Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina
Arts & Crafts
New to our website, this page will feature Appalachian arts and crafts for sale by local artisans, who have
contributed either their wares or a percentage of the proceeds of each sale at our annual Horizon Society Event.

A percentage of the sales of any handicrafts shown on the website will be donated to Foothills Conservancy.

If you see something of interest, please contact us to make arrangements for a sale.  
We plan to be able to offer sales direct from our website early next year.



Our first featured artists:
Ronno L. Cooke makes furniture the old fashioned way, using dowels, mortise and tenon and dovetailed joints, solid woods and hand rubbed finishes.  Working from his studio in the South Mountains of western North Carolina he seeks to make things that will become heirlooms, passed down from one generation to the next.  Contrasting wood colors and textures, exposed joinery, a solid link to woodworking techniques thousands of years old,  a flair for design and the willingness to chart new territory with his work lends to the "neo-primitive" style that his work embraces and creates.  Each piece is a unique handcrafted work of art.  He uses no patterns or templates, just his hands and his imagination, to craft each piece which is like no other.  

His work has been featured by the Burke Arts Council, the Historic Morganton Festival, most recently at Foothills 2007 Horizon Society Gala, and can be purchased through select finer galleries such as the Grove Arcade in Asheville.




Table 1: Cutting board style table. Sustainably grown eucalyptus, black
walnut and mountain ash. 22.5 X 16 X 36"H with a shelf. $390.00
Table 2: Curly grained oak top with black walnut, purpleheart and reclaimed quilted California redwood base. Two dovetailed drawers. 25.5 X 18 X 31"H. $910.00






































































Ben Seymour was born in Albemarle, North Carolina, and lived in several Southeastern states during his childhood, due to the habit of his father, a UCC minister, of changing churches every five or six years.  (He said, by then, the congregation had heard all he had to offer.)  Although Ben’s parents never seemed to have any particular musical gifts, his three older siblings were strongly musical, and exposed him to a wide variety of music over the years.  Today, Ben performs and enjoys listening to Appalachian, traditional Celtic, and other forms of folk music.  Ben also builds lap dulcimers and other instruments including pottery drums, teaches the playing of the lap dulcimer, and engineers and produces sound recordings for Gingerthistle and local artists.  Ben spent nine years as a volunteer at WNCW (88.7 FM) co-hosting the popular "Celtic Winds" show on Sunday afternoons.




Handmade pottery drum with goatskin top $75