Pickens and Greenville, SC: Fun Places to Visit!

The “Basketry: Traditional and Contemporary Woven Art” Basketry Exhibition at the Pickens Museum Of Art & History, in Pickens, SC which I attended last week was wonderful! What a little haven of culture that place is! I would never have expected it. I will tell you all about the exhibit, but I suppose I should tell you about the our overall experience first. My friend, Lynn Hoyt, and I traveled there Sept 11, specifically to see the basketry exhibition.

We stayed in Greenville, SC, at the Drury Hotel. Have you ever stayed at a Drury? Well, I had never heard of them. I have to tell you, I did not envision coming home and raving about the hotel in my blog. But it was that nice. Very reasonably priced, and included a free hot dinner (with wine, etc, included) as well as a full hot breakfast. The room was one of the nicest I have ever stayed in, and boy did the hot tub feel good! I highly recommend them. You can tell them I sent you, but of course they have no idea who I am. Next time I visit I hope I will be able to take advantage of their free hot dinner, we were on our way to the exhibit's opening reception and had to skip that part. But there will be a next time!

For lunch, we found a fabulous Indian restaurant, The Saffron, and indulged in an exotic lunch buffet! Heavenly.

Greenville is a lovely city, with freeways and a zoo and meeting centers, public murals and a river running through it. We could have spent weeks exploring, but we had only a couple of hours. We did have a few minutes to visit their downtown. The little streets were very charming. They had streetcars, (above, left) which would have been fun to ride in. and lots of pedestrian plazas to sit on and admire public artwork from.

But we only had time to visit the Beaded Frog, (right) and Ten Thousand Villages, and buy up some goodies. We both were wishing we had at least another day to explore and try all the great places to eat and shop!

Pickens is a small town, only about a 30-40 minute drive from the big city of Greenville SC. It has the feel of a real country town, a little sleepy perhaps. But the museum - wow. Definitely worth the visit.


But FIRST we spent some time in the history part of the museum. We saw artifacts all the way from the Archaic period through WWII.


It is a converted jail, and retained some of the lockup features, which makes it doubly interesting. One of my favorite parts was the little cell they kept intact. I am sure they cleaned this up quite a bit for us. Also notice they still have the barred windows. Lynn did agree to stand outside it, so I could take a picture.





Upstairs was the Cherokee Carver's Exhibit, very nice. You can see they kept a lockup door in this exhibit area, also. It is in the wall at right, next to the carved masks.







The Carver's Exhibit was wonderful!


One of the things I really liked was the actual maul and wedges or "gluts" made of oak by Stan Tooni, Sr. These are used to split the logs he carves. These are traditional, handmade tools, which of course are made by the carver. These were made in 2009...Though made of oak and very hard, I'll bet he wears a few of those out!



Some of my favorite carvings were "Corn Maiden," 2008, by John Grant (of stone, wood, and corn, at left,) and "Standing Guard," by James "Bud" Smith (of cherry wood, right.) But it was really hard to pick, everything was so beautiful!

In the middle of the Cherokee Carver's Exhibit, there was an extraordinary bench made of twisted wood. I confess, I was so busy trying it out and taking photos of it, I neglected to get the wood and maker information...but here it is! Lynn was kind enough to sit on it for me, so you can get the scale. I would LOVE to have a whole house full of furniture like this. It was comfortable, too! (Don't forget, you can click on any of these photos to see them closer!)


Another great part of the downstairs exhibits was this fabulous dinosaur skeleton constructed of metal pieces...I thought it was a real raptor skeleton at first! It is constructed largely of rebar and large scale machine chains - like bicycle chains, but huge!

Visit again tomorrow and I hope to have my basketry exhibit photos up...the BEST PART!
pamela

Baskets by Vicki Phillips

Take a look at this great basket made by Vicki Phillips, with a dragonfly base from my MakeABasket etsy shop! More photos can be seen in her blog. The Phillips mother/daughter team share all sorts of wonderful things in their blog. To find more basket entries, look at the labels on the right column of their blog, and click on "baskets."

“Basketry: Traditional and Contemporary Woven Art” Exhibition

“Basketry: Traditional and Contemporary Woven Art”
Basketry Exhibition

September 11 – November 11, 2010
Pickens Museum Of Art & History
307 Johnson St.
Pickens, SC 29671
At the Pickens County Museum of Art & History, eight artists from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia are featured in a basketry exhibition of more than forty baskets and woven art.

Opening Reception is Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 6:00-8:00p.m.

Come and meet the artists and enjoy this collection of works from Michael Davis, Barbara McCormick, Gale McKinley, Tika Tucker, Dolores von Rosen, Laura Lee Zanger, Pamela Zimmerman, and Guest Curator Pati English.

From Guest Curator, Pati English: "As Guest Curator, it was my privilege to invite eight artisans to participate in this basketry exhibition. It is my vision that visitors will be amazed and engaged by the scope of artistry and history in hand woven fiber art...The unique display of three-dimensional art is a celebration of beauty and function. Journey through our American heritage, preserving our past, intersecting our present natural world of fiber, and connecting to the contemporary sculptures…”

Call the museum at 864-898-5963 for more information.

I am honored to have six pieces exhibited in this show. I would love to see you at the opening reception, I hope to be there!

Exchange Basket Received: Marianne Barnes to Jessica Pitts

Here's another great basket in our Summertime Exchange, this one from Marianne Barnes to Jessica Pitts.

Jessica wrote:

"Yesterday I received a lovely gourd which had a coiled top/neck which had been woodburned with pictures of seashells and which was adorned with seahorses and shells. I shall add this lovely item to my exchange collection. Thank you Maryanne!!!!!"

Way to go, Marianne! What a cute little gourd...and woodburning is particularly exquisite, it is easy to see that she is a very experienced gourd artist! A wonderful contribution.

Exchange Basket Received: Pamela Zimmerman to Sue Cowell

Here is another exchange basket, this one from Pamela Zimmerman to Sue Cowell.

Sue wrote:

"Yesterday's mail brought me a treasure! And I'm not exaggerating. I received a wonderful piece of coiled sculpture from Pamela Zimmerman, entitled BLUE PEARLY WAVE.

"Unless my eyes decieve me, it's made of brown & blond horsehair, coiled on one of her beautiful pottery bases. The binding material looks to be artifical sinew in blue & white. There is a teeny-tiny horsehair basket on the rim, and tiny pearls sewn where the base meets the coils. I do so hope the pictures do this justice.

"My daughter & I could not agree if it reminds us of the undulations of an octopus or jellyfish swimming, but it definatly looks like motion caught in time. Thank you, thank you, Pamela. I will treasure this."

Well, i'll take that, Sue. Actually, the underwater creature that inspired me was the sea slug. but of course that does not sound as neat as an octopus or jellyfish. But check them out, they are very cool. They come in many colors and shapes and are amazing! Glad you like it.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this exchange, it is almost over!

Exchnage Basket Received: Gerri Swanson to Deborah Groom

There are only a few exchange baskets left to post. Here is a very unusual one, with kelp! From Gerri Swanson to Deborah Groom.

Deborah says: "I received the most exquisite basket today... what a wonderful surprise to find Geri's basket waiting for me when I got home. It really jumped started the summer for me again.

"It is so beautiful and has so many beach gathered elements. She used Torrey Pine pine needles and coiled them in hand dyed raffia. The blue-grey of the raffia was almost identical in colouring to one of the shells in the rim of the basket. The rim also included three other shells and a fourth that was coiled into an unright position using the end of a piece of bullwhip kelp.

"You have to see this piece to admire the craftmanship, the textures, colours and ingenuity. The kelp coils around the basket and has this fabulous bulb head that I first thought was the end of a gourd.


"The center is a sand dollar that is accompanied by two other gift sand dollars, one of them drilled and one not. Talk about feeling spoilt! ...There was even two pieces of sea glass added in the basket.

I just want to say such a big thank you to you Geri for such a beautiful gift. It will be treasured and admired for a very long time. I know it must have been hard to let go of such of special piece. Thank you so much."

What a wonderfully creative basket, i really love the look of the kelp and the kelp bulb. Maybe Gerri will tell us something about the kelp? You lucky, Deborah!

Exchange Basket Received: Janet Bonnell to Gerri Swanson

Here is another Summertime Exchange basket, from Janet Bonnell to Gerri Swanson!

What great color in this one! I love it! Gerri loves it too, she wrote:

"The basket is a beautifully woven brown pine needle basket. It has sliced
shells for the bottom center and for the handles. All pulled together with
perfectly done stitching in 2 different shades of pink waxed linen.

"Absolutely gorgeous work Janet, I thank you! The little silver feather is a
fabulous signature."
wow, i'm loving this! We only have a few more baskets to go, but this seaside theme is really persisting!

Exchange Received: Deborah Groom to Donna in WA

Here is our latest exchange basket, it is by Deborah Groom, and was received by Donna, in WA.
Deborah had a definite idea for her basket, and executed it exactly as she had envisioned! The center and beads are made of polymer clay.

Deborah said: "I based it on tidal pools... I also tried to imitate the kelp and water action by adding many, many coils. I love the play of colours in the water and they way it slips in and out around the pools. The basket is intentionally asymetrical so I hope Donna likes things that are a little different. It is hard not to correct to a proper circle but I like the randomness of asymetry and find it more in keeping with these pools."


Wow, i think you did exactly what you set out to!
pamela