Tradition is Breeze-Tested at the Appalachian Women’s Museum
Where do quilts hang out today? If you’re a collector, either of antique-patterned or free-form modern quilts, you’ve probably got your favorite specimens displayed…
Spring Forward by Learning Your Denim Terminology
T.S. Eliot said, “April is the cruelest month,” and we assume he was talking about tax deadlines or late snowstorms. But maybe the poet…
In the Red is the new In the Black
Barbara Fisher’s paintings are scenes of codified chaos, vivid abstracts that come together and emote like manifestos, belying their seemingly random imagery. Her signature…
To Every Season, a Real Wilder
Laura Wilder of New York State is a distant cousin of Almanzo Wilder, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), who created a still-flourishing cottage…
Custom Millinery for Alpacas (and other tidings of comfort and joy)
Melissa Thomas, proprietor of the West Asheville botanical boutique Flora, designed this regal headpiece for alpaca Harriet, who made an appearance at a wedding…
Smoke ’em if You Got ’em
In the same way that some former Western North Carolina tobacco farms are being repurposed through crop diversification, Clark Whittington transformed Midcentury cigarette-vending machines…
Swannanoa Valley Brings an Elite Institution Down to Earth
The legacy of Black Mountain College isn’t going anywhere. The avant-garde institution, which thrived in its namesake town from 1933 to 1957 and turned…
The Needle and the Drama
There’s so much fanfare around glass this season, thanks to the Dale Chihuly exhibit at Biltmore Estate and six months of companion events around…