunting, get over to the glass studio and give the guy a hand.” The next thing  Wes knew, he was gathering hot, molten glass out of a replica of a historic furnace.

The next semester he signed up for classes in glass blowing at KSU. In the late 70's there weren't many universities that offered glass as an art medium, Henry Halem ran the program at that time.

Henry was good friends with most of the well-known glass artists, and he brought in many of them for workshops. Between 1977 and 1979,  Wes attended workshops and worked with the likes of Fritz Dreisbach, Dick Marquis, Steve Weinberg, Bert van Loo, Marvin Lipofsky, Dale Chihuly (with William Morris as gaffer), Joel Myers, and the late Bud Hurlstone. KSU was a place of great creative energy that produced many talented artists in their own right.

Wes attended Penland School of Crafts right here in North Carolina where he was an assistant to North Carolina glass blower Richard Ritter.  In addition Wes was inspired by his travels in Italy to Venice and Murano.



He has had his own hot shop since 1982. To see sizes and prices click here.


We LOVE glass!


Jan Francoeur
Carolina Creations