It's been a busy week at the Folk Art Center! Guild curator Nikki Josheff has been giving the Permanent Collection Gallery some TLC. She has been cleaning, painting, and most importantly, updating the Modernism exhibition in the show. The new pieces she has added include work by Vivian Dai and Barbara Grenell.

Nikki is shown in the top picture above with Guild member and permanent collections volunteer Sharon Bailey. Sharon, Ursula Powers, and June Hillyer work closely with Nikki on cataloguing objects in the Guild's collection. Unfortunately, space will not allow for a large part of the objects to be on display so on occasions such as this week Nikki selects new items to be on view. The next time you are at the Folk Art Center be sure to check out these changes.

Beginning in March each year the Folk Art Center hosts educational demonstrations. This week the demonstrations included jewelry by Ruthie Cohen, lace making by Rita de Maintenon, and pottery by Batton Clayworks.

Ruthie is shown above working on a pair of earrings. In addition to producing her own jewelry Ruthie is also the founder of Mountain Metalsmiths School in Arden, NC.

While at the Folk Art Center Sandy Batton demonstrated how he forms slabwork vases from original designs. A selection of Batton Clayworks signature teapots and figurative houses were on display for sale. Sandy and his wife Ann create all of their pottery at their studio in Kenilworth. Next weekend (June 27 and 28) they will be participating in the Kenilworth Studio Stroll.

Ruthie Cohen and Batton Clayworks are both exhibitors at the summer edition of the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. For a complete schedule of Folk Art Center demonstrations check out the Allanstand page on the Guild's website.

It's hard to believe that the summer edition of 62nd Annual Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is just a few weeks away. Promotion for the event is well under way. Brochures, posters, billboards, tickets and ads are all designed and ready to go. To find out all the details about the show click on the link above.

Each year a craft object made by a SHCG member and Craft Fair exhibitor is chosen as the main design image for advertising and promotion. This year the glass art of Phillip Nolley of Staunton, VA has been chosen.

Clay Day was a huge success Saturday at the Folk Art Center! The weather was perfect and there were a great crowd to enjoy the demonstrations and activities. Several Guild members participated in the event for the first time including: Karen Newgard, Becky and Steve Lloyd, Holden McCurry, Sandy Batton, Tamela Wells and Ron Slagle. The Guild is grateful to Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts for donating clay for many of the demonstrations and activities.

Nancy Darrell, Kim Dryden, Steven Forbes deSoule and Lynn Jenkins stayed busy all day helping folks choose, glaze and fire a raku pot. Each potter threw 50 pots for the event giving visitors plenty of choices. Gary Clontz was also there to help fire the pots.

Glass artists were also invited to the event for the first time. Michael Hatch, Jeff McKinley and Magruder Glass were all crowd pleasers.

Stay tuned for the next special event at the Folk Art Center: Wood Day on August 8.