Elvie Zell

Elvie's dog and cat enamel on copper jewelry is a popular item with our customers. Her work is completely handmade with great attention to detail. Think of these pins, earrings and necklaces as miniature paintings made with copper instead of canvas and glass instead of paint.

Designs are cut from metal by hand and the enamel is drawn and painted on in many separate applications. The process is very time consuming and exacting. Pieces are fired at least six times and they must be filed and cleaned with each firing. The result is a unique finely crafted work of art.

Her dog pieces include Golden Retrievers in bandannas or carrying a red leash, Westies, Welsh Corgies, Cocker Spaniels and Jack Russell's. For the cat lovers there are orange tabbies, black and white cats, and grey ones - all in whimsical positions and situations. Fun and colorful jewelry for the pet lover on your list.

Jean Saake

Seventy three years young, Jean has dabbled in virtually every craft form available - she is an accomplished ceramic artist, fabulous knitter, sculptor, gourmet cook, weaver, trained in egg tempera painting and in oil painting on porcelain.

Married for 53 years, Jean credits her husband Carl for encouragement and for supporting all her endeavors in the arts. Now living locally, Jean creates and paints the ceramic Grove Park Inn wreath and bell ornaments and thimbles - a perfect memento of your visit to the Asheville area or a wonderful gift for the holidays.

Kate Bishop

Her velvet rose corsages are sculpted and hand painted in her studio with laughter and music. They make great accessories for your hats, handbags, or as scarf pins too.

We carry all colors from deep red, rich coffee brown, lime green and teal. We hope you have as much fun wearing it as Kate had making it!

Sherit Levin

Trained as a painter at Rhode Island School of Design, Sherit Levin incorporates painterly skills to create a line of sumptuous pins, scarves and jackets. When she moved to California as a young artist, she enjoyed selling her creations at street fairs.

In 1991 she founded her own company called Tiresh which specializes in finely crafted women's clothing and accessories. Her designs, which combine sensual colors, warm organic shapes and lush textures, are the product of twenty years of experience.

Levin features hand painted rayon/silk velvet clothing, scarves, & pins. Some are rayon/velvet, and some are silk charmeuse, but all are hand painted.

We carry her line of flower pins - great for accessorizing a jacket, handbag, hat or as a scarf clip - use your imagination!

They come in a variety of colors and textures with sparkly beads in the center. A great fun addition to any outfit.

Dana Smith

Fabric artist Dana Smith, has been a quilt maker for over a decade working from her Blue Ridge Mountain home. This former National Park Ranger combines a love of nature with the Arts and Crafts style - images of a fallen leaf, a passing cloud, sunset's pink band, a tranquil mountain valley - all are meticulously sewn to create handcrafted treasures from the heart of the Blue Ridge.

Her purses are a colorful combination of silk and rayon with landscape scenes highlighted by decorative fabric. A braided cord tops off these exquisite bags - small enough to go formal yet just the right size for essentials. The Gallery also offers her lovely side opening eyeglass cases.  Each is hands sewn with meticulous detail.

JoAnn Page

Using only full grain leathers, JoAnn specializes in fine American skins like deer and elk. Trained in the art of leather on the island of Ibiza, she upholds a time-honored tradition of European craftsmanship.

Bags are leather lines with deep pockets to accommodate your wants.Shoulder straps are sued lined to insure non-slippage. These are the types of details you simply will not find in any but the most coveted leathers.

JoAnn is known for her quality of material, design, and craftsmanship in every detail.

We carry many combinations of leathers and colors - some more exotic leathers as well like snake, ostrich, and crocodile among others. All handmade of the finest quality.

Claude Graves

Claude rises early every morning in the mountains of western North Carolina to practice his fiddle before he begins work in his studio Little Mountain Pottery. When he does get to work, he creates functional ware as well as narrative sculptural pieces infused with his wry sense of humor with a folk art twist.

"I try to make my pottery relate to the place and time in which I work." says Claude.

Recently the North Carolina Folklife Institute has announced the completion of the first phase of its Directory of Traditional Artists for the Blue Ridge Heritage Area. Claude is included in this first group of artists and craftspeople where he is honored for his distinctive regional style rooted in the traditions and culture of the Appalachian mountains.

His pieces are fired in either a propane fueled salt kiln or in a reduction kiln. Designs and patterns evident in his glazed work are drawn from what he sees around him. He also draws from the rich history of the ceramic craft tradition.

Daniela Knapp

Daniela learned to knit at age seven in her native Austria. She designed her first cable sweater at ten. She honed her craft over the years knitting and sewing.

Every hat is first hand knit with wool or a wool/mohair blend. Various accent yarns are added to make each hat unique and give it a sense of fun and style. Through a hot water and agitation process, the hat is felted. Using very simple tools each hat is molded into shape and then air dried.

Her hats come is lovely colors with unusual accents. The red felt is trimmed in gold yarns. The purple hat has variegated yarns blended into the brim and others are solid fuchsia, red, tan, purple, rust and black - so many colors and combinations to choose from.

The hats should last a lifetime given nominal care and keep you toasty warm as well.

Evenlight Eagles

Regional leather artist, Amy Eagles is deeply inspired by the harmonious rhythms of life and the beauty and simple elegance of nature. By enhancing the natural beauty of free-range deer and elk leathers, she hopes to express and share that inspiration through her work.

The hides she uses come from deer and elk that are legally hunted and used for their meat. Range marks, unique scars and other markings, are often included in her pieces as Amy feels they speak to the individual life experience and character of each animal. The teeth and worn pieces of tusk have been gathered from private Native territories in the Alaskan Tundra during the spring ice melt. They become colored as minerals in the ice seep in over many hundreds of years. The handbag straps are corded, an ancient spiral braiding technique noted for its combination of strength and beauty. Each pouch is lovingly branded with my logo.

Everyone enjoys her Treasure Pouches and Purses - Each one is unique in the color combinations and clasps. They are a fun way to carry your treasures with a convenient drawstring design that allows you to expand to add more treasures!

Her handbags are simple with a hand-stitched flower on the front. There is a hidden closure under the flap for added security. If you are just going out for a night on town or if you are one of those ladies who like to keep things simple -these handbags are perfect for you!

Karen Atwood

One of our more popular clothing items is the colorful and unique ribbon scarf by local artist Karen Atwood.

Since first learning to knit at the age of 12, she has developed a variety of individual styles and looks over the past 50 years. She enjoys working with texture and color in knitting, felting and crocheting to craft unique wraps, purses, hats and scarves.

She continues to design and hand-craft a variety of pieces. Her passion is playing with different techniques, colors and textures to showcase the ribbons she uses.



Her wish is that you will smile and feel wonderful draped in her ribbon. Our customers are proof of that!

Kavita

As a child Kavita started with nature: painting fish and flowers in luminous colors became her passion. From here she fast forwarded to designing for such greats as Yves St. Laurent and Lanvin of Paris, Cannon, Burlington and Fieldcrest of USA.

She studied art in Europe, South East Asia and her native India. She also mastered Japanese and Chinese brush styles. Her work has appeared in the White House and she has designed custom clothing for Malaysian Royalty.

Her clothing is flowing, romantic, distinctive and versatile - the essence of style with an old world flair. Hand painted on silk, her designs range from bright to subdued colors and her advanced techniques add to the poetry of design these art garments portray.

We carry screen silk and hand painted Kavita scarves, ruanas, and box jackets as well as her woven jacket lines - one with a mandarin collar and another a shawl style. All can be accented with her colorful scarves.

James Bateman

For over 30 years, Bateman has been a full-time woodcarver specializing in exquisite jewelry boxes. Bateman explains "A small box is a kind of haiku - they both grow out of the same spirit."

His pieces are made from North American hardwoods, most often birdseye maple, cherry and Iowa black walnut. They are beautiful and very functional with lift out shelves and divided sections for separating pieces of jewelry.

His small sculptural boxes are bandsawn and sanded to shape with the interiors carved out by router and lined with suede. Rectilinear boxes and cabinets are joined by variations on traditional methods - reinforced miters, tenons, plate joinery and dovetail.

The man in your family will love such a beautifully crafted masculine box for his cuff links and watch.

Tzadi Turrou

After studying drawing and clay Turrou became interested in tile-making. She learned about the "cuerda seca" technique and spent considerable time perfecting this technique.

Turrou spent some time working with a Native American ceramist and they made tiles for floors, fireplaces, kitchen counters and walls. After branching off into jewelry making, Turrou again was drawn back to tile work and it became his main focus. She developed a formula for a black wax resist line, crucial to the "cuerda seca" technique.

Her tiles feature nature - rustic landscapes, leaves, birds, many with an Arts and Crafts style. The colors are mostly earthy greens, browns and terra cotta. Customers enjoy the tiles as wall decor or to stand on small easels like a miniature painting. She even depicts the Grove Park Inn on a tile - a perfect memento of your stay here.

Jude Stuecker

Jude is a fiber local artist who likes to use vivid, colorful and oftentimes humorous images in her work.



Her zippered purses are a favorite with our customers. Jude uses odd fabrics cut out in shapes of animals, musical instruments, food, and flowers to decorate them. Some even have pages from old school books on the front. We carry two sizes which can be used for cosmetics, change, cell phone tissues or whatever.

Cynthia Link

Cynthia originally trained to be a jeweler and metal smith but found her true love was working with clay. Because of her love of animals, animal sculptures are her passion, many with metal work added to the finished product.

Her clay cats and dogs may have a bird or fish weather vane on top of their head or perhaps multiple mini ceramic birds sit on top of a tree branch made from copper wire. Sometimes they have hand hammered copper wings and halos.

Her newer pottery birdhouses capture the same essence - they have pieces of driftwood, small birds and pine cones as decoration on the top with pine cones etched into the clay on the outside of the houses. Each has a stopper on the bottom to enable cleaning and air holes to vent under the top overhang.

Whatever her choice, Cynthia's animal world is always crafted with a combination of technical skill and love of whimsy.