This year Wood Day will feature a mini-class with the Carolina Mountain Woodturners. Visitors will have an opportunity to work on a lathe with a professional woodturner to create their own honey dipper for free! No experience is necessary; you must be 10 or older to participate.

At 1:00 the woodchips will begin to fly during the 7th Annual Carve-Off Competition. Participants begin with a simple block of wood. They are challenged to carve that block into a work of art within a two-hour period. When the whistle blows, a panel of esteemed judges determine who has fashioned the finest and most skilled carved wood sculpture. Carvers must sign up by 12:30 to compete.

See below for information about Southern Highland Craft Guild woodworkers who will demonstrate at Wood Day.

• Jim McPhail from Fairview, NC started turning in 1988 and has been a full-time professional since he moved to Western North Carolina's mountains in 1994. McPhail has developed a style of small bowl-making involving the lamination of multiple layers of different colors, textures and thicknesses of wood. His bowls generally contain from nine to 21 layers and are one to five inches wide. He is especially well known for his bright, smooth finishes.
• Chris Kamm of Arden, NC has mastered the art of the wooden box. Since 1997, he has resided in Western North Carolina and devoted nearly all his studio time to boxes. With every one comes a card bearing his philosophy on boxes as well as on life: �In this modern age, the warmth of polished wood offers relief from the digital, the virtual, and the fleeting. I seek simple designs with dramatic materials and offer this box as a secret place for your treasures - real and virtual.�
• Jim Wiley hails from Sparta, TN. Artistically a late bloomer, Jim began carving at the tender age of 65. A lifelong outdoorsman, his passion is fly-fishing, thus his initial artistic efforts have been trout. According to Jim, "The trout and its habitat must surely be one of God's finest works. . . My hope is when one is viewing my work, that for a moment they remove the clutter of daily thought from their minds, and go to a place where cool mountain breezes and tumbling waters rule."
• Don Stevenson is a folk artist from down the mountain in Morganton, NC. Don builds hand sculpted birdhouses and bird feeders inspired by treasured rural icons: barns, farm outbuildings, rural churches, country stores, law offices, old wells and spring houses. Don�s scaled replicas of old buildings from our vanishing rural roadside scene are skillfully crafted with early rural construction methods and applied primitive hand tools. Each of these works of contemporary American folk art present the visual effects of those hand tools together with a hand painted technique that mimic decades of weather and decay.
• Lee Entrekin of Old Fort, NC demonstrates the creation of Native American style flutes from wooden blanks. He carves the sound mechanism for the flutes and tunes them to pitch. Lee will also be discussing the history of his craft, playing the flutes and giving lessons to anyone who wants to learn. �I offer a double-your-money back guarantee on my free lessons.�
• Helen Gibson is a Brasstown Carver in the famed local tradition. She studied with Jack Hall and is one of the few instructors who still carves and teaches the Brasstown Nativity figures she illustrates in her books, Carving the Nativity and The Animals of the Nativity. A master carver and sought-after teacher, Helen offers clear advice and guidance to all carvers, novice or professional, providing them with new challenges while helping them move easily through the carving to a product of which they can be proud.
• Derek Hennigar calls his work Ordinary Furniture attempting to convey the humor and impulsiveness necessary for innovative design while acknowledging that no task in human history is more common than cutting wood. A fine example of Derek�s work is The Ordinary Chair which relies on large mortice-and-tenon joints for its strength. Its side stretcher becomes the back leg. The design is finished with a hand-gouged finish texture and shape.

Friendswood Brooms, broom makers; Carolyn Hall Anderson, carver; Michael McDunn, furniture maker; Lyle Wheeler, traditional furniture; Robert Lowery, marquetry; Bill Henry, whittler; Don Duncan, treenware; Eddie Howard, master carver, musician and reigning Carve-Off Champion; Carolyn Stone, decorations made of pine cones, cotton bolls, nuts, buckeyes, acorns and a variety of other natural materials.

The Southern Highland Craft Guild sponsors free educational events at the Folk Art Center. All ages are invited to explore the region�s wealth of craft history and Appalachian culture as well as contemporary developments in the craft movement. These events bring artists together to share their craft with the public through demonstrations, dialogue and hands-on opportunities.

The Folk Art Center is open free of charge daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year�s Day. Hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. January through March, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. April through December. The Folk Art Center is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 382 in East Asheville.

The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1930 to bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is authorized to provide services at the Blue Ridge Parkway�s Folk Art Center under the authority of a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. For additional information about the Folk Art Center or the Southern Highland Craft Guild visit www.southernhighlandguild.org or call 828.298.7928.

(Images provided by SouthernHighlandGuild.org.)

all contents copyright © 2006, asheville.com. contact: [email protected] or 828.253.2880
For listing and advertising information...