Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, to Participate in Downtown ArtWalk – Nov. 9, 2012

Join us at Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, for some refreshments and to see the new work we’ve gotten in for our Christmas Show “Make this a Handcrafted Holiday!” on view during the Downtown ArtWalk on Friday, Nov. 9, from 5-8pm.

Works by Clayton Dickson

The gallery will be displaying new pottery, ornaments, jewelry, wearables, candles, handmade soap, coasters, a New Bern puzzle, new Christmas angels by Shirley E., just to name a few!

As the season approaches we will be decorating our window and the entire gallery – for right now we have a few Christmas things up just to tease you!

We have Christmas cards by our resident artist Jan Francoeur and from 8 other artists. Each year for the past 18 years Francoeur has created a new Christmas card and ornament. A donation will be made to the Bank of the Arts toward the building fund for each ornament sold.

See Stan Harmons new crab panel, Geoffrey Lloyd’s beautiful new glaze, nautical jewelry by Barbara Vincent, new paintings by T Rader and and lots more.

Several of our artists live in the affected area from Hurricane Sandy and so we’ll be donating a portion of our sales during ArtWalk this coming Friday night to CERF – Craft Emergency Relief Fund.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Carolina Creations is located at 317 Pollock Street in downtown New Bern.

For further information call 252/633-4369, e-mail to (info@carolinacreations.com) or visit (www.carolinacreations.com).

Craven Arts Council in New Bern, NC, Announces Winner of the People’s Choice Award from 2012 Bank of the Arts Juried Show

For the 2012 Bank of the Arts Juried Show, which ran from May 11 through June, more than 120 artists submitted 293 works; 65 made it through a juror’s decision process to be part of the show. But for the duration of the exhibit, each visitor was invited to vote for his or her favorite piece, be it a painting, sculpture, pottery, photography, or other work.

Work by Stan Harmon

Some 468 votes were cast, and the clear winner of the People’s Choice Award was “Generation X: Model #001 Wave Generator.” The beautiful and captivating fused-glass work is by New Bern resident Stan Harmon, who received a $200 award from Craven Arts Council & Gallery.

“Glass as a medium of self-expression has dominated my artistic endeavors since the late 1970s,” Harmon says. “My artwork is an attempt to recreate a moment in time, an atmosphere, the feeling of connection with the creatures that inhabit the many emotionally moving moments of time and space I have experienced in daily living and travel.”

For further info contact the Craven Arts Council at 252/638-2577 or visit (www.cravenarts.org).

Craven Arts Council in New Bern, NC, is Calling for Artists to Participate in the Craven Arts Festival – Deadline July 31, 2012

Through July 31, 2012, the Craven Arts Council in New Bern, NC, is accepting applications from artists to participate in the 2012 Craven Arts Festival, which takes place Sept. 29 and 30, 2012, at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center.

All original fine arts and crafts are eligible, including, but not limited to, jewelry, painting, drawing, mixed media, photography, sculpture, pottery, fiber arts and furniture. All work must be created by the artist. Mass-produced, commercially manufactured work or work manufactured from kits or molds is ineligible.

The Festival includes artist booths and demonstrations; interactive art projects; artist workshops; music, theatre and dance performances; and children’s activities. Saturday night features a Wine Tasting event and the premiere of the Bernie Awards, recognizing outstanding contributions to the arts environment of Craven County.

Visit (www.cravenarts.org) to download the application and to learn more about the Craven Arts Festival or e-mail questions to (cravenarts@cravenarts.org).

Le Bistro Fine Dining and The Art Gallery in New Bern, NC, is Calling all Artist to Exhibit on Their Walls – Deadline Feb. 28, 2012

Are you looking for a venue to exhibit your art? Attention artists! Here’s a chance for you to display your works of art at Le Bistro Fine Dining and The Art Gallery in New Bern, NC.

LeBistro Fine Dining and The Art Gallery is a small, elegant dining establishment located on Trent Road in New Bern that offers the finest adult cuisine served in an art gallery atmosphere. Enjoy fine wine and fine dining prepared by Exeutive Chef Christopher Marvarelas, while you view art work from local artist.

Le Bistro Fine Dining and The Art Gallery features local artist who explore a wide range of media.

Deadline for submission is Feb. 28, 2012.

Art will be on exhibit Mar. 1 – Apr. 30, 2012.

For more information contact Michelle by calling 252/626-3203, e-mail to (michelle67@ec.rr.com) or visit (http://www.lebistrofinediningandtheartgallery.com).

Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, Offers Annual Valentine Card Sale and Benefit

Carolina Creations Fine Art & Contemporary Craft Gallery, located at 317 Pollock Street in downtown New Bern, NC, is presenting its 6th Annual Valentine Card Sale and Benefit through Feb. 14, 2012.

For the past 6 years Craven County School children have created Valentines to raise funds for their art programs. Here’s how it works – Carolina Creations donates card stock and envelopes to the schools, during art classes the children create the cards, we hang them at Carolina Creations and sell them for $3 each, then we donate the funds raised back to the school art program. Twenty two schools participated this year.

Many different techniques and mediums are used and the children learn from each. A class working in black and white line, stamping, making emblems from clay, collage, a class on Jackson Pollock inspired cards, papermaking, are all used in creating the cards.

The show and sale runs through Feb. 14, 2012, with the opening reception on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012, from 5-8pm during New Bern’s ArtWalk.

Many of the cards can be used for other occasions as well, so think out of the box! Anniversary, I love you, just a note…. stock up for the year!

For further info call Carolina Creations at 252/633-4369 or visit (http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/).

Carolina Creations Fine Arts and Contemporary Craft Gallery in New Bern, NC, Invites You to an Open House – Nov. 25 and 26, 2011

Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, invites you to their Open House on Friday & Saturday, Nov. 25 & 26 (Small Business Saturday).

For this Annual Christmas Open House, see us all decked out for Christmas! There will be: Yummy refreshments; Register for door prizes; Find unique gifts & stocking stuffers for everyone on your list; A small gift with purchase to the 1st 300 customers; We’ll wrap (complimentary); and We ship!

On Friday the 25th stay Downtown for the “Light Up the Season” event at Bear Plaza when our Downtown welcomes Santa, who arrives in a carriage, crafts for kids, bell ringers, entertainment, refreshments, Free!! 4-6pm in Bear Plaza. Santa arrives at 5pm. Come early and stay late to enjoy the lights coming on in Downtown New Bern!

For further info call 252/633-4369 or visit (www.carolinacreations.com).

Carolina Creations Fine Art and Contemporary Craft Gallery in New Bern, NC – Ready for September ArtWalk – Sept. 9, 2011

After Hurricane Irene came to call on New Bern, NC, and dropped over 15 inches of rain on the area – Carolina Creations Fine Art and Contemporary Craft Gallery, at 317-A Pollock Street, is ready for the New Bern ArtWalk on Sept. 9, 2011, from 5-8pm.

All the businesses in New Bern would love to have you come see that they can take a punch. Their downtown area has been cleaned up, power is restored, and they are ready for visitors and customers.

For the ArtWalk Carolina Creations is pleased to feature the work of Triangle, NC, based fabric artist Elaine O’Neil, whose works will be on view through Oct. 18, 2011.

O’Neil creates textile collages, each image using a myriad of fabric colors and textures, all painstakingly sewn together to create whimsical and realistic portrayals of scenes from the mountains to the coast.

The subjects of O’Neil’s work focuses around a sense of place, and the life that happens in that place. She tries to establish the emotional bond we have with special places, stitching the memories together with a sense of humor and delight.

O’Neil starts with a simple sketch and approaches the creation of each textile through snip and cuts, using her scissors like a painters brush, slowly revealing the image, with layer upon layer of fabric, stitched into place using a variety of colors and textures.

Her hope is to evoke the feeling of pleasure and delight, where life is simple, sweet and full of endless possibilities.

O’Neil grew up in Maine and began sewing as a girl. She attended the Philadelphia college of Textiles and Science earning a BS in textile design. She is great-granddaughter to a lighthouse keeper, granddaughter to a farmer, daughter of an ardent seamstress, all of which contributes to memories she depicts in her textile collages. Her work has been used in several publications and she has illustrated 2 children’s books. Her work is shown in galleries along the coast.

We hope you’ll stop in and see her fabulous work, if you can’t, we have some of her pieces on our website!  We ship of course!

For further information call the gallery at 252/633-4369 or visit (www.carolinacreations.com).

Carolina Creations Fine Art & Contemporary Craft Gallery in New Bern, NC, Features Works by Jude Lobe During New Bern art walk – May 13, 2011

Carolina Creations Fine Art & Contemporary Craft Gallery in New Bern, NC, will be featuring Jude Lobe during ARTWALK Downtown New Bern, on May 13, 2011, from 5-8pm. Lobe, of Mebane, NC, is the gallery’s featured artist for May and June with her show Provence Revisited, on view through June 29, 2011.

Working in oil and acrylics Lobe truly captures the aura of a trip through Provence.

Lobe says, “Art is functional. Every time you glance at it, it lifts your spirits.”

Carolina Creations Fine Art & Contemporary Craft Gallery is located at 317 Pollock Street in downtown New Bern.

For further information call the gallery at 252/633-4369 or visit (http://www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com/).

Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, Sponsors Spring Homes and Gardens Tour – Apr. 8 & 9, 2011

Carolina Creations Fine Art & Contemporary Craft Gallery, in New Bern, NC, is a proud sponsor of the New Bern Spring Homes and Gardens Tour 2011, and Carolina Creations resident artist Janet Francoeur created the art for the poster. This is her 5th year for creating art for the Tour.

Each year Carolina Creations hosts a reception for the Homes and Gardens tour on the Friday evening of the tour, which this year is Friday, Apr. 8, 2011. The Tour is Friday and Saturday, Apr. 8 & 9, 2011, from 10am-4pm. The reception at Carolina Creations is from 4-8pm and is open to the public and to ticket holders.

Francoeur will have prints of the poster art as well as tiles of each of the buildings on the tour. The tiles are drawn, one at a time on bisque tiles, then painted with underglazes, covered with a clear glaze and fired to 1800 degrees. The tiles can hang or be used as a trivet.

Francoeur and her husband Michael own Carolina Creations and display their work as well as that of 300 other local, regional and national artists. They are celebrating their 21st year in downtown New Bern.

Francoeur holds a BA in drawing and printmaking from Siena Heights University, Adrian, MI. She works in many mediums including clay, ink, watercolor, oil and acrylic. She is very active in the Downtown Business Association, is Chairman of A Dickens of a Christmas in Downtown New Bern, is on the Swiss Bear Board and the CRAFT Retailers Association.

Carolina Creations is located at 317 Pollock St. Suite A in New Bern. The gallery was named one of the top 25 craft galleries in the US by Niche Magazine.

For further information call 252-633-4369; e-mail to (info@carolinacreations.com), on the Web at (www.carolinacreations.com), blogging at (www.carolinacreations.blogspot.com) and on Facebook!

Carolina Creations in New Bern, NC, Gears Up for ArtWalk – Mar. 11, 2011

Carolina Creations’ second ArtWalk of the year is coming up Friday, Mar. 11, 2011, from 5-8pm, and we’ve got two featured artists!

First is Kay Coburn Rice doing a glass demonstration and the second is a book signing with Karen Dodd.

Glass artist Kay Coburn Rice of New Bern will be working with her torch demonstrating how she makes her glass sculptures and beads.

A New Bern native, Rice has recently returned to her hometown after spending many years in Texas. She has been working with glass for 11 years and torch worked glass for 7 years. She started out doing fused glass jewelry in a kiln while living in Texas.

Rice studied metal work for three years then found her true calling when she started working with a torch. She took classes with Kip Maley at  the Craft Guild of Dallas and developed her skill at making glass beads.

Most recently through her study with Josh Mazet Rice has developed her skill with torch worked sculptural Borosilicate glass. She has also studied with Corina Tettinger, Deb Crowley, Gail Crosman Moore and other accomplished glass artists.

Rice enjoys recreating things found in nature, especially flowers and fish and making jewelry with her fused glass and her lamp worked beads. Lamp working is a type of glasswork that uses a gas fueled torch to melt rods and tubes of clear and colored glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking.

Lamp working has been done since ancient times but it came into prominence in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. Lamp working differs from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a blowpipe to inflate a glass blob known as a gob or gather, inflating it by blowing air into the blowpipe, whereas lamp working manipulates glass either by the use of tools, gravity, or by blowing directly into the end of a glass tube.

In addition, local author Karen Dodd will be present to sign her new mystery novel, Bear With Me, Dear.

Dodd will be in attendance to answer questions about the series. This is the final book in her Riverwalk Mystery trilogy. The main character Fiona Wade, is a retired grandmother who loves a mystery. After discovering a body she begins her search for the murderer.

This is not a history book but you will recognize landmarks, specifically the New Bern bear statues. There are 10 photos of New Bern homes, the first 10 people who send in the correct addresses of the mystery houses will receive a free book of their choosing from the author.

The artist and author will be at Carolina Creations during ArtWalk so stop in and meet them, enjoy some refreshments, and see what else is new!

For more information call the gallery at 252/633-4369, e-mail at (info@carolinacreations.com) or visit (www.carolinacreationsnewbern.com).