Made Right Here

[piano intro] - [Deborah] Next on "North Carolina Weekend", greetings from Star Works.

We're celebrating arts and crafts made in our state, like glass beads in Tryon, wood carving in Robbinsville, and murals in Burlington.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont, to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - Hi, everyone.

Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend".

I'm Deborah Holt Noel and this week, we are celebrating arts and crafts made here in our state.

Right now, I'm at Star Works that's located in the little town of Star, which is smack dab in the geographic center of North Carolina.

Star Works is an art-centered work community and what used to be a hosery mill.

Now, under one roof, artists can get access to materials, instruction, even expensive tools like kilns or furnaces, all to help sustain art and resources in these rural communities.

We'll see more of Star Works throughout the show, but first, let's head to the mountains where Clay Johnson met some aspiring artists taking classes at the Tryon Arts and Crafts School.

[uplifting music] - [Deb] Each station has been set up with several things.

- [Narrator] Deb Rich has been working in glass for 20 years.

She's teaching her skills to students at the Tryon School of Arts and Crafts.

- It's great fun to teach, simply because I'm passing along knowledge to other people to learn how to do something that they didn't think they would ever be able to do.

It's a lot of fun to play with fire.

It's propane first and...

Okay, there you go.

Gonna turn the propane down.

- [Narrator] In this case, a 2,200-degree torch that's used to melt glass to make beads and small figurines.

It's called lamp work.

Rich First show students how it's done.

- [Deb] You're trying to sculpt honey or taffy, depending on how stiff it is.

So, that's another good way to look at it.

You're going to drop your mandrel slightly below the flame and you're going to hold your glass out of the flame, maybe to the right of it, and slowly twirl the mandrel away from you.

- [Narrator] Then, students, including Alisha Forester-Kidd, give it a try.

- I love jewelry and I think this just, I love the colors and just the patterns and something interesting.

- [Narrator] Rich shows Alisha how to dip the glass into the flame to make a bead.

- [Deb] Like you're dunking a donut in coffee and it's starting to get white hot, so I would take it out of the flame and keep twirling it.

- [Narrator] Rich displays her own finished work in the class to show her students all the possibilities with glass.

- These are assorted spring birds, bees, and bugs, and again, they're a way for people to enjoy things that may or may not be real.

- [Narrator] Rich's glass bead workshop is just one of dozens of offerings at the school.

- Our mission is to provide creative opportunities for everyone.

We provide a stimulating and enriching environment to do that.

- [Narrator] The school was founded as a non-profit organization by local artists in Tryon in 1960.

- Tryon Arts and Craft School is part of the identity of Tryon and we're part of that magical thing that happens in Tryon.

You come to visit a friend and next thing you know, you're looking at houses and next thing you know after that, you've moved to Tryon and you've been here for 10 years.

- [Narrator] The school has one to three-day workshops and six-week classes in glass, [glass cracking] weaving, [equipment clanking] ceramics and pottery, [equipment banging] woodworking, welding, [metal banging] and blacksmithing.

It serves everyone from school children to retirees.

- We have many students who are advanced practitioners here, but we have many who come in the door as non-artists or beginner level.

- [Narrator] There are more than half a dozen studio spaces, an exhibition gallery, and a retail shop where artists can sell their work.

[equipment grinding] - We have equipment that people wouldn't have in their homes and we have facilities to do world-class exhibitions and bring artists from all around the country, the region, and the local community that they may not otherwise see.

It's important to our town, because it's bringing opportunities that would not otherwise be here.

- So, there you go.

That is a bead that's ready.

A community needs a place to play and they need a place to stretch their creative wings and this helps develop the other side of your brain that you might not be using in everyday life.

- [Narrator] The beads Alisha and the other students made go into a kiln.

After class, they're slowly cooled.

Students can come back to pick them up later or have them shipped to their homes.

- You don't have to be an artist to come.

You can learn things, take classes that maybe that's not going to be your thing, but you might find something that you love and that you're wonderful at and have something to take home and it's enjoyable.

It's just a lot of fun to do.

[upbeat music continues] - The Tryon Arts and Crafts School is at 373 Harmon Field Road in Tryon.

To sign up for one of its many workshops and classes, go to tryonartsandcrafts.org.

Check out these enormous fire sculptures here at Star Works.

Pretty amazing, huh?

For decades, Artie Barksdale has been turning heads in the triangle with his vibrant murals and hand-painted camouflage.

Now, he's settled into a small studio space in Burlington.

Let's join him on a tour of Trollinger Street where his art is transforming the visual landscape of the neighborhood.

[uplifting string music] - Color drives me crazy.

I love color.

I love contrast.

I love saturation.

I love to control it.

I like to create the art and say, "Now, how did he come up with that?

Wow."

If it doesn't move you like that, I have no interest.

The best advice that I can give to a artist or somebody who wants to be artist full-time, invest in space.

[uplifting string music continues] Invest in space.

A artist's space is everything.

As long as you are painting inside of your bedroom or your kitchen, you gonna hate it.

It's hard to try new things in a small apartment, because you're not giving yourself space to grow.

When I came to Burlington, I got room to make a mess trying things.

Acrylic, watercolor, ink, styrofoam, paper mache, clay, wood, charcoal, aerosol, all of it.

I see it.

I go for it.

I love it.

[laughs] I love it.

My name is Artie Barksdale III.

I am a freelance artist and I reside in Burlington, North Carolina.

[gentle piano music] Burlington is one of those cities that you can make a name for yourself.

It's kinda funny, because people don't understand, say, "There's nothing going on in Burlington."

To them, it's a dead place, but to me, it's a blank canvas.

Now, my plan for this entire strip is to decorate it up with murals.

This is the second one that I did is inside of Crazi Cuts.

Come on in.

So, when I first came to the neighborhood, the owner, Mike, he told me I can do what I wanted to do, so I just put this together for him.

The 90s colors.

I got the colors from Martin, right?

So, I'm just out here in the neighborhood just trying to spruce it up and give some people who talk about Burlington something to talk about.

So, yeah.

You see this right here?

I airbrushed this for Miss Peggy who was the owner.

I sprayed it up and I did a stencil and it's crazy how she still got it.

Hey, Ms. Peggy.

- [Peggy] Hi, how are you?

- Hey.

- Yeah, he was painting the building over here when I met him and I really liked him, the vibe he had and I liked him.

I had him to do some stuff for me.

So, we've been friends- - He's been my pal ever since.

- Ever since.

- Look out for him.

[Artie laughs] - [Peggy] He's a good person.

[inspiring music] - I'm one of those artists that I don't paint just for kicks.

I like to go into an area and say, "Okay, this area needs this type of artwork."

I'm really good at that.

The type of art that I want to produce is if you can stand right here in this one spot, you'll be able to see art on this wall, that wall, the walls behind it, and even the ones far beyond and you know what's so crazy?

I've had this in my dreams.

I keep dreaming about a place that I can build up artistically, creatively.

I just want a whole entire neighborhood to myself, you know?

Burlington has a lot of open, empty canvas here with my name on it and if nobody comes and gets it, I'm going to take the whole thing to myself.

I really am.

I truly believe that it's just all a matter of time.

I create whether I'm getting paid for it or not.

It's gonna come out.

I can't help it.

I truly cannot help.

It is the way I am wired.

When they say Basquiat, when they say Warhol, I want Barksdale.

You know what I mean?

Keith Haring, Barksdale.

I wanna go down in history.

I want my children's children to say, "Hey, my granddaddy was Artie Barksdale III."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes.

I still have his artwork."

- To see some of Artie Barksdale's murals, take a tour down Trollinger Street in Downtown Burlington.

Artie is also on Instagram and Facebook.

I'm here with Joe Grant, Studio Director at Star Works Glass.

Joe, what are you gonna demonstrate for us today?

- I'm gonna make a small glass yarn spool.

It's inspired by the textile history of this building and some of the textile makers in my family.

- All right.

Well, what's the process?

- Well, first, I'm gonna get a blow pipe.

So, everything starts with the gather from the furnace.

So, this furnace is sitting at about 2,100 degrees and I'm gonna dip the pipe down inside of it and start turning to wind the glass onto the end.

[gentle upbeat music] At this temperature, the glass is kind of moving like honey, kind of a thick liquid, and then once we gather the glass from the furnace, I have lots of different tools to shape it, cool it off, and then I'm gonna trap some air in the pipe and blow a bubble into the glass.

- [Deborah] Wow.

- So, in our furnaces, we only melt clear glass.

Right now, it looks like it's orange, but you're seeing the radiant heat of 2,100 degrees coming off of it.

So, to add a veil of color, I have my assistant heating up a chunk of concentrated colored glass.

So, we're gonna add it to the tip of this bubble, and then spread it evenly over the surface.

- Tell me a little bit about your school and the instruction that's available here.

- Sure.

Yeah.

We have a lot of different educational opportunities from workshops on the weekend that the public can sign up to.

We work with the group of at-risk youth and we do some high school glassblowing classes and college classes, but the people that you see working in the other side of the studio right now are part of our internship and residency program.

Artists from around the world come and live in the area for about three months at a time and they help us make everything and teach classes, as well as help the resident artists make their work.

- And what's here for the visitor, someone who just comes to stop by?

- Sure.

This building that we're in is a former hosery mill.

So, there's 140,000 square feet of usable space.

There's a ceramics program downstairs.

There's a metals program with forging, welding, and then at the front, there's a whole lot of gallery space.

So, when you walk in sort of the first part of our building, which was the original structure, which used to be a boarding school, it's now what we call the schoolhouse gallery, where you can find artwork from all around the area, people that work in different materials, and then there's a big space out in the front that has rotating sculptural exhibitions.

We also have a cafe and tap room, where you can come get a bite to eat, have a coffee.

So, for the next step in this process, I wanna make this piece a little bit bigger.

So, I'm actually gonna let this bubble cool down, and then gather more clear glass on top and that'll give us enough mass, enough material to make a larger blown vessel that we can then add the details and patterns and textures to.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] - So, Joe, this is our amazing end product.

It was really fascinating to see it come together.

It's beautiful.

- Yeah.

This is an example of what the finished piece will look like.

It's got all this texture on it.

One of the things I love about glass is that it has an endless possibilities of colors and form, just like the possibilities that we provide here at Star Works.

- Absolutely.

Thank you so much for showing us around.

It's just amazing that this resource is available to the community.

Thanks so much.

- My pleasure.

- Star Works is at 100 Brussel Drive in Star.

Their gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and their cafe and tap room is open until 9:00 p.m.

They have lots of special events.

So, to find out more, visit their website at starworksnc.org.

Now, here at Star Works, they actually mix the clay that many of the potters in Seagrove use.

Make sense, since we're right here in the heart of pottery country.

Now, one of the original families of potters in Seagrove was the Owens family.

Producer Christina Copo met some of those family members who moved to the mountains and took their pottery traditions with them.

[gentle music] Have you ever wondered where your coffee mug came from?

Was it mass produced or made by hand?

For more than six generations, the Bolick family has used their hands to produce thousands of unique pieces of pottery.

Pots, plates, pitchers, mugs, and more.

This rich heritage began in Seagrove, the handmade pottery capital of the United States.

Today, the Bolick family still practices the same techniques as their ancestors, the renowned Owens family of Seagrove.

- Actually, she's a fifth generation potter and I'm a fifth generation sawmiller.

So, we met at Tommy's Drive-in Grill in Asheboro in 1962 and we married, what?

Three months later.

We've been together all these years.

- My great-grandfather started in Seagrove.

So, of course, I grew up in it along with there's eight in my family.

So, we all do pottery in one way or another.

It's just in my blood, I guess.

[machine vibrating] - [Christina] I wanted to learn more.

So, I sat down with Janet Calhoun, Glenn and Lula's daughter - In the early 1800s, there was two German brothers that settled in Moore County of North Carolina, mostly for the clay source.

- Most potters nowadays just buy it already in a plastic bag, refined and ready to use, but we fix our own clay.

[machine engine cranking] [upbeat music] - Just for years, we've always done it the old way, which is we go dig the clay up, put it in a shed, pulverize it, and then we'll take other clays already pulverized and mix our own recipe for our clay and we mill it through an old brick mill that's about 150 years old.

Having our own clay recipe and our own glaze recipe gives us colors that you may not see everywhere, because they're not commercial glazes and clay.

You start with a lump of clay and at the end, you sell it to somebody and they'll see you later and they'll say, "I think of you every morning when I have my coffee," and that's just gratifying.

You have a great day.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Inspired by all this beautiful pottery, I had to try my hand at the wheel.

Okay, Janet, you've got 50 years of pottery-making expertise and I have about half a second.

So, tell me what I'm doing.

What are we gonna start with?

- Okay, well, the first thing you have to do is get it on the wheel and get the clay centered to the wheel.

- Literally, just gonna... - Yeah.

- Throw it.

- Throw it.

- Oh, nice.

- And then mash down on there pretty tight and remember, it needs water.

That's what gives it life.

So, you're gonna continually put some water on there and we'll go ahead and turn it on.

- And now... - So, you just, you want to take control of that clay.

- [Christina] Okay.

Ooh.

[curious music] - So, just put your hands down there and start pressing and if you'll kind of cup it.

- All right.

- Like, come in from the outside.

- It's kind of bad.

It's wanting to leave.

- There you go.

- [Christina] Oh, okay.

- Feel it kinda truing up.

- Oh, yeah.

I'm making a mess.

- Let's get some more water.

- Okay.

Do you ever feel like you're in the movie "Ghost" when you- - No, not at all.

It doesn't happen.

- [Christina] I may not possess the pottery gene, but Janet's granddaughter Ellie Stanberry sure does.

- I like that every piece you make is always gonna be different.

It's never gonna be the same.

They're always gonna be unique.

- [Christina] Janet's grandsons are also carrying on the clay legacy.

- Well, this is Teddy Roosevelt.

I made 'em at the fair.

He took a little longer, because the hole kept on messing up and this is a pilot.

- This one's a dog.

This one's a pig.

It lost a ear.

This one's a turtle.

It's really fun to do.

'cause I hope I'm the eighth generation potter.

[gentle music] - Bolick and Traditions Pottery is at 1155 Main Street in Blowing Rock and they're open daily.

For more information, give them a call at 828-295-6128 or go online to bolickandtraditionspottery.com.

Wood carving may be one of the oldest art forms and that tradition has been passed for a long time from generation to generation, especially in the Cherokee community.

Let's meet Billy Welsh of Hunting Boy Wood Carving and learn his remarkable story.

[soft music] - My artwork is a part of the tradition of our people.

[bird chirping] There's quite a few mask makers through the years that's been well-known and I hope to be one of those that keep the art alive.

[soft music continues] Osiyo!

I'm Billy Welch from the Snowbird Community.

I'm a teacher and a wood carver and I own the shop Hunting Boy Wood Carving just off 143 in Graham County.

[soft music continues] The name comes from where I live.

We live on Hunting Boy Branch on up the creek on the reservation and it's where I grew up.

My ancestors walked here, camped here, hunted here, fished here, all the way back to the beginning of time, from what I understand.

All the traditions were handed down.

For my part of it, my grandmother and her family made baskets.

Took all summer long.

They would work and gather their materials to make the basket, and then they'd weave all winter along by the fire and that would be what you would produce for a product for the spring to sell.

They were made from white oak splits, quartered, scraped.

We use natural dyes and that influence probably brought me to where I am today with what I do.

This is a different version of the medicine mask.

Used the black walnut stain made from the husk, leaves, bark, or root of the walnut tree and you would rub it on the mask to embed the color.

The red was from the Indian paintbrush, the red flower you see in the woods.

Sometimes, you just see the way it is.

It comes to mind and that's the way I rub the stain in, but that would be a version of the medicine mask the traditional way.

[soft music continues] Been carving for about 30 some years and I have a lot of various accomplishments in my carving from speaking at the Smithsonian and having pieces in the Smithsonian.

I don't even know how many masks I've made.

How to carve 'em and the look of it is something that I don't think you can train anyone.

The feeling of the wood directs me to carve the different masks that I make.

You throw the block of wood up and you open the log up and it leads you.

It does me.

It's kinda like following a story through the wood.

It's calling to you.

[hammer chopping] All I'm doing is cutting in just straight through.

Now, you see the first ring.

A lot of that comes from years of experience just looking at it.

You can actually see two eyes looking at you.

So, you see that line will start right here.

[hammer continues chopping] It's still gonna reveal itself here.

[hammer continues chopping] If you look at one of the masks and you see it might be following you around the room, you look at another one and it's real bold, standing strong.

It should draw you.

If it don't, then it's not for you, and if it does, then you know the meaning of what I've done through the wood.

- Hunting Boy Wood Carving is at 2793 Massey Branch Road in Robbinsville and they're open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information, give Billy Welch a call at 828-479-9554 or find him on Facebook.

We have had such a great time here at Star Works.

It's a wonderful inspirational place to explore.

You should definitely stop by when you get a chance and if you've missed anything in today's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains, across the Piedmont, to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[uplifting musical tones]