Our Artists
Allie Stack
Asheville, NC
My love language is a delicious home cooked meal in a beautiful array of hand-made pots. I love that pottery is a vehicle for nourishment in that way. My love for cooking and all things green is what inspires me to create. Playful and kindhearted dishes become entwined in our daily lives through choosing a coffee mug first thing in the morning to deciding which bowl is just right for homemade soup or planting an array of herbs in a handmade planter. With each fingerprint, pinch, and coil I am creating a conversation. I want each piece to transport delight from myself to the user. It’s simple, it’s honest, it’s lighthearted, it’s happy.
Aubrey Harless
Bakersville, NC
A true devotion to the craft stems from an intense satisfaction of turning concept into reality. I started working with wood as a hobby in 2005. I spent my professional career in various positions within the Commercial Construction industry, retiring in 2017. I started Harless Woodworking to showcase and sell my quality handmade products.
Ashley Vick
Providence, RI
Ashley Vick earned her BFA in Metalsmithing from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2006. She launched Filomena DeMarco Jewelry soon after in 2009- an homage to her great grandmother, who was a massive source of inspiration for her and a fearless female entrepreneur at the turn of the last century. Vick’s eclectic personal style is mirrored by her edgy yet wearable, material-driven pieces.All of her pieces are handcrafted using sterling silver, gold, and/or natural gemstones and can be purchased in galleries nationwide.
Bob Doster
Spruce Pine, NC
Bob Doster is an award-winning, nationally acclaimed artist who has been creating and teaching for more than fifty years. Prestigious awards include SC Governor’s highest recognition in the arts: the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award. Doster has been named Keeper of Culture by the York Heritage & Cultural Commission, Hero of the Child by SC First Steps, Small Business of the Years by Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce, CN2 Hometown Hero and received City of Lancaster Mayoral Proclamation.
Carrie Creech
Greenville, SC
As life is full of constant change and movement, my current body of work carries questions of curiosity amidst such a change and response. As I remain enraptured with clay, I work towards a gesture to highlight its pliability & fluidity. The interaction of moving clay to asymmetry brings an energy and humanity to a vessel that captures a moment in time. Most of my work grows out of seeking to cherish such moments of movement and spontaneity - even if seemingly mundane. I currently look to embrace smaller details inside the overall animated gesture. I want to gain the first impression through a profile but draw the viewer in close through small quiet characters of design.
Connie Karleta Sales
Spruce Pine, NC
Over the years, I advocated and communicated through my work. Art and Poetry spoke the language of raw truths about physical, sexual, and psychological violence. Large scale exhibitions meant to bring people together through the emotional connections of each other’s own experiences. The conversation was as much a part of the art as the drawings themselves.The shadows of the all of our life experiences will be forever a part of us, but we are walking a new direction in the evolution of our work and the creative process. We are breathing, and we like it.
Colleen Connolly/Flattoad Farm
Spruce Pine, NC
My work with eco printing is a way to appreciate small moments in the natural world around me. Each piece captures something that cannot be repeated—from the season and climate to the individual chemistry of a specific plant. I use processes learned through years of trial and error to bring those plants into contact with cloth and paper, allowing their shape, structure, and pigment to leave a direct mark. Eco printing appeals to me because, like nature itself, it’s unpredictable and always changing. The results are never exactly the same, even when using material from the same plant. That uncertainty feeds my sense of wonder. I open each new bundle with anticipation, not knowing exactly what I’ll find.
Corrinn Jussel
New Bedford, MA
The calm that is found at the ocean's edge is what I strive to embrace in my ceramic work. The buffed bare porcelain exterior is representative of the smooth sand that water has passed over. The undulating rim is designed to imitate the small ridges created by the pull of the tide flowing out. I hope when a morning cup of coffee is being sipped from a mug I made it can bring the same sense of calm I find by the ocean.
Cynthia Bringle
Bakersville, NC
I suspect there will never come a day when I’m not fascinated by how each piece takes shape. The same holds true for the excitement I feel opening the gas or wood kiln after a firing. There’s simply no detail about the process, whether trimming, altering or glazing, that I don’t enjoy. I know I am privileged to live in this magical place where I am constantly inspired by nature’s wonders as well as so many amazing potters who either live nearby or take classes here. The years have passed quickly, but the one thing that never changes or diminishes is my joy of transforming an ordinary lump of clay into beautiful, functional objects that enrich my customers’ everyday experiences.
Edwina Bringle
Bakersville, NC
Edwina Bringle is a textile artist based in Penland, NC, where she’s lived and worked since 1997. While maintaining an active studio practice, Edwina also shares her talents through teaching at craft schools like Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, John C. Campbell Folk School, and Penland School of Craft.
Faith Byrd
Spruce Pine, NC
Spontaneous, expressive decisions and the rigidity of compulsive, repetitive movements is what I demonstrate in my work. To instill in my pots a sense of personality and character, I project my own emotions and feelings of containment and discomfort into quick altering of simple thrown forms. These forms are then paired with a tedious movement that mimics the anxiety and disquiet that is also a part of my life. Together, the dialogue between these two aspects creates an illustration of my personal experiences as well as a connection between how and why I make my work. My pots evoke a visceral reaction to a material that begins with innocence and as it develops, gains parts that reflect my own experiences while still calling to be useful.
Galen Sedberry
Burnsville, NC
I want my imagery to evoke themes of movement and energy, an aesthetic that I rely of the firing process to deliver. Painted with a stained porcelain slip, the lines and brush marks that make up the imagery on my pots are initially controlled but static. It is only after the application of ash glaze and the chaos of the wood firing atmosphere that the pots take on new life and create surfaces that come alive. I relish the collaborative approach between the maker and the kiln - the risk and chance of an uncontrolled flame path flashing across a pot in just the right way to produce a dynamic and unplanned surface is something I could try to emulate on my own for the rest of my life and still fall short.
James Cooper
Bakersville, NC
I make utilitarian works of art. Enjoying something every day that was custom-made for you, takes useful items to a whole different level of enjoyment. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than my clients’ expression of delight when they embrace a piece made only for them. I pride myself on turning an idea or a wish into reality.
Joy Tanner
Bakersville, NC
The hand carved patterns and textures in my work are direct reflections of the nature and inspirations I find surrounding me. I strive to bring this awareness of the beauty of nature full circle, directly into the hands of people holding and using my pots.
Kate Meth
Burnsville, NC
I am a painter, a photographer, a mixed media artist, and a mad lover of travel. Ever since I was a child, I have been a seeker and collector of objects that can be reborn as art. I have discovered them in North Carolina "junk" shops, on the side of winding backroads across our country and off-the-beaten path villages in Europe, Australia, Asia and Africa. I live in a world where everything is a possibility for new art. From leaves, feathers and bones, to antiques, seashells and ephemera, I transform my finds into art that breathes into them new life, new meaning, new perspective. My goal is to inspire others to look at found objects, environments, and cultures through a very different set of eyes.
Kintsugi House/Andrea Connolly
Spruce Pine, NC
Andrea Connolly is a textile artist and tea entrepreneur based in Spruce Pine, NC. With over a decade of experience as an educator and librarian, she brings a love of learning and community to her work at Kintsugi House. Andrea’s textile practice, based at Treats Studios in downtown Spruce Pine, focuses on repurposed materials and visible mending, and she has taught workshops on sewing, crochet, kumihimo, and mending techniques. Currently pursuing certification as a tea specialist through the World Tea Academy, she combines her dedication to tea culture with a commitment to ethical sourcing and education.
Kym Gardner
Pawtucket, RI
I was born in the Mojave Desert of California and grew up in Newport, RI. I have always loved making with my hands, spending much of my time in high school and first year of college investigating screen printing and book arts before stumbling into the ceramics studio.
Laura Lau Klein
Asheville, NC
Mixed media artist and jeweler Laura Lau Klein creates work inspired by their home in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. Here they find inspiration in the mystery and possibility of the ecosystem. Laura Lau Klein has held creativity and adornment closely in life. Their work as a painter and regard for living spurred them to study Art History, Art, and Anthropology at the University of Delaware. Their time in university didn’t quell their curiosity but inspired it further, leading them to pursue an artist practice while traveling. Landing in Western North Carolina, Lau’s appreciation for material culture blossomed, learning natural dying and basketry, woodcarving, and silversmithing.
Lindsy Marshall
Danvers, MA
Lindsy Marshall is a glass and mixed media artist whose work examines materiality, the duality of creation and deconstruction, and the processes of deterioration through time. She received her BFA with a concentration in glass from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2017. After graduating Lindsy spent two years as an Artist-in-Residence with the Worcester Center for Crafts, teaching and working out of their glass studio. Lindsy’s work was included in Bullseye Project’s Emerge exhibit in 2018 and has recently shown work with Cluster Crafts in the UK. Lindsy currently lives in the Greater Boston area with a studio in Ipswich and teaches regularly at craft schools around Massachusetts.
Lynn Allinger
Bakersville, NC
Watching birds is a favorite activity here on Houndhill. Several feeders and many flowers with seeds help to attract our feathered friends. I have always loved birdhouses, not just to house birds, but also as sculpture for the garden. I had purchased many over the years and loved finding the perfect spot for them on our land. The first house I made was in 2020 for the top of the deck post. That house has had a nest in it every year. In 2022 it was inhabited by tree swallows and it was so wonderful to watch the Mom and Dad share in caring for their babies. I made this house with a hinge and easy to open for the removal of old nests and that has become a feature of all the houses I have made since that first one.
Luther Stroup
Spruce Pine, NC
Luther has hand crafted everything from formal dining tables, to old fashion ice boxes, to kitchen cabinets, and many projects in between. Throughout his years at the Shop he has completed 2,500+ clocks. Most clocks are still created using H.M. Stroup's original patterns. Stroup Clocks can be found in all 50 states of the U.S.A., as well as in multiple countries all around the world. They have been personally delivered and installed by Luther to happy customers in 48 states.
Marianne Cicala
Bakersville, NC
I have always sought the unique peacefulness found when I’m creating gardens or walking in forests. Simply breathing in their rhythms and textures transports me to a quiet mental place, wrapped in serenity. I find that same feeling when clay is moving in my hands; for in that moment, our upended world and its noise simply disappear. Clay was clearly the vehicle for me to convey the peaceful grace and ease of nature.
Mitchell Burleson
Clayton, NC
I am a Textile Designer from Clayton, North Carolina with roots in Appalachia. In a search for purpose, I discovered textile design and weaving. I graduated from the Wilson College of Textiles with a Bachelor of Science in fashion and textile design in May of 2020 and am continuing my education at Haywood Community College in the Professional Crafts Program, studying under Amy Putansu. Currently living in Charlotte, NC. I am currently exploring the physicality and time responsibility of production weaving. I love making large runs of fabric to show the emotion and commitment that goes into my fabric. Utilizing my fabric, I try to tell stories about the human condition.
Robert Levin
Burnsville, NC
I was originally attracted to hot glass because of its liquid qualities and sense of immediacy. I have always tried to capture an element of the elegance, fluidity, and whimsy which I feel are inherent properties of glass. I find that various aspects of my work take on much more personal connotations for me, although rarely in any explicit ways. The glass itself can be a symbol of human characteristics: fragile, but durable; fluid, but hard-edged. This all has something to do with the possibilities for change and transformation, both with the material and with the person doing the creating. I think of my work as an act of communication, not only with myself, but with the viewer as well. Perhaps what is communicated is more of an attitude than a specific idea.
Stormie Burns
Bakersville, NC
Stormie Burns is a Western North Carolina ceramic artist and cast glass artist whose work is rooted in material exploration, craft tradition, and a deep connection to place. Originally from Central Florida, Burns relocated to Western North Carolina in 2015 to work as a studio assistant, immersing herself in one of the country’s most vital craft communities and beginning the next chapter of her studio career.
Spencer Silva
Bakersville, NC
Spencer is a North Carolina based glass artist who works with floral, vegetative and fruit based imagery.
Jo Wainright
Little Switzerland, NC
My watercolors are immersed in rich colors and expressive brush strokes. My depictions exhibit an iconic realism in nature, portraits and still life.
Cole Aurichio
Bakersville, NC
Cole Aurichio has been living and working as a blacksmith in the Blue Ridge area for over a decade. Initially taught as a traditional blacksmith, Cole’s journeyman work brought him across the country working in a variety of metalworking shops. Currently residing in Bakersville NC, Cole owns and operates his blacksmith studio in a production and artistic fashion. Focusing mainly on tool making, Cole enjoys discovering new ways and methods to redesign tools both for the home and the workshop.
Sage Morgan
Knoxville, TN
My name's Sage Morgan, and I'm a potter living in Appalachia making work inspired by the forest floor and the small creatures that inhabit it. Mushrooms, native species, orchids and the little creatures that call them a home are so important to our environment and learning through art is something that I hold dear. In my free time, I like reading manga, taking pictures of plants and birdwatching with my pup Pudin’.
Katherine McCarty
Charlotte, NC
Art follows life and is always evolving with one's environment and circumstances. Originally a plein air painter, I love being in nature and am drawn to pathways and scenes in rural, out-of-the-way places. My camera records the scene – the paint brush interprets the landscape. I don’t always plan my abstract paintings, but once I get out of my thinking brain and into the right brain, bypassing the ego allows freedom of expression. When entering the terra incognita (the place of not knowing) a door opens to the mystery and the adventure of intuitive expression which the conventional spoken language cannot touch. While abstract in nature, my paintings reflect an underlying visual order and harmony.
John Duncan
Burnsville, NC
John Duncan is an artist who for the last 50 years has pursued his endeavors through Architecture and Construction of spaces. Having studied Fine Arts in college he has returned in recent years to painting. His particular passion is the medium of Watercolor . The vibrancy of the transparent colors and the spontaneity of the interaction with paper is exciting to him and always has something new to give.
Melanie Risch
Burnsville, NC
I’m an artist who works in relationship with the land, making vessels using clay from my backyard in Burnsville, North Carolina. I came to North Carolina as a gardener and became curious about making more than a garden from the clay beneath my feet—I wanted to understand other ancient ways of putting my hands in the soil, and that curiosity led me to pots.
I work with local materials and wood firing as a continuation of practices humans have engaged in since before the written word. Working this way makes me feel human in a way I find beautiful. I embrace the constraint of localism, using the limits of these materials to deepen my understanding of ceramics and the pottery traditions of this place. I see materials not as passive substances, but as collaborators: the clay’s color and texture shape the marks that emerge, evidence of the making process, and flame and ash from long wood firings leave their own fire marked surfaces on the pots. People have made pots here for a long time, and I am now one of them.
Xander D’Ambrosio
Spruce Pine, NC
My current work in the hot glass studio is focused on simple, functional forms made with elaborate and colorful patterns using traditional canework techniques. In addition to hot glass work I also have a cold-working studio where the work is focused on small objects made by various grinding and finishing methods.
Ronan Kyle Peterson
Chapel Hill, NC
Essentially, I am dealing with effects of agents of growth and decay and how these agents shape and embellish the surfaces of stones and the skins of trees. These agents also serve key roles in interacting with my ceramic vessels. Employing an earthy background palette stretched across textured but quieter surfaces, I wanted to upset that quiet earthiness with intense splashes of vibrant color, patterns, and glossy surfaces not commonly associated with tree bark or the rough surfaces of rocks amidst fallen leaves. I am interested in inflated volume and thick line qualities that reference comic style drawings and how that can apply to interpreting the natural world. With my ceramic vessels I hope to create a comic book interpretation of the natural world with a focus on the rocks and trees and their role in the perpetual organic comedy of growth and decay. Recently, I have turned to abstract paintings for ideas and inspiration, and definitely delve more into the imagined and extra-terrestrial speculations that float in and out of my mind.
Hanna Traynham
Willis, VA
I alter soft clay forms with curves that are gestural and inviting, balancing full form with skeletal voids. In the wood kiln, the accumulation of wood ash accentuates these voluptuous forms with colorful flashing marks and textural variations. From the prolonged and volatile atmosphere of the kiln, each piece emerges exhibiting nuanced surfaces and dramatic geologic distortions. Wood firing has informed the evolution of my aesthetic. The altering and intricate carving in my work requires patience, attention to detail, and serves to ironically and joyfully contradict the anticipated vagaries of firing with wood. I deliberately push my material limits. Seeking out avenues of the unexpected, I explore the thresholds of materials and processes. Merging refined skill with contingent systems affords compelling opportunities for continual transformation and growth.
Judy Larkins
Burnsville, NC
Judy Larkins paints in oil and cold wax layers on wood panels and adds mixed media like gold leaf, marble dust, and dried flowers or leaves and ferns. She studied with Cold Wax Academy for one year and has taken encaustic workshops locally. She likes to paint from experience in Western North Carolina, after hiking or skiing and viewing the wonders of creation.
Andy Dohner
Bakersville, NC
Andy Dohner grew up in central Pennsylvania and studied metalworking at Lebanon County Career and Technical Center. After ten years of working as an industrial welder and fabricator he began to develop an interest in making objects of his own design. In 2002 Andy made a career change to learn more about creative making by studying with artist blacksmiths across the United States.
Inspired by what he learned about the artistic forging process, Andy eventually started his own studio practice, combining his interest in industrial processes with conceptual designs. Andy currently operates a studio practice in Western North Carolina with a focus on functional and sculptural objects. You can find his work in and outside the home and public space. Andy has participated in exhibits and teaching opportunities across the country.
Carmen Grier
Bakersville, NC
The winter and early spring is an especially fruitful time for me in the studio. It is the perfect time to go inward. When the leaves are down, the stark bare branches create the most engaging shapes as they curve and bend over and under each other. I lay down evocative lines that I derive from these observations. The colors of the landscape are fairly neutral this time of year but the sudden peek of a green water tank, an orange surveyor stick, or a red vine is enough to get me started on a color palette. Once I start working the painting takes on a life of it’s own and I react to what’s before me making moment-to-moment decisions.
I never have a preset outcome for a painting. Each painting comes into being after a series of painting sessions with plenty of time to look and examine what is there already and what might happen next. At certain points, large changes happen and other times, small adjustments can entirely change the character of the piece. When I feel a sense of completeness, I know the painting is done.
Bekah Bliss
Independence, MO
I consider the relationship between my vessels and the user, seeking to nourish and give joy. My ideas arise from the seemingly ordinary: the soft texture and color of a plant, the patterns on rocks, the thoughtful design and comfort of a chair. Exploring forms that leave direct evidence of their construction and often reference textures found in nature. The applied designs provide opportunity for playful response and enhance the conversation between the natural and structured elements.