The Homespun Chics visited the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands in downtown Asheville today and we had a wonderful time! It is rare to find such a wide array of artistic talent displayed all in one place, but of course the Asheville area is famous for beautiful folk art.

This is not your crocheted toilet paper covers type of craft fair! All of the 200+ exhibitors were juried members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, whose mission is to “bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation.” The Guild, a non-profit, began in 1930 and continues strong to this day. They have a website at:

http://www.southernhighlandguild.org/

The exhibits covered 2 levels of the US Cellular Center and featured traditional and contemporary crafts of mixed media, natural materials, paper, jewelry, fiber, clay, leather, glass, metal and wood. Each artist booth displayed beautiful works of art and it was hard to leave one to move on to the next! There were also scheduled demonstrations of pottery making, dovetail box making, blacksmithing and spinning/carding. And did I mention music? Live bluegrass is amazing!! You can’t stop tapping your feet!! This was Little G’s favorite stop!

Today was an outrageously delicious day to wander around Asheville, with temperatures in the 60s and full sun, autumn leaves on the trees shining with yellows, golds and oranges and surrounded by the lush mountains. If you haven’t been here, you MUST come to visit. Especially in the fall!