Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild: A Tradition of Excellence

Leaf Bowl by Samantha Henneke

"Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild: A Tradition of Excellence" is an exhibition taking place through November 7 at Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, NC.

The Carolina Designer Craftsmen Guild is a group of professional artists whose mission is the pursuit of outstanding design and craftsmanship, to encourage opportunities for artistic growth, and to promote education in and appreciation of the art of fine craft.

This Saturday and Sunday Cedar Creek Gallery will be hosting their annual Pottery and Glass Festival from 10am - 6pm. There will be pottery, glass, wood, and etching and engraving demostrations, as well as, live music by Kenny Shore & Larry Hutcherson and plant sales by John Martin & Jeff Bottoms.

Cedar Creek Gallery is truely a cultural treasure of North Carolina, promoting and representing artists since 1968.

These are the pieces of Bulldog pottery that we have in the Carolina Designer Craftsmen Exhibit at Cedar Creek.

Black rainbow crystalline vase by Samantha Henneke

Frog Covered Jar by Samantha Henneke

Matte crystalline and molybdenum crystalline vase by Bruce Gholson

Fossil Fish Flask by Bruce Gholson

Moka glazed large bowl by Bruce Gholson

Art of the State: Cedar Creek Gallery: June 12 - September 6

We attended the show opening at Cedar Creek Gallery this past Friday evening.  We arrived early with enough time for me to drink some coffee and take images.  People started to show up later after 6:00.  We had plans to leave early but as people started coming in it was hard to pull away from the interesting conversations.  The show is set up in two rooms.  The small one at the front of the Gallery and large one in the back.
We arrived around 5:45 and Gloria found herself in one of the places where she likes best....with the plants.  John Martin is the plant man there, and also works with crystalline and other glazes.  He had two lamps in the show that were gorgeous.  I wish I had taken a picture of the one I wanted to walk home with.  It would be perfect for a bedside lamp. It was a brilliant matte turquoise with a slender lamp shade.  I always seem to miss images that I later wished I had taken.  When I am in the moment of the activity of taking pictures I feel like I am taking a lot of them, but then I get home and look them over, and realized I missed documenting some.

Gloria learning of some new plant varieties. 

 

The larger show space.

Bruce's fossil serpent tall bottle shared a pedestal with Tom Turner's covered jar.  The jar fancied having a red dot.  Tom is getting ready for a show this summer on the main floor at the Blue Sprial 1 in Asheville.

Part II: Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmoor, North Carolina

I am starting these images with the entrance to the Gallery.  I remember sitting in the front of the gallery with Bruce and Sid back when we delivered Bruce's solo show in 2001. If you have not checked out the images on Cedar Creek's Gallery pages, please do.  This is shino work that Bruce was well known for back in the 1980's into the early 1990's.  We frequently talk of bringing back some of this shino glazing into Bulldog Potteries repertoire.  So many wonderful clay, glaze, and fire alchemy to explore and so little time to get to them.  Ideas and imagination can run so far ahead of our capacity to act on them, but it is all so exciting and invigorating.   

Well back to delivering the shino 8 years ago I am not sure if we sat at the aqua table, but I know we sat at a table and talked for an hour or so.  Bruce and I were just getting started in our new studio and home.  It is interesting how memories can be so vivid, but happened some time ago.  There was purple shisho growing up all over and in between the cracks of the brick.  Sid said it was his favorite plant.

I have lots of images below for you to see, but this only touches the surface of what you will find at Cedar Creek Gallery.  Take a visit there when you are in the area and if you have a bit more time, a visit to the Butterfly Glass House in Durham at the Museum of Life and Science, is a must.  They also have other great insects and critters there to see and learn about.

This is the main show room at Cedar Creek Gallery.

The entrance to Sid's museum collection starts off with a memorial to Sid Oakley. He was a wonderful painter, potter, mentor, and supporter of craft artists.

This is an overview of the pottery museum that Sid and Pat put together for Cedar Creek Gallery.

I spotted a piece of Bruce's on one of the shelves. This is one of Bruce's shino dome jars from the 1980's.

Here is the exhibition room. There is a Vase exhibition that is on display until May 16th. This is where the Art of the State will be exhibited.

Here are three vases by Ronan Peterson. Ronan is a potter from Durham. He now has a show on display with Gillian Parke in Atlanta, at Mudfire.  Bruce and I have been invited to participate in Decal and Drawn at Mudfire during the month of July.

This is an overview of the exhibition space with a permanent display of pottery and information about Cedar Creek History.

Cedar Creek Gallery is more than a place to buy pottery. It is a place that you can go to enjoy the beautiful outside gardens. The visitor has a chance to sit, relax, and talk in a serene environment.  There are, I think, two open houses a year at Cedar Creek, where you can see clay and enjoy glass blowing demonstrations, music, plants, and more.  Sid's daughter Lisa is a talented glass blower with her glass studio nearby.

I like the gift wrapping feature too.

Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmoor, North Carolina

A beautiful Sunday morning, which Bruce and I thought this was a perfect time to drop off our some work to Cedar Creek Gallery. We have both been invited to select a few pieces of our ceramics to be included in the upcoming show, Art of the State. Visiting Cedar Creek is always an enjoyable experience for us. My favorite part is getting to look at the beautiful gardens, with the sculpture carefully placed to welcome visitors, and then to buy a few plants from their wonderful selection. Next is looking around inside the gallery (tomorrow's blog) at all of the great art and craft they have to see, touch, and purchase. Bruce has had a long time, and special relationship with Cedar Creek. Syd Oakley was a strong mentor and supporter of Bruce early on in the beginning of his professional career as a studio potter, and also invited him to have a solo show in 2001. The solo show was wonderful timing for us, because it provided a focus right after moving onto our new property, and setting up Bulldog Pottery here in Seagrove.

Brad Tucker has his studio right next door to Cedar Creek Gallery, and as I selected plants for Gloria and I, Bruce and Brad caught up on the latest pottery politics and gossip.

Brad Tucker and Bruce Gholson at Cedar Creek Gallery

As I walked down the pathway to Cedar Creek Gallery I am immediately put into another world with the sculpture welcoming me to relax, enjoy, and have fun.

Cabins were moved from various places and rebuilt in the front yard of Cedar Creek Gallery


The gardens around Cedar Creek are the creation and ongoing tweaking of John Martin. John and Jeff Bottoms offer their plants for sale. There is a wonderful selection to choose from.


I will venture and show the Gallery soon.