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June Issue 2004
North Carolina Arts Council Sets Up Craft Bridal Registry
The traditional Southern wedding is alive and well - but with a twist. Instead of choosing fine china, crystal and sterling patterns, brides across North Carolina are increasingly registering at craft galleries and studios for hand-crafted works.
Laura Carmichael, a 30-year-old nurse in Winston-Salem, NC, and her fiancé registered at Cady Clay Works in Seagrove, NC, the renowned pottery community, before her March 2004 wedding. "We both love pottery and didn't want to go the traditional route of fine china or department store casual china," she said. "I already have my Grandmother's china and didn't feel I needed to have any other."
Instead, the couple chose their own style and glaze, and commissioned a line of hand-crafted pottery - dishes, bowl, mugs, serving pieces, candlesticks and goblets. "Pottery is more durable, unique and it's a beautiful craft," Carmichael said. "We wanted something that we would use everyday. And we wanted to display some pieces."
As the June wedding season approaches during North Carolina's 2004-05 Celebration of North Carolina Craft, more and more craft organizations are aligning their sales and Internet services to accommodate this new trend.
That's why Piedmont Craftsmen, a Winston-Salem craft guild that's celebrating its 40th birthday as part of the Celebration of North Carolina Craft, has held a bridal/garden show for the last three years. Known for its annual crafts fair representing nearly 400 Southeastern member artists, Piedmont Craftsmen started its own bridal registry in its downtown gallery four years ago.
"We realized that customers were coming here for the distinctive wedding gift," said Executive Director Tomi Nelson. "A pottery casserole can be put on the coffee table with Christmas balls in it for the holidays, then you can turn around and bake lasagna in it. That appeals to today's young people, as well as the craft aficionado who may be getting remarried."
The NC Pottery Center in Seagrove is North Carolina's gateway to 95+ area potteries, featuring displays of local potters' work, maps to their studios, and information services of interest to the collector, craft student, and casual visitor. Visitors to surrounding potteries - some established for eight or nine generations - come for the salt-glazed stoneware, face jugs, raku pots, and crystalline pieces. Like Laura Carmichael, many brides are coming to register as well, says Jennie Lorette Keatts, a Seagrove jewelry maker who also serves as the Seagrove Area Potters Association Marketing Committee Chair.
At Avery Pottery and Tileworks in Seagrove, one bride fell in love with a pot she'd spotted in the gallery. "Her mom tracked us down after suggesting to her daughter that she may be able to get her whole registry done through us," said tilemaker and studio co-owner Laura Avery. "This couple wanted a personal connection with the place settings and serving pieces they chose. It was really important to them to have something special, something made just for them. They love the fact that they can work directly with us, and they know where and how the pieces were made. It's added a personal connection to the process of picking out registry items."
Search out your own bridal registry at (www.DiscoverCraftNC.org), supported by the North Carolina Arts Council. The web site provides information about craft-based organizations (museums, galleries, schools and art centers), and links you directly to the groups to plan travel itineraries. It's all part of the 2004-05 Celebration of North Carolina Craft, as proclaimed by North Carolina's Governor Michael F. Easley. The Celebration showcases North Carolina's craft artists and products. More than 19 North Carolina craft organizations - from the mountains to the coast - are participating.
The Celebration of North Carolina Craft is sponsored by the NC Craft Coalition, comprising 19 craft organizations banding together to promote North Carolina as a cultural tourism destination. The NC Arts Council supports the initiative.
For more information on the Celebration of North Carolina Craft, visit (www.discovercraftnc.org).
For more information on the NC Arts Council, call 919/733-2822 or visit (www.ncarts.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 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© 2004 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.