Sunday, January 31, 2016

New Kinetic Art for the Garden

New Kinetic Art for the Garden has just arrived!

Designed by Michigan artist Carol Roeda, made off shore (we don't like that!), but the quality is very nice, heavy metal, and a part of each piece spins in the slightest breeze.

We've been following Carol's work since day one, we started our art careers at the same time in the early 1970s, about 100 miles from each other. Carol started working in clay and gradually added other mediums to work in. For the past few years her preferred medium has been metal.

Her latest are these kinetic sculptures. All but one of those pictured measure 18" across.

Each piece comes with a bracket that you can screw to a fence, a pole or whatever and the sculpture slips into it. If you wish to have it free standing in the garden we also have poles that go into the ground.
 Carol Roeda Kinetic Sculpture
Blue and Aqua Flower on Yellow

Pink Dragonflies on Yellow


 Carol Roeda Kinetic Sculpture
Tree with Fuchsia Dots
 Carol Roeda Kinetic Sculpture
 Purple Dots with Yellow Flower

                                                 


Red Cardinal with Leaves
  Carol Roeda Kinetic Sculpture
Yellow Flower on Blue










Sunday, January 24, 2016

Valentine Cards Clay Glass Flowers Dreaming of Spring!

For the February Art walk in addition to the Valentine Card Sale, the Button Florist will be featured with her bouquets of hand crafted clay flower bouquets and glass wall flowers by Jade Glass.

The button florist creates unique alternatives to traditional flowers, using a mixture of up-cycled and vintage buttons, handmade ceramic buttons, and recycled sweater felt.



While the glass flowers, are created by Scott Johnson. Scott has a passion for glass and the knowledge of casting materials led him to develop extraordinary glass flower bouquets.

These two non-traditional flower artists work will be accompanied by floral paintings by gallery artists through the end of April.

Stop in for a taste of spring! 

Friday, January 22, 2016

This years art for the New Bern Home and Garden Tour

For ??? years I have painted one of the homes that are going to be on the Historical Society's Home and Garden Tour 2016.

Here is this years artwork, 212 New Street.

Our home will be on the tour this year as well.

Spring Historic Homes & Gardens Tour
April 8 and 9, 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

On Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, homeowners will open their doors so the public can visit some of the most beautiful and interesting homes in New Bern’s historic district. The 2016 Spring Historic Homes & Gardens Tour will provide a behind-the-scenes look at homes and gardens that are important to our town’s past and present.  Patrons will tour the living quarters of these homes, learning about the original architecture, renovations, and furnishings. In addition to the homes and gardens, many downtown houses of worship will be open for tours.

Among the gardens open to the public are the gardens at Tryon Palace, which should be in full bloom. Tryon Palace’s Annual Heritage Plant Sale will also be held on the Palace grounds during the tour. That weekend, Spring Homes Tour TICKET holders will have the opportunity to purchase discounted ADMISSION passes to Tryon Palace/NC History Center.

Be sure to grab a homemade boxed lunch to go or enjoy it in a quaint porch setting at the Blades’ Veranda Cafe. Boxed lunches are an $8 donation and include a sandwich or salad plate, drink and a sweet treat for dessert. This year there will even be an option for people with gluten sensitivities.

Tickets are $18 in advance, $22 day of the tour and $15 for NBHS members, and active duty military and their dependents with ID. 

Tickets are good for both tour days, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Call the New Bern Historical Society to volunteer with the Spring Historic Homes & Gardens Tour.

The Spring Historic Homes & Gardens Tour is a collaborative event presented by the New Bern Historical Society and the New Bern Preservation Foundation and is a major fundraising event for these non-profit organizations.

Celebrate spring in New Bern!



Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Art Comes in Many Forms

A while back while traveling through South Carolina we stopped at Pearl Fryar's Topiary Garden.

It surrounds his home and he has done work in several of his neighbors yards, as well as the stop sign at the end of his street AND the median of the highway!

The hours are 10-4, you just pick up a map and walk through his yard.

It was raining the day we were there but still beautiful.

Here are some of the photos I took.






















From his website -

Since the early 1980s, Pearl Fryar has created fantastic topiary at his garden in Bishopville, South Carolina. Living sculptures, Pearl’s topiary are astounding feats of artistry and horticulture. Many of the plants in Pearl’s garden were rescued from the compost pile at local nurseries. With Pearl’s patience and skilled hands, these “throw aways” have thrived and have been transformed into wonderful abstract shapes. 

Pearl Fryar and his garden are now internationally recognized and have been the subject of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, television shows, and even a documentary, A Man Named Pearl. Today, the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden draws visitors from around the globe.

Visitors to the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden experience a place that is alternately beautiful, whimsical, educational, and inspiring. Pearl’s garden contains over 300 individual plants and few are spared from his skilled trimming. His extraordinary topiary is complemented by his “junk art” sculptures placed throughout the garden. Pearl’s garden is a living testament to one man’s firm belief in the results of positive thinking, hard work, and perseverance, and his dedication to spreading a message of “love, peace and goodwill.”
In 2006, the Garden Conservancy and the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, Inc. formed a partnership with Pearl Fryar. Through this partnership, they hope to preserve and maintain the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden and to further Pearl’s message of inspiration and hope.

Here is a link to the documentary.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcYaZCOCMBg


If you are ever close to Bishopsville, SC you should stop!


Saturday, January 16, 2016

Road Trip

I've had wanderlust since I was a child, I'm sure it came from my Dad. He didn't travel the country much but went "Up North" and to Canada at every opportunity. I also inherited his love of maps.

A couple days ago we had to pick up pottery from Shayne Greco and as we drove down 17 South we noticed there was a lot of tree clearing going on, Highway 17 is FINALLY going to become a four lane highway between here and Jacksonville. We never thought it would happen in our lifetime.

Here is a link to a newspaper article about it.



We've carried Shayne's work for several years, ever since a customer told us about it and we tracked him down. 

His work is hand built, and is amazing. It's always fun to visit artists studios and see what they are creating.

It is an all handmade line of stoneware pottery. His pieces are very substantial and decorated with flowing sculptures of land and sea dwelling creatures. Each individual piece is completely hand made from start to finish. The colorway is all neutrals consisting of subtle Iron Browns with crisp Mediterranean White.


The glaze used on all the work is lead-free. Each piece is "Stained" (a process in which some of the glaze is wiped off before the second kiln firing)

Shayne had been at Carolina Creations in December doing a little Christmas shopping.  What did he purchase?, clay sculpture of course! You might find it interesting that artists tend to collect work in the same medium they work in. The reason is that we appreciate the difficulty and the work that goes into a piece. Not only that but the trial and error and countless trials it takes to "get it right". If you came to our house you would find LOTS of pottery by many, many artists.


As long a we were down that way we went to ride the Elwell Ferry, one of three inland ferries in North Carolina.  We had ridden the other two, the San Souci Ferry, and Parkers Ferry, previously.
The inland cable ferries located in North Carolina are operated by regional DOT divisional offices rather than the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division, the state has no plans to replace these ferries with bridges because while they are heavily used, they are all on secondary roads.
Unfortunately the ferry wasn't running due to high water but we did drive down and take a photo of it. If we would have gone a couple days before we wouldn't have been able to get down the road. When I got back to the car after taking my photos I had about 2" of mud stuck to the bottom of my shoes!





Here is a little information about the 3 inland ferries.

Elwell Ferry


In the absence of nearby river crossings, brothers Walter Hayes Russ and John Roland Russ[1] approached Bladen County officials and were granted authority to operate a crossing ferry.[1] Service began in 1905 with Walter Russ and later his son, Lee Roy Russ, operating the ferry.[2] The service was named for a local family.[3]



Initially constructed of wood, the 33-foot ferryboat was poled upstream and rowed back by hand and could carry a wagon and two mules. The county subsidized the ferry's operation for toll-free service six days a week, with a quarter on Sundays and a fifty cent toll for night crossings.[2]
In the 1930s, the North Carolina Department of Transportation incorporated its inland ferries into the state highway system, installing the first cable at Elwell and providing larger boats that could be guided with a pull stick. Walter Russ oversaw the modernization as well as the addition of a gasoline-powered engine on the boat in the late 1930s.

Until 1952, the Ferry was the only river crossing between Wilmington and Elizabethtown.[3]


The ferry travels a distance of 110 yards, shore to shore, with a travel time of five minutes, has a maximum capacity of two cars or four tons by weight, operates without a toll, and operates daily, providing service from 6AM to 6PM, Spring and Summer, and from sunrise to sunset in the Winter and Fall. There is no ferry service on Christmas Day or on days of high water or storm conditions. 

Ferry traffic averages 60 to 80 vehicles daily.



San Souci Ferry
The Sans Souci Ferry has operated in some form or fashion since at least the 1800s. It wasn't until the 1930s that the state Department of Transportation took over operations of the ferry and has operated it ever since. 

The Sans Souci Ferry is a cable ferry located on the Cashie River in Bertie County, North Carolina
The ferry is located on SR 1500 south of Windsor, NC

These ferries differs from most ferries in that they are literally driven, or in other words, guided, by a steel cable that is stretched across the river. The cable is secured on each end of the river by steel posts and as the ferry crosses the river, the force of the boat, with the help of rollers on the side of the boat, pulls the normally submerged cable out of the water. 

The cable is permanently secured to the ferry and allows for the boat to not stray off course in normal river currents. The ferries only carry two cars at its maximum and does not operate in high water conditions or storms for the threat of the cable snapping in treacherous conditions is too great. 


People wanting to ride the ferry that happen to be on the opposite side of the river than the ferry must blow their horn to summon the ferry. 


The ferries are free of charge. The ferry operates almost every day except for days of high water and bad weather. 


Parkers Ferry


The Parkers Ferry is on land that was part of the Meherrin Indian Reservation. The Meherrin now live about 10 miles away in the Winton area.


The ferry consists of a steel barge like platform that cars drive onto. Off to one side of the boat is an "engine room" where the operator sits and controls the boat's engine, which actually sits outside beside the room. The ferry is powered by a diesel engine. The operator must know when to let off the throttle, since the ferry has no brakes or on board steering device. In the early days the ferry was made of wood.


(Much of the Ferry information came from Wikipedia - thank you!)



Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Church Fund raising project

Occasionally I get the chance to do a project to help an organization raise funds. My friend Ardie hired me to do a painting of her church and create prints of it, that they are now selling to raise money for some of their projects.





Sunday, January 10, 2016

Last post about Christmas in New Bern

I may have gotten carried away with photos of New Bern this season, but my sister Betsey can't get enough!  But this will be the last post about it (for this year)!











I guess I have a fascination with doors!

Our December was so mild that most of our customers were shopping in shorts so the beautiful decorations helped us all get in the mood. Even with the mild weather we still had snow falling in Bear Plaza every Friday and Saturday nights and a great snow sliding event!


Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Christmas in New Bern II

Our town was beautifully decorated for Christmas!  I only wish I had more time to enjoy the, it's our busiest time of the year.

Up until yesterday we were in shorts!



Today it was in the 30s, burrrrr.







Friday, January 01, 2016

Happy New Year

Thank you for an amazing 2015!!!

From Jan and Michael
and our great staff
Irene, Lou, Maggie, Marty, Donna, Lori and Carol!