Whether you want contemporary or traditional, two- or three-dimensional, to look at or to use, you'll find a wide selection to select from as, map in hand, you follow the crafts trail set out for the Toe River Studio Tour sponsored by the Toe River Arts Council.

These annual events take place, as always, on the first full weekend in December and the second full weekend in June. The next tour is scheduled for Dec 6th & 7th 2008.

From 10 in the morning until 5 in the evening on both days, over a hundred artisans open their studio doors and welcome the public to see their workplaces. Some years the weather is mild, yet invigorating, other years, the skies fill with clouds and the rain is enough to make us grateful we aren't shoveling the precipitation. Either way, the studios are warm with welcome. Some even offer food and drink. The glass studios glisten with the shiny surfaces of ornaments, sculptures, and containers of every sort, from goblets to mezuzahs.

The potters may offer their wares from orderly racks or from homemade rustic benches and tables, but they have much to choose from: trays, jugs, mugs, tiles, baking pans, fountains, bird houses, sculptured forms, ceremonial pieces, sets of dishes, even bathroom sinks. They come in stoneware, raku, wood-fired, earthenware, Majolica, or porcelain.

Look for functional and sculptural work from basketmakers who work in traditional gathered materials or in the modern Asian reeds. If wood makes your nerve ends tingle, then you can select from carvings, furniture, turned wood combined with blown glass, or art made with materials gathered from the woods.

People who look for 2-D art can chose from photographs, watercolors, oil, acrylics, silkscreen, and paintings on handmade paper. Textiles are well represented with handspun yarns, hand-woven flat goods, art quilts, sculptured dolls, knitwear, and garments pieced, painted, and quilted. Look for ironwork, handmade books, jewelry, soap and scents, beeswax candles, Native American Arts, stationery, and tree ornaments. If the studios don't have what you're looking for, step into any of the 8 or so galleries on the tour, where you'll find a wide range of handcrafted articles.

All you need to take the tour is a map and then follow the “arrowed” Tour signs the days of the Tour. At a time closer to the beginning of the tour, an interactive map and a list of participating artists, galleries, and sponsors can be viewed online (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) or a print version can be picked up on the day of the tour at either TRAC office, any of the participating studios or galleries, local businesses or the Yancey/Burnsville or Mitchell Chambers of Commerce. An artists’ reception takes place Friday night before the Tour from 5-8 p.m. at the gallery. The reception and self-guided tour are free.

A preview exhibition of Studio Tour partcipant’s work can be viewed at the TRAC Center Gallery starting November 8, 2008 and lasting past the Tour until Jauaryn 1, 2009. A reception will be held on December 5th. The TRAC Center Gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm and is located at 269 Oak Avenue in downtown Spruce Pine. The Burnsville TRAC Gallery also has maps, a picture display and information about the Tour and is located at 102 West Main Street in downtown Burnsville. (hours: Mondays- Saturdays from 10 to 5 pm)

For more information contact the Toe River Arts Council, PO Box 882, Burnsville, NC 28714 or call 828-682-7215 or 828-765-0520, or email trac@toeriverarts.org