mil
y Ch
aplin
yE
yb
ph
ra
ile
sB
P
og
writt
en b
yM
n
ir tto
t
ho
80 Our State August 2012
In the late 1800s, this area
was the booming, industrial heart
of the city. Factories and mills lined
the banks along the French Broad
River, producing everything from fabric
and flour to crackers and ice.
Those businesses have long since faded
away. But the district’s creative
spirit never died.
ourstate.com 81
Ceramics take on
the personalities
of the artists at
Clayspace Co-Op.
82 Our State August 2012
In The Lift Studios,
the brick is exposed,
and the brick is also
part of the art.
ourstate.com 83
Metal artist Zack
Noble makes all of his
tools by hand.
Master quilter
Pattiy Torno has her
quilting station in
CURVE Studios.
84 Our State August 2012
ourstate.com 85
It takes less than 15 minutes to walk
the entire River Arts District from
end to end.
It’s only a mile by a half-mile. Yet,
within this small area comprising 18
buildings, more than 165 artists and
crafters are at work.
There are potters and painters
here. Sculptors and blacksmiths.
Weavers and dyers. Glassblowers and
furniture makers. Nearly everything
you see here is handmade on site.
In the 1980s, the old, industrial
area around the French Broad River
in Asheville attracted artists seeking
low rents and large, open spaces. The
former textile mills were ideal locations.
These artists began to transform the
historic structures into working studios
and showrooms. Now, more than a
century after the first textile factory
was built, the area is in the bloom of
another crafting renaissance. Cotton Mill Studios
Daniel McClendon
works on a new
painting while his dog,
Huck, supervises.
86 Our State August 2012
On the steps of the Cotton Mill
Studios, fiber artist Barbara Zaretsky
watches a car pull into the parking
lot. Normally she waves. But at the
moment, her arms are elbow-deep in
a pot of churning, murky water, handdyeing a batch of patterned scarves.
One hundred years ago, near the
spot Zaretsky stands, cotton mill factory
workers performed the same task.
The Cotton Mill building is one of
the oldest structures in the district. Part
ourstate.com 87
From fabric (this page) to
fashion (opposite page),
textile artist Barbara Zaretsky
carries out her work in her
studio and shop in the Cotton
Mill Studios building.
of a complex built in 1887, the twostory, brick factory produced denim and
flannel. In its heyday in the early 20th
century, the cotton mill employed more
than 300 people.
The Great Depression dealt a blow
though, and the mill limped along until
it finally shut its doors in 1953. Then, a
fire swept through the entire complex
in 1995, burning most everything
to the ground. But the Cotton Mill
building survived.
Now it’s one of the busiest studios
in the district, home to 12 artisans.
Zaretsky shares a wall with two
weavers, who share a wall with two potters.
Above Zaretsky, there are landscape
and oil painters and a stained-glass
88 Our State August 2012
artist. Furniture-maker Darren Green
bought the building next door two years
ago. His business, The Old Wood Co.,
creates tables and chairs and stools out of
reclaimed barn doors and whiskey barrels.
CURVE Studios
A block down the road, the smell of
barbecue from 12 Bones Smokehouse
drifts through the air inside CURVE
Studios. Akira Satake, an awardwinning ceramist who rents a studio
at CURVE, is still getting used to it.
Satake shares the studio space/
showroom with Maria Andrade Troya,
another ceramic artist. Troya has been
renting a place at CURVE for more
than 10 years. She’s watched the River
Arts District evolve, and one of the main
differences now is food. It’s as easy to
find a shrimp taco or a latte as it is to
find a handmade wine glass. Recently, the
district even got its first food truck, Tin
Can Pizzeria, which serves artisan pizzas.
Troya guides her hand around a
spinning, raw lump of clay, turning it
into a teapot as she talks.
Visitors come in and talk to her
while she works. From her stool in
front of her wheel, she sits and chats
with anyone who wanders in. If they’re
interested, she’ll give them a quick
demonstration. In fact, that’s what drew
her to pottery in the first place.
“It’s communal,” she says. “When
you draw, you tend to need to be by
ourstate.com 89
Heat and hammers:
That’s how Zack Noble
molds his metal.
90 Our State August 2012
Out of this mess comes
something beautiful:
Bee Sieburg paints in
The Wedge Studios.
ourstate.com 91
Darren Green (this page) is the
owner of The Old Wood Co.,
where he takes wood from places
like old barns and turns it into
something else, like a table
(opposite page, top).
Acclaimed ceramic artist Akira
Satake (opposite page, bottom)
works the wheel in his studio and
gallery at CURVE Studios.
yourself. [With] pottery, you can
actually talk and work.”
The Lift Studios
The French Broad River is older than
the Blue Ridge Mountains that tower
over its banks. It’s so old, in fact, that very
few fossils are buried under its waters.
Railway workers laid the first tracks
along the French Broad in 1879. Asheville’s
population was barely 500 people. By 1900,
it was 10,000. The trains brought people,
but they also carried the raw materials that
would shape this district for decades.
Standing in front of his easel inside
The Lift Studios, painter Daniel
McClendon stops to watch a train
lumber by the window. Last summer,
McClendon and his wife bought the old
cracker factory on Depot Street. The
structure, originally built in 1907 by the
National Biscuit Company (Nabisco),
sat empty and unused for years. “It was
in nasty shape,” he says. “At first, I didn’t
even want to walk into it.”
But he liked something about it. As
soon as renovations began, he uncovered
the building’s hidden beauties: the rustic
brick and stone walls, the aged hardwood
floors, the exposed ceiling beams.
In the corner of his studio/gallery sits
the prize of the building: the original,
hand-operated freight elevator, once
used to lift bags of flour. The relic
is both a glimpse into the past and a
sculptural centerpiece. McClendon was
so enamored with the antique, he named
his studio — Lift Studios — after it.
“It’s an ode to the history of the
building,” he says. “To its change. Its
evolution.”
Miles Britton is a freelance writer who moved
to Charlotte with his family in his early
teens. He studied creative writing at Tulane
University in New Orleans and received his
masters in journalism from Temple University
in Philadelphia. He's written for a variety
of music and entertainment magazines,
including Radar Magazine and Mountain
Xpress. He and his wife, Lizzie, live in their
dream city of Asheville.
92 Our State August 2012
ourstate.com 93
Maria Andrade Troya
(above) starts with clay on
her wheel, and she turns it
into pottery (right).
94 Our State August 2012
ourstate.com 95
A bouquet of buttons
(opposite) — who’d have
thought it? Well, Celia Barbieri
(below), who works in the Phil
Mechanic Studios building.
96 Our State August 2012
ourstate.com 97
More than a century
after the first textile mill
was built, the area is
experiencing a crafting
renaissance.
98 Our State August 2012
ourstate.com 99