We make our living woodworking. This isn’t a hobby or added income. We work full time woodworking. We start with either logs or rough cut lumber, dry the lumber to proper moisture content, then plane and edge the lumber. From this point we select the board for whatever project we are making.

Our designs are all our own using the best joinery for the style and look we are trying to achieve. We work closely with our customers to ensure they get the product they are wanting. Many of our designs follow the function of the piece of furniture. We make our products to be used. Our furniture will last at least a lifetime.

Everything we build is individually constructed allowing us to vary anything from the wood used to the size of the piece. Whether it be a kitchen table or a cutting board, we take pride in the fact that they are made to last while being pleasing to the eye. Check out our website for more information and pictures at www.bluemountainwoodwork.com.

Work, techniques and material: We make wood products including furniture, cabines, cutting boards and bowls. Almost all our products are made from locally grown white oak, hickory, walnut, cherry and cedar. We maintain our own kiln for drying our wood. We use several finishes including an all natural FDA- approved finish for food surfaces.

Process, technique and materials that make our work unique: We use various types of joinery in our furniture. Dovetailed corners, mortise and tenon, sliding dovetails, half lap joint, depending on the application. We use lumber cut at local sawmills in Stone and Searcy Counties. Any joint that is glued together is left in glueing clamps for a full 24 hours for added strength. All wood is individually selected depending on use.

Education/Training: Paul Sr. received a Bachelor of Sciencer degree in Industrial Technology from Pittburg State University in 1970. Woodworking had been a hobby till he worked at the Ozark Folk Center, mostly in the furniture shop, using hand tools making chairs, etc. In 1987 he opened the current shop making various craft items. This evolved into cabinets and furniture. Paul Jr. grew up around the wood shop. Also he worked construction for several years, followed by several years sanding swords for Hollow Earth Swords.

Development of work and design origin: We started by making small craft itmes which quickly led to furniture and cabinets. We make functional items. Our design is derived from the “form follows function” concept. The artistic portion of our work comes from within our own minds. Our joinery processes come from the strongest foints for the particular application. We use dovetails, mortise & tenon, half laps, butt joints, and biscuit joinery to ensure a quality product.

We make our living woodworking. This isn’t a hobby or added income. We work full time woodworking. We start with either logs or rough cut lumber, dry the lumber to proper moisture content, then plane and edge the lumber. From this point we select the board for whatever project we are making.

Our designs are all our own using the best joinery for the style and look we are trying to achieve. We work closely with our customers to ensure they get the product they are wanting. Many of our designs follow the function of the piece of furniture. We make our products to be used. Our furniture will last at least a lifetime.

Everything we build is individually constructed allowing us to vary anything from the wood used to the size of the piece. Whether it be a kitchen table or a cutting board, we take pride in the fact that they are made to last while being pleasing to the eye. Check out our website for more information and pictures at www.bluemountainwoodwork.com.

Work, techniques and material: We make wood products including furniture, cabines, cutting boards and bowls. Almost all our products are made from locally grown white oak, hickory, walnut, cherry and cedar. We maintain our own kiln for drying our wood. We use several finishes including an all natural FDA- approved finish for food surfaces.

Process, technique and materials that make our work unique: We use various types of joinery in our furniture. Dovetailed corners, mortise and tenon, sliding dovetails, half lap joint, depending on the application. We use lumber cut at local sawmills in Stone and Searcy Counties. Any joint that is glued together is left in glueing clamps for a full 24 hours for added strength. All wood is individually selected depending on use.

Education/Training: Paul Sr. received a Bachelor of Sciencer degree in Industrial Technology from Pittburg State University in 1970. Woodworking had been a hobby till he worked at the Ozark Folk Center, mostly in the furniture shop, using hand tools making chairs, etc. In 1987 he opened the current shop making various craft items. This evolved into cabinets and furniture. Paul Jr. grew up around the wood shop. Also he worked construction for several years, followed by several years sanding swords for Hollow Earth Swords.

Development of work and design origin: We started by making small craft itmes which quickly led to furniture and cabinets. We make functional items. Our design is derived from the “form follows function” concept. The artistic portion of our work comes from within our own minds. Our joinery processes come from the strongest foints for the particular application. We use dovetails, mortise & tenon, half laps, butt joints, and biscuit joinery to ensure a quality product.

I have a passion for painting and a love for the Arkansas countryside. My faith in Jesus Christ is my source of strength and peace. I credit my Creator with all that’s wonderful and beautiful in the universe and give Him the glory in all things. I am impressed by the abundance of natural beauty one can find here in the Ozarks and much of my art is an effort to express that beauty from my perspective. I love this state, the people and its wealth of visual pleasures.

My artistic career began as art director for the city of north Little Rock. I spent ten years developing the arts throughout the city. During those early years, I co-founded Arkansas League of Artists and served in the position of President for the first 5 years. In the mid-70s I initiated the Annual Burns Park Arts and Craft Fair featuring more than 300 artists and attracting some 50-thousand visitors.

In 2007 I was honored to be chosen as the featured artist for Riverfest, a festival held each year in Little Rock. As featured artist I created a painting reflecting the images of Riverfest.

My art is part of public and private collections around the world. One of my favorite portraits is one I did of the late Jackson T. Stephens which is featured on my website, jimtindall.com. For the past several years I have worked as an expressive art specialist with Birch Tree Communities, Inc. teaching art with therapeutic benefits that aid in patient recovery. Each spring more than 100 of my students exhibit to sell some250 paintings at the Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock to the more than 500 visitors in attendance.

I am comfortable painting in most mediums, but prefer acrylics. Although I enjoy sketching portrait caricatures and have drawn 1000s of them over the past 35 years.

I also enjoy the local streams fly fishing for trout and casting my killer lure for smallmouth bass.

You are invited to stop in and take a look at my art, and if you ask, I will do a free caricature portrait sketch of you just for stopping by.

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My love of fiber began in 1976 when my mother-in-law introduced me to quilting.  After 20 years as a traditional quilter, I fell in love all over again with a new form of quilting: Art Quilts.

Winning “Best of Show” in The Great Arkansas Quilt Show in 2002 convinced me that Art Quilts could be accepted in this traditional area of the country.  My desire to create unique one-of-a-kind wall art quilts has taken me on a whole new path.  My hand-dyed fabric is incorporated into many of my designs and I have expanded my list of offerings to include handbags, silk scarves and fabric postcards.
When I am not in my studio, I teach art quilting in several states.  What fun it is to teach what I love.  I also enjoy hiking and visiting my grandkids.

The past ten years living in this beautiful, peaceful area has stimulated my creativity and I look forward to showing you how I share studio space with my bedroom.  It works out well when I get an idea in the middle of the night!  I’m looking forward to meeting all you art lovers participating in this unique Off the Beaten Path adventure.

Directions: Follow Highway 5/9/14 North from Mountain View about 3.6 miles.  Turn right on Ruddle Road (the first right past the go-cart track).  Turn at the third mailbox on the right to find my studio.  Four rock steps will lead you to my front door – 218 Ruddle Road.

Sculpture & Mixed Media

www.StoneCountyArt.com

email: lee@StoneCountyArt.com

At Cowan’s Stone County Art studio, you will see mosaic tables, benches, and stepping-stones as well as mixed media wall hangings, mobiles, fountains, and sculptures. All of her work is hand-made, one-of-a-kind, deeply textured and sensuous. Some touches the spiritual; some is funny. Most of the pieces will work well both outside and inside your home. The highly unusual work, which ranges from primitive to post- modern, often incorporates a wide variety of found objects. Cowan’s Stone County Art has won a number of awards and honors. The Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock will feature her sculptures for several months in 2013.

Lee discovered her artistic self late in life, during a clay class at the Arkansas Art Center. Wanting next to make larger objects that could withstand the outdoor elements, she began experimenting with a variety of cement products. She and her husband left their professional careers in Little Rock in 1998 to move deep into the Ozark Mountains. Once there, she pursued her art, writing, and music as her husband was becoming an award-winning winemaker. Their radical transformation is chronicled in her book Except for all the Snakes, I Just Love it out Here (The News from Stone County Arkansas), which will be available on the tour.

The work runs from $15 to $1000. Cash and checks accepted.

Directions:

Getting to Lee’s studio is an adventure in itself. It is about 7 miles from pavement (four miles past Joe Bruhin’s studio and 28 miles from the Court House Square in Mountain View). A natural, uneven path in the forest floor takes you to the 15 stair steps leading up to the studio, which is on the second floor of a new 40 x 40 metal building filled with windows. Unfortunately, there is no help available for those with mobility issues. A charming outhouse with stained glass windows and a tiled floor is available for your use at the bottom of the stairs. If you like, feel free to bring a blanket, your favorite beverage, and a snack to picnic in the small family vineyard from which their award-winning wines come.

At the Fox Post Office, set your odometer (all mileage below is from the Fox Post Office).

Take the road (Ticer) that runs beside the post office for .1 miles, then turn RIGHT on Branscom-Broyles Parkway.

At .3 miles (again, all mileage indications are from the Fox Post Office), turn LEFT onto Red River Road, and follow this road until it dead-ends at 6.7 miles. (Along the way, you will pass Joe Bruhin’s Fox Mountain Pottery at 3.6 miles; be sure to AVOID the lefts at 3.7 and 4.8 miles).

At 6.7 miles is a “T” intersection: turn LEFT, cross the concrete bridge, and at 7.5 miles, take a sharp left into our drive. It is marked 3425 Meadow Creek Road, Lee and Mike, No Trespassing, Beware of Dogs.

Lee’s studio is on a gravel road that runs behind their hand-made, earth-bermed house.

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Dana lives quietly on the edge of town where she dyes her yarns and weaves. Her Swedish tapestry loom sits in her dining room where she can constantly evaluate works in progress and weave when time permits. Her designs start on the computer. Using her digital photos, she manipulates, combines, and alters images until the desired effect is achieved. These are printed in a small format under a grid that can be enlarged at the loom. Depending on the tapestry, woolen yarns or colorful rags are selected to achieve the needed hue. These are then woven into a warp with fingers and a needle, changing color (and needle) when the design dictates. The outcome may be a rag tapestry or a woolen one. Each beautiful in its own right. Other looms fill her home, ready to weave rugs or hand-painted runners.

Dana Shaeffer was a farm girl from small-town Iowa. Her father was a weaver, and she learned the craft at his side. She was educated in small Iowa universities, Grand View and Drake, and later Iowa State. She returned to Grand View College to teach in the art department and stayed for over twenty years.

Before retirement, Dana spent one summer demonstrating tapestry at the Folk Center and exploring Mountain View. That clinched it! She fell in love with the people and the area. For several years she continued to come to Mountain View to visit and sometimes teach Folk School. Then in 2007, she moved south, making Mountain View her permanent home.

“From birth we’re wrapped in cloth. It’s so familiar that we sometimes forget how beautiful fabrics can soften and enhance our surroundings and our lives. Please visit my home where I live with weaving on a daily basis. This craft is a part of my world that I enjoy sharing with others.”

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Bernie was born and raised on a farm near a small town in Iowa. After school he proceeded to get a job (or different jobs) until he ended up in the printing industry and pre-press trade.

“While spending thirty some years in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the “back to the land movement” inspired a spark of interest in old time ways. I attended Tillers International, an organization which teaches sustainable lifestyle with studying the practice of preserving historical methods of blacksmithing, metal working and agricultural tools. A love for “rusty stuff”, knife making, flint knapping, and miscellaneous projects has kept my mind and hands busy.

You’ll find knives made with iron and stone, knife sheathes, possibly bags, gourd canteens, and Indian reproductions. Along with these you will find accessories such as antler candle holders, lamps, and knife display stands, or something else that hits my fancy.

Come and visit. We are located next to the Rocky Bayou Creek. There’s always something of interest for all to enjoy. P.S. Bring your camera!

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UPDATE: Sherman’s been hard at work and has remodeled his studio to make it more accessible and comfortable. Make it a point to stop by and say hi! Additionally, Sherman will be hard at work on Friday from 9 am to 5 pm due to a previous commitment – he volunteers his lift, camera and time to take videos of the High School home games.

Sherman began learning the craft of wood turning as an apprentice at the Ozark Folk Center in 1999. After researching old-fashioned toys he chose peg tops which he began making the next year using hickory, maple, oak, dogwood and ash. The wood stock is turned as a spindle and tops come off one end of the spindle, one at a time.

This turned out to be a successful and rewarding business. Sherman now makes three kinds of tops including peg tops, finger spinners and a deluxe side-pull top that runs like a gyroscope. He makes the peg tops in five sizes using 80 species of tree wood. He also fashions wooden buttons for the cords. Metal tips for the tops are re-fabricated out of collared duplex nails and archery field tips.
Sherman’s demonstration includes not only how he makes the tops, but a three-part lesson about throwing a peg top which is of special interest to the kids. Sherman first had to learn to throw tops in order to sell them, and in 2002 he acquired the skill to throw a quadruple – four tops in one throw!! Sherman will give you a two page set of instructions on how to wind, hold and throw the peg top you purchase to take with you as a reminder.
After making over 6000 tops, and probably throwing most of them, Sherman has it down pat and welcomes you to his studio to see the whole world of tops.

Sherman’s studio is located at 589 N. Ridgeview Drive, located off Highway 5, 9 & 14 N. just a few blocks north of the Dulcimer Shoppe. A landmark for that corner is the sign advertising Anglers Resort. Turn right at that sign. Bear left at the first “Y” and right at the second “Y”. Our house and mailbox are numbered 589. It is the third house on the right. There is ample parking and the studio is in the beige metal shop building.

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Welcome to my home and studio. I established Fox Mountain Pottery in 1986 and have been earning my livelihood with wood fired pottery ever since. When I’m working, I have only one focus, BEAUTY!!! I don’t think there is a formula for that, but for me being a potter it seems to require a natural setting, a spiritual practice, a sincerity and yearning, a working with spontaneity and a kiln fueled with wood.

Presently I use two wood kilns for expression and to bring my efforts to fruition. A few years ago I built a new kiln in order to deliver my vision. This kiln is called an Anagama, which translates to cave or hole kiln, it is half buried underground and measures forty foot long. It requires ten days of constant attending and 10 – 12 cords of split pine to complete one firing. The works from this kiln have a natural glaze, no applied glaze is applied. The color and texture is caused by the climate, age and type of wood being used, atmospheric conditions inside the kiln, placement of the works, wood ash from the burning fuel melting into the clay, fire flashing the work and coals being maintained on the pots themselves. The blending of these variables results in endless variety of effects. Wood Firing is an evolving practice, one must be fully present and aware to keep the work fresh and spirited. There is great risk involved in wood firing but the rewards can be great as well. You can say that my pots are offerings or prayers and the kiln the temple to manifest them. My goal and ideal is to make objects that have a transcending quality that possibly can inspire another human being, bring a little joy or add a positive presence to one’s home.

My older kiln called a Noborigama, which means multi chambered also gives natural glaze works, but I also apply glaze and brush work to selected pieces. This kiln is fired for four days. When I first started wood firing my firings were completed in 30 hours. Then I fired the kiln 3 – 4 times a year. More recently I have only one firing per year due to the labor intensive process and effort required. In the future I hope to have 2-3 firings a year.

My work has been recognized through awards, museum exhibitions, collections, publications and film. Spring of 2007 I was honored to have my first one-person exhibition at the museum level at the Arkansas Arts Center. I’m grateful for the ever-growing recognition I receive, but what is most gratifying is when my efforts to manifest beauty touches the heart of another human being.

I look forward to meeting everyone in this natural setting where I live and work and wish you all a wonderful experience in taking in the Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour.

For more information on Joe please visit JoeBruhin.com

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Grassy Creek Brooms takes you back in time, reflecting a structure and design descended from the Shaker and Puritan eras. Using non-mechanized tools from the past century, each hand tied broom is an original. While maintaining the traditional integrity of the broom, Jerry and Judy incorporate contemporary flair through the expression of their individual talents.

As the Lovensteins produce a necessary item for the home, they add their signature among the generations of broom squires in a centuries old craft.

Experience for yourself the difference a fine handcrafted broom can make to your everyday sweeping.

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