News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Appalachian Center for Crafts will offer a hands-on experience at the Annual Celebration of Craft Saturday.
Appalachian Center for Crafts Director Kimberly Winkle said the event will feature traditional craft demonstrations and art activities. Winkle said glassblowing is one of the most popular demonstrations.
“People who’ve never experienced glass-blowing tend to be pretty mesmerized by the process,” Winkle said. “Seeing this hot molten glass sort of precariously dangling from the end of a pipe and then watching the students turn it into beautiful forms and vessels tends to attract a lot of attention.”
The celebration also offers an opportunity to find one-of-a-kind gifts that represent Upper Cumberland traditions and artistic expression. The
“Buying a hand-made object is imbued with so much personality, so much emotion, so much love, so much of the individual maker, that there’s just really no comparison to the richness it can bring to someone’s life as compared to a mass-produced manufactured object from a factory,” Winkle said.
Winkle said many of the center’s artists use local resources to create art. For example, beautiful lathe-turned wooden forms may come from regional hardwoods.
“We’re lucky here in the Upper Cumberland that we have really lush forests around us,” Winkle said. “The Tulip Poplar being the state tree of Tennessee so we see goods made out of that. We do have some artists who have actually harvested raw clay. So we do have artists who access and create from materials right here in our own backyard.”
Winkle said that attendees should wear comfy clothes and shoes because the center is located on over 500 beautiful acres of Army Corps Engineer land with facilities that cover over 87,000 square feet. She said to get there early to enjoy the art, and live music, and work up an appetite for the food trucks.
The Annual Celebration of Craft at the Appalachian Center for Crafts takes place on Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm at 1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville.
