October Issue 2001
Crazy Gates Ltd. in Garner, NC, Celebrates 4 Years of Whimsy
Four years ago, artist Carol Stein created a whimsical garden gate as a birthday gift for a landscape designer friend who opens her garden for classes and garden tours. The designer installed the gate as a welcoming focal point to the courtyard entrance of her woodland garden, and visitors were enchanted.
It wasn't long before other designers were clamoring to include similar gates in display gardens at local garden shows. As demand grew, the designs just seemed to flow, from the original 'drunken birdhouse gate', into elaborate depictions of people, animals, landscapes, and even seascape motifs.
Stein and her partner, Melissa Griffin take pride in knowing that their designs are displayed in gardens from Cape Hatteras, NC to Port Angeles, WA.
Stein, who also writes a gardening column for the News & Observer in Raleigh, NC, studied drawing, painting and clay sculpting at Craft Alliance in St. Louis, MO, and stone sculpting with Paris Alexander at ArtSpace in Raleigh, NC. She found wood to be a great new medium on which to apply her knowledge of art and design. Griffin began with Crazy Gates, Ltd. as an artist's representative, but soon became Stein's partner in the design process, and now enjoys time in the workshop forming the wood that Stein designs and paints.
Crazy Gates can be used outdoors as functional gates, trellises, and free-standing sculpture. Indoors, collectors are using them as screens, wall hangings, toddler gates, puppy gates, and decorative room dividers.
Crazy Gates, Ltd. artwork is available at several
stores in the Raleigh, NC, area and at Pawley's Island Hammock
Shops in SC. For a complete list or to order online visit (http://www.crazygates.com).
In addition to retail
outlets, Crazy Gates will be on display in two competition gardens
in the Flower Show area at the North Carolina State Fair, Oct.
12-21.
For further info call 919/387-3650 or on the web at (http://www.crazygates.com).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
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Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2001 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.