What the Silkworm Saw

What the Silkworm Saw

Weaver uses a magnifying glass to make her intricate patterns When Vicki Essig arrived in Western North Carolina more than two decades ago, the first…

A Cuppa History

A Cuppa History

Coffee may rule the breakfast table and the workplace, but tea aspires to more contemplative moments in more tranquil surroundings. This spring and summer,…

One Way to Fly

One Way to Fly

Growing up in Brooklyn, Asheville artist Cleaster Cotton remembers the day her mother brought home an injured bird. “My mother was an activist for…

Iron Constitution

Iron Constitution

It’s a fitting career trajectory for a blacksmith: Matthew Waldrop forged his company, Northern Crescent Iron, the hard way. Success was followed by setbacks,…

Dangerously Beautiful

Dangerously Beautiful

In an age when long-accepted boundaries of gender and politics are in flux, it’s not shocking that painting can burst out of its traditional…

Voice of Unreason

Voice of Unreason

Jacqui Fehl’s mixed-media creations on wood, paper, and canvas — exuberantly colorful and creatively elusive — are the result of a freewheeling attitude that…

Random Acts of Basketry

Random Acts of Basketry

Not long after Carla and Greg Filippelli moved to the southern mountains from the Northeast 40 years ago, Greg brought home a damaged woven…

Time to Flower

Time to Flower

Nothing evokes timelessness more than plain dirt, sculpted by the heat, rain, and wind of countless millennia into the foundation of everything that grows….

Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand

The launch of this summer’s blockbuster exhibit of outdoor sculpture by glass star Dale Chihuly at Biltmore House was the opening salvo. Now, a…

The Successful Shepherd

The Successful Shepherd

Colin Richmond has had to stop counting his sheep. “My flock has gotten too big to remember without checking my website,” he admits. “I…