Friday, April 26, 2013

Spring in New Bern 2013

I never tire of spring in New Bern. The year we moved here we arrived the end of May, missing the dogwood and azaleas, the following year we were left speechless from all the color!

Haven't seen this boy sculpture before - this is one of
my very favorite spots in town




Sweet

I usually take photos of the other side of this house, this morning
the rabbit caught my eye




a wonderful lady lived in this house to the left when
we arrived in New Bern, Eleanor Carr, she was also an artist.
,

One of these days I'm going to pass by when these gates are open!

- Jan Francoeur

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tree of Life Bench and Chairs


These chairs and benchs are hand-crafted of 1/4" steel. They are fabricated, shot blasted, flame sprayed with zinc, and painted with a high quality two part epoxy base paint. This weather proof finishing technique results in a highly resistant coating that prevents oxidation. We has a special bench made for a small park in New Bern 10 years ago and it looks exactly the same today as it did the day we put it there. These pieces just arrived yesterday and have already gotten rave reviews and LOTS of attention!

Hand crafted in North Carolina. For sizes, prices, and purchasing information click here for bench and here for chairs!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

I never mind getting caught on the bridge



On my way home from giving a talk at the Country Club. I spoke about how we came to be in New Bern, how Carolina Creations started and how we have grown through the  years and our work has evolved.

Again, I never mind getting caught on the bridge! Where I am sitting is just one block from my house.

Our town is so beautiful and I must have 10,000 photos of it.

Jan Francoeur

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Busy Weeks



Friday I painted in the garden at 520 Craven Street during the Home and Garden Tour - didn't get started until late due to the rain in the morning. I got quite a lot done on the painting. Not bad since I didn't start it until 1, left at 4 and talked to folks in-between.

Here is the start of it.

Then Friday evening we had an open house at Carolina Creations from 4-7 for our Carolina Creations friends and Home Tour Ticket holders - it was fun and we had a nice crowd!

I have prints of the painting I did for the home tour poster and tiles of all the homes on the tour. Here are photos of a few of them. Just got them finished on Thursday before the tour!



I'm going to have an evening openhouse at Pinecone Perennials Art in the Garden in May, date to be determined but I think it will be the third week. So I'm busy starting on work for that. I'll do both tiles and paintings.

These paintings are all in some state of beginning but none are finished. 

Why start so many things at once?  

The beginning and the ideas come when I'm not consumed with lots of other distrations like commissions with deadlines, bookkeeping demands, ads to produce, newsletters to write, issues at CC to deal with, etc. So they often come in clumps and I take advantage. Get the idea laid down and started then it's easier to pick up and work on it later. These are both scenes from Pinecone Per.

I've been invited to be in a show about food at Tryon Palace through the Arts Council. A Visual Feast" -- presented in conjunction with Tryon Palace in the Duffy Exhibit Gallery of the History Center. The exhibit opens May 10 during the Downtown New Bern ArtWalk and continues through June. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the opening because we'll have our own Garden Show opening at Carolina Creations. More info to follow on that in another post.

So it's a busy and creative time for me! I love it.





Monday, April 08, 2013

Always something new

Out of the blue we got an email from Linda Hobdy asking if we'd be interested in carrying her work.

YES was our answer. It arrived early this week and has been a hit with our customers.

It's going fast so we're not putting it on our website so you'll have to stop in to see it.








Hope to see you soon!

Jan Francoeur

Saturday, April 06, 2013

From Mary Anne

Calligrapher and poet Mary Anne Radmacher did this for us a few years ago. Beautiful.

Thursday, April 04, 2013

New fish from Yardbirds

We've represented Yardbirds at Carolina Creations for many years. Last year they introduced porcelain knobs into their metal animals.


This year they started doing fish for the first time using engine parts and we think they are wonderful!
Barracuda




Barracuda Closeup

Angler 


Details are on our website, click here!

Monday, April 01, 2013

Very clever wall hangings made in NC. Each hand crafted piece is made from gourds, guitar strings, recycled bottle caps and copper flashing.
For a close up click here!

The mermaid is Justines and she is just hanging out with the new guys.