Experience Two New Holiday Events in Spruce Pine
Sponsored by the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree

The perfect start to the holiday season…the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree Holiday Market. The first weekend in December promises a getaway unlike any other. The Town of Spruce Pine kicks off the season with a unique shopping experience. Housed in a renovated mill, the Holiday Market features handcrafted artists and craftspeople selling their wares in a festive setting. You can even come and pick out your perfect Christmas Tree! Experience a memorable shopping experience among one of a kind decorations, a Market Café, and special holiday entertainment. Set in the picturesque North Carolina Mountains and in the haven for craft in the United States, the Market compliments the Toe River Studio Tour taking place the same weekend where over 200 artists in the region will open their studios to the public for a very special and unique holiday shopping experience. Known for being the premier craft destination, featuring Penland School of Craft and hundreds of artists, Spruce Pine rolls out the welcome mat this holiday season and presents a very special holiday weekend!
Holiday Market December 5 & 6, 31 Cross Street Center, Spruce Pine, NC 28777 For more information visit http://www.homeoftheperfectchristmastree.org/ or call 828-765-9033.

~Holiday Festival Features Ice Skating in the Street ~

Historic Downtown Spruce Pine, nationally known as the Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree, will transform into a spectacular and magical evening this holiday season. Blanketed with thousands of lights, the historic Upper Street becomes an eye-popping winter wonderland with real ice skating in the streets, holiday festooned wagon rides, Story time for kids, festive food, a chili cook off, a unique shopping experience and more. A special holiday event for the whole family unlike any other!

Saturday, December 12th
1 p.m.-7 p.m.
Upper Street, Spruce Pine
http://www.homeoftheperfectchristmastree.org/
828-765-9033

Akira Satake kohiki - yuuyaku - yakishime at Crimson Laurel Gallery

This November, Crimson Laurel Gallery presents: Yakishime – Kohiki – Yuuyaku – New work by Akira Satake and also New Work by guest potter Lindsay Rogers.

Akira will feature three distinct styles of pottery. Yakishime refers to pottery that is fired without any applied glaze. Natural ash glaze builds up on the pottery during wood firing and creates a number of wood-fired pottery effects. Kohiki is modeled after Korean Yi Dynasty ceramics and typically refers to an iron-rich clay body with white slip and then finished with a translucent glaze. Yuuyaku refers to glazed ceramic pieces and Akria uses Kakl, a persimmon or red iron glaze, Shino, a feldspar glaze originally developed in Japan and Celadon, a glaze which is white with hints of green and blue originally developed in China. Akira was born in Osaka, Japan has been living in the U.S. since 1983 In 2003 he relocated to Swannanoa, North Carolina, where he built a Japanese Kyushu-style oil kiln and a wood-fired kiln. For Akira the act of creation is a collaboration between himself, the clay and the fire. Akira has been influenced by natural events such as undulations in sand that has been moved by wind and rock formations as well as the crackle and patina of the weathered walls of ancient structures.

Lindsay Rogers was influenced by the antique pottery that surrounded her in her youth and the many hands and stories that those antique pieces had experienced. She is excited at the prospect that her work possesses this potential and her hope is that each piece she creates will stand alone as a ceramic representation of of how she interacts with the world. Lindsay began her work in ceramics in 2001 in New Haven Connecticut and was offered a residency in Natchez, Mississippi in 2005 where she worked with potter Conner Burns. She is currently working as a resident artist at the EnergyXchange in western North Carolina.

The exhibit opened on November 7th and an artist reception will take place on November 21st at 6pm. The exhibit will remain at Crimson Laurel Gallery through the end of the year. You can also see the exhibit online at www.crimsonlaurelgallery.com

John Lara

Crimson Laurel Gallery

(828) 688 3599