Monday, July 28, 2014

New lazy susans and how they are done

We have received some great new lazy Susans!

Each design is drawn directly on the wood with a number two pencil. 
The words written have homespun charm, like Dream Big, Go out and have adventures, Take time to smell the flowers, Follow your heart, Kiss the cook, Sing and dance, Cherish family, Read, Play games…

After drawing on the wood, the piece is wood burned.
Next, the piece is sanded and stained.

An under stain, before color, reacts to the paint creating specific tones.

Then it’s hand painted on top. After it's dry eight coats of water-based urethane are applied in a spray booth. The piece is then sanded to a satiny finish. The pieces are made from Baltic Birch, Poplar and found logs.

We can also help you design a custom piece, just for you!

Give us a call at 252-633-4369.

Visit their page on our website by clicking here.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Some of my favorite quotes

If you hit the mark every time maybe you're standing too close.

Never complain never explain.

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand….and melting like a snowflake….Francis Bacon
Born 1/22/1561

The trouble is, you think you have time.

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Thursday, July 24, 2014

New Bells

http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/TT-Holly-Lane-Bell.phphttp://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/TT-Lake-Bay-Bell.phpFor the past thirty-five years Tom Torrens has produced quality designed functional works of art from recycled and industrial materials, which are pleasing to the senses.
     Mr. Torrens received his master's degree in sculpture from Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri. In 1986 he and his wife founded Tom Torrens Sculpture Design, Inc.® to create functional art accessories for the home and garden. Today the designs of Tom Torrens can be found all over the world. "I want my sculpture to address as many of the viewer's senses and emotions as possible. The design elements in my work are reduced to their simplest, most direct and refined form. Only in this way can the beauty, sound and visual integrity of the design be fully experienced."
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/TT-Artondale-Bell.php     Mr. Torrens work developed from his desire to use recycled material and found objects and wanting to add various elements of sound and touch to the viewer's senses. The wistful expressive tones of his bells and gongs play homage to some distant land.
     Mr. Torrens' patrons use his works to enhance their homes and gardens to provide a peaceful, artistic, as well as a functional element to their immediate surroundings. Mr. Torren's bells and gongs are found in American homes used as entry gongs or doorbells to announce the arrival of guests. 
        Bells have always been part of American History as well as World History to signal important events and arrival of guests. Bells are also used in important religious ceremonies. The Torrens bells can be found in many churches and temples throughout The United States. The primary materials are formed steel and hand spun copper.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/TT-Weston-Bell.php
   




Sunday, July 20, 2014

North Carolina Pottery at Carolina Creations Part 1

The first potters in North Carolina were Native Americans, who used the coil-building method to make pottery. Examples have been found from the early 16th century.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Anthony-Stoneware-For-the-home-and-garden.php
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/PotLee.php
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Elizabeth-Priddy.php
     As European settlers arrived they found that the clay in the Piedmont was perfect for making pots, using their skills they brought from their native countries. Most were farmers who made pots on rainy days.

     By 1766 the Moravians had developed their own style of pots and decorating them. Through the years the different potters learned from each other, each developing his own style.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/fay-krapf.php
     Around 1830 North Carolina potters began to transition from earthenware to stoneware. In some areas, potters began to use salt-based glazes instead of ash-based. The new style was fired at higher temperatures and was safer to eat from because there was no lead in the glaze. The pottery was less porous and more durable.
     In the 1920s, the arts and crafts movement revived interest in all things rural, handmade, and homemade.

http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/jennifer-stas.php
    North Carolina's Jugtown Pottery played a considerable role in this revival, specifically to strengthen pottery as an industry and an art. They saw potential in it that few others at the time did.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/vicki-sutton.php
     Finding the old men unaccustomed to direction, they began working with the younger generation of potters and making aesthetic suggestions, often based on Asian pottery shapes and styles and they worked with them on new glazes, some colorful and some subdued like the customary grays and browns.

 
 http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Vicki-Grant.php
   They encouraged the local potters to incorporate ancient Chinese and other Eastern pottery forms, as well as colorful new glazes. Until then, most potters used the same brown or tan colors and the simplest possible functional forms. The new pottery was useful but strove to incorporate a sense of beauty and artfulness. Most North Carolina pottery made since has balanced the elements of beauty and utility.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Shayne-Greco-Ceramics.php
     Together with their new young partners, Jugtown Pottery brought North Carolina pottery to national attention, opening a shop in New York City and in the Piedmont.
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Ray-Pottery.php
     Today North Carolina Pottery is a mix of old-school traditional potters who learned from their fathers’ fathers, and some are trained artists, whose medium happens to be clay.

http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Prayer-Towers.php
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Marie-DuBois-Pottery.php
    Some families have lived in NC since the original groups arrived, and many potters have moved to NC to be part of a thriving, clay-based community.

    
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/sculpjustine.php
Pottery of all types has a niche in North Carolina.
    
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/John-Nickerson-and-Bob-Brotherton.php
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Jim-and-Shirl-Parmentier.php
We have lived in different parts of the country and have never found a state more interested in supporting crafts, pottery as well as all other craft forms, like glass, weaving, wood working, jewelry making and so on. John C. Campbell Fold Art School and Penland School of Crafts have trained artists from our state and from all over the country. Most of the artists we carry are from North Carolina, if they aren't from here they have a connection, like having attended or taught at one of these schools.

http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Cody-Jeffcoat.php
      Throughout this post are examples of the North Carolina potters we represent!

http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Hank.php

North Carolina's rich pottery tradition continues to grow and thrive.

See our next post for more photos of our North Carolina Pottery.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Art books for sale to raise funds

Thinning my collection of art books, how to - pottery, extruder, calligraphy, drawing books. They are at Carolina Creations for $5, 6 or $7, there are about 30 there now with some more to come. All funds raised will be donated to our friend and fellow artist Steven Cooper whose house and studio burned to the ground in April. Then shortly afterwards his wife Karen died after a car accident. We will be doing some other fund raisers for him this fall.

New York Metalsmith's Home & Studio Destroyed by Fire

On the night of April 12, 2014, Steven and Karen Cooper awoke to a fire that consumed their home and studio in minutes. They miraculously escaped with their lives, thankfully, but have lost 30 years of personal memories, art works collected over a lifetime and all the tools and equipment in Steve's jewelry studio. After such a monumental loss and a car accident, Karen's health declined and on May 25, she lost her long battle with lung disease. The sadness we feel is huge and creates an unimaginable emptiness for Steve.  How does he begin the difficult process of rebuilding a life amid so much loss? How do you keep going? Where will the strength come from? Hopefully, from us.

As friends and colleagues of the Coopers, we are asking the community -- neighbors, artists, retailers, collectors -- to help any way they can. A wish list of personal and professional items is available on Google Docs. Metalsmithing tools, large and small, are especially needed to get Steven back to work. Everyone in our art community knows how hard it is to grow a business and a life in the arts. Please help us get one of our own back on his feet.

About Steven Cooper Metalsmith
At what point do you discover what you want to do for the rest of your life? For Steven Cooper it was an industrial arts metal class in Junior High School. Who knew that rigid cold metal could be so yielding and beautiful. This discovery continued throughout High School with all of the art classes he could take, which made him realize that what he wanted to be was a metal craftsman.


Here is another place you can donate cash.
http://www.gofundme.com/rebuildthebarn


Sunday, July 13, 2014

Painting up a storm pottery that is

I've been painting lots of pottery!!










Friday, July 11, 2014

ArtWalk Tonight July 11 5 to 8 pm

Here are two new paintings Dan has done this week!
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Dan-Nelson-Oil-Paintings.php
Stop in and meet Dan! Tonight from 5-8 pm
http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/NewFiles/Dan-Nelson-Oil-Paintings.php

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

A Sense of Place Dan Nelson and Mike Rooney

A Sense of Place - New work by Dan Nelson and Mike Rooney

Carolina Creations Fine Art and Hand crafted Gift Gallery at 317 Pollock Street in Downtown New Bern announces their new show “A Sense of Place” with new work by Dan Nelson and Mike Rooney. The show opens during ArtWalk on July 11 from 5-8 pm, stop in and meet both of the artists that evening.

Mike Rooney loves to paint! It shows in his colorful blurs of color and shape that become recognizable beach scenes, marshes, and harbors full of boats. Whether its a scene from Maine or points south to Key West, he says he wants the finished paintings to be like the first moments after one wakes up from a wonderful dream. Only the best of everything is displayed, not the mindless details or 'noise' as he calls it.



Rooney is a nationally known oil landscape painter and workshop instructor, with works in collections here in the U.S. and abroad.

Pieces for this show are from his travels up and down the eastern seaboard, as he chronicles, in paint, the itinerant artist lifestyle he leads. You'll be transformed into a world of water, waterfront cottages, reflections, grassy marshes, harbors, tidal creeks, and all that is Carolina coastal life.

Dan Nelson was born in Canada, raised in Michigan and lived in several other states before settling in North Carolina. He received a BFA from Calvin College then spent the next fifteen years as a commercial illustrator doing over 4000 illustrations in a wide range of mediums. Dan loves to paint the town and when Dan Nelson paints the town . . . he actually paints the town. Be on the look-out for Dan and his larger-than-life easel on the streets of New Bern in the weeks before the July 11th opening of the show, as Dan will be painting various views of our fair city.

"I paint better when I work from life.  I enjoy feeling the energy of a place-- the energy that you just can't get from photographs.  I also enjoy meeting and chatting with the people who live in the places I paint. 

The show, “A Sense of Place” will continue through August 31st at Carolina Creations.





Sunday, July 06, 2014

New poles


 New painted peace poles are on their way! 20" tall, they come with a stake to anchor them. A great gift at $48.

Survivor Pole -
Stephanie was inspired by her own experience as a breast cancer survivor to create this pole as a symbol of hope, strength, and courage for all those who have been affected by cancer.

And a memorial pole for a cat or dog.