Welcome Peggy Petrey

My friend Deb who used to have a gallery in Denver wore this fabulous bracelet the last time I saw her. It was made by Peggy Petrey, so I had to track her down.

Peggy is a mixed media artist creating abstract wear from recycled liscense plates. Each piece is unique, no two pieces are alike. The finish on these pieces feels like silk!

Peggy was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Boca Raton, Florida. She began creating as a child using treasures she found when rummaging through a trash pile to create a work of art with.

These days she creatse jewelry and mixed media art from the yummy “life-stash” of treasures she's collected since those early years of childhood. Her intention is to use them all before she exits the earth!

Peggy studied at the Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, worked as an Art Director for the University of Texas School of Business and ran her own design studio.

Learning some intimate details about our artists is a way for us to fall more and more in love with them and appreciate who and why they bring beauty to our world.

Now available at Carolina Creations!

Open House and Christmas Kickoff

We are always excited when we get the gallery all decked out for Christmas. 

We will be having a drawing for this glass vase, register on the 27th or 28th. The drawing will be at 6 pm on the 28th. You need not be present to win.  

In addition we will be giving a gift with every purchase of $25 (one per person)

So stop in for a cup of spiced cider and some Dunkin Donut munchkins!

Friday 10-8 pm.

Saturday 10-6.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Doing what we can to help

Each year we try to do some kind of fund raising project.

This year we did our Annual Valentine Card Show and Sale and raised over $1500 for the School Teachers Art Fund.

We donate to many causes and do what we can to help.

This month we are doing something a little different - SoleMate Socks, woven in North Carolina are partnering with us. They will donate a pair of their seconds to our RCS for ever pair we sell.  As of the 22nd we have sold 59 pairs, we still have a few days to go so we hope you'll stop in and get some great mismatched socks!

You can also purchase a few colors from our website by clicking here.

Blown Glass Pumpkins

We were one of Paul Lockwoods first customers and we continue to be thrilled with every piece we receive from him.

My very favorite we have ever gotten are these gold pumpkins.

Stunning!

Of course we love all of them.

Let us tell you about Paul.....

Glass has always been mysteriously captivating for Paul. His physics professor made several attempts to speak with the art department about getting him to spend more time in the science lab. It's no wonder that his senior thesis physics project won the all student art show. Glass has given Paul an outlet to speak artistically while allowing him to challenge himself with the ancient techniques of glass blowing.

Sand, soda and a twist of lime. It's not a martini, but at 2000 degrees Fahrenheit you have glass. Gathering glass from a furnace filled with molten glass is a lot like gathering honey out of a pot. Each time Paul gathers a new layer,he has the opportunity to add colors, textures and reshape the design of the final form. Once he is happy with his creation, it goes into an annealing oven to gradually bring the glass to room temperature, ready to find a home.

Paul first learned the art of glass blowing at Hastings College in Nebraska. His instructors, John Elias, Tom Kreager, Lino Tagliapietra, Elio Quarisa, and Dino Rosin have inspired and encouraged Paul through out his career as a glass blower. He has traveled to many studios throughout the nation and continues to take courses at "The Studio" in Corning, New York.  

Stop in and see all his pieces!

Handcrafted Ornaments Make a Nice Inexpensive Gift

Every year we search high and low for hand crafted ornaments! Here is a sampling of this years collection....

Tear Drop - blown glass

Raku Ornaments

Stained glass 

Felted garland

Glow in the dark icicles

felted ornaments

New Bern Ornament

And another 

Stoneware ornaments from the Outer Banks

Reindeer

and there is more!

We hope you'll stop in to see them all, and don't forget out Christmas Open House

Friday, November 27 10-8

and 

Saturday, November 28 10-6

Refreshments

A free ornament with $25 purchase (one per customer)

enter drawing for a glass vase!

On the Road Last Day

After we picked up work from all our folks we made a few stops and took a detour or two, just to check out some spots for future reference.

We have friends that have been on every State Highway east of the Mississippi and many west, they mark them off in an atlas, they also visit county courthouse which they keep track of as well. We have decided that when we retire we'll visit all the hot springs and keep track of those!

There is nothing more relaxing than sitting in a hot body of water outside. When we lived in Colorado we regularly soaked in the Glenwood Hot Springs pools.  The best was on a very cold day with snow falling around us.

Michael often talks about how wonderful it must have been if you took the train from New York in the 1800s (can't have been that comfortable), to get off the train and soak in the hot springs.

When we went to the North West, wanting to visit the four corners of the US, having been to the other 3, we were headed through Olympic National Park on our way to the forth corner when we spotted Sol Duc Hot Springs Campground and RV  Park so opted to go there and soak instead of visiting the corner of the country! It wasn't so great but still felt good to soak.

One day we'll make of list of all the ones we've been to. But to be relevant to this post, on our way home we saw the sign for Hot Springs, NC, so we turned left instead of right.

What a cute little town! We were able to see the springs, instead of having a public pool they have private hot tubs, outdoors with walls around 3 sides for privacy. The tubs are fed with their spring water which comes out of the ground at 102 degrees.

We didn't have time for a soak but will go back! We understand in the summer the place and whole area is packed. There is a lot of tubing on the river there too.

Then we drove to Bakersvile, were surprised that one of the little shops we always stopped at was empty, we've been going there for 20 years, maybe they retired?

Then off to see friends who used to have a gallery like ours in NY, and have since retired to NC. They converted an old Grey Hound Bus into an amazing RV, with paneling, tables, cupboard doors and more decorated with art by Sticks!

It was just beautiful. They are living on the side of a mountain way, away from civilization. After operating their gallery for 30 years they were ready to rest. They build a garage for the rv with a bathroom, small kitchen, bedroom, and living room, thinking it would be the guest house once they built their new home. They liked it so much that they scratched building the house and live in the garage (which looks like no garage we've ever seen!)  and use the rv for the guest house.

Of course their home is full of beautiful, hand crafted items, just the kind of things we like.

After that we visited Grandfather Mountain, saw lots of waterfalls including one by Newland. We had never been to that town before and discovered it is the highest County Seat east of the Mississippi at 3600 feet elevation. That is less than half of the elevation of Aspen, the county seat we lived in in Colorado. Its elevation is 8000 and our house was at about 9000 feet.

The neat thing about this falls at Newland is that it is right by the road with a small parking lot and picnic tables so you don't have to hike to it. 

As we were driving through the mountains we saw LOTS of waterfalls we had never seen before because of all the rain we've had.

We were sorry to see this business trip come to an end, we met new artists, visited artists that have become friends through the years, found some great pieces to add to our collection at Carolina Creations and just plain had a good time.

Looking forward to the next trip!!

On the Road November 2015 post two

Day two we got to visit the studio of one of our newest potters Cathey Bolton.

Her bright glazes and contemporary shapes have been a nice addition to our collection at Carolina Creations.

Then we were off to a show to meet some new potters. When we got there it was like old home week with lots of artists we knew!

Including our friends from Holman Pottery . Their bacon cookers are huge sellers.

We met a few new potters too so look forward to work from them in the spring.

We picked up pots from an old friend Sarah Rolland, we've carried her work off and on for years, it's been quite a while since we've had any so we are excited to get her work again.

And last but not least we finished the day with a visit with Hank Goodman and Vicki. Good friends, good times!

The thing we love about Carolina Creations, that sets it apart from most other retail establishments, is the fact that we know most of the people that make what we sell, we know how they make things and we see how, our selling their work, helps them to live their dream of making a living with their hands.

On the Road November 2015 post one

Last week we picked up pottery and art and had a little fun along the way.

We hadn't visited the Reynolda House Museum of American Art before in Winston-Salem so stopped on our way by to check it out.

They were having an exhibition of American Impressionism Art, many of the paintings were of gardens, which I love.

My favorite painting in the exhibit was this one. As usual the photo does not do it justice.

The show will encourage me to add more color to my work!

The house was interesting too. Our favorite room was the RJ Reynolds study, dark wood paneling, but that part of the house is only one room wide and with the big windows it was very light.

We continued on to Black Mountain. Our goal was Waynesville but it turns out that the campgrounds out there close November 1. As it turned out I was beat from driving and was glad to stop sooner and was in bed early! Love our rv, small enough to drive like a car but with all the comforts of home.

And room to haul pottery and other artwork to boot.