The Primitive and the Pragmatist
En route to Gragg, an unincorporated town nestled up in Avery County, Hendersonville resident Robert Sears spotted an engine-oil-stained barn commanding the skyline, its…
Don’t Call it a Hobby
Back then — “then” loosely meaning the mid-to-late 1800s, the pioneer era of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie book series —…
Life Studies in Terra-Cotta
The beginning is nebulous for Kate Fisher. Maybe her cache of gardening pots and planters started in Kentucky. There, she grabbed armfuls of her…
Against the Current
Mountain flora defines Appalachian lore. With few pioneers dogged enough to belly through impenetrable laurel “hells” and amorphous rhododendron groves, the Blue Ridge stood…
Egypt Meets Little Switzerland
Texas-born textile designer Caitley Symons relocated to Egypt with her family at age 12; perhaps her early immersion in Egyptian culture accounts for her…
Design on the Edge
The city of Westminster’s Soho district has a gritty backstory. Shrouded by harlequin murals and subdued cafés, ’50s beatniks smoked and droned in this…
A New Day for Mothers
Rather than showering mamas in red roses and boxed chocolates this spring, dairy farmers-turned-woodworkers and die-hard gardeners are setting out to make sycamore spoons…