Carla and Greg Filippelli have been weaving baskets and teaching their passion for weaving for over twenty five years. Their distinctive random weave baskets and sculptural weavings for the wall are exhibited in galleries and exhibitions nationwide. They maintain a full time craft studio in the mountains of Asheville, NC where they teach classes and hold open studio days by appointment.
The inspiration for all of our creations from the very beginning has been the endless acts of creation of/by Mother Nature. Our first focus, in 1979 was extracting colors from the many dye plants of Western North Carolina. This extraction and the process of dyeing fibers and reeds opened our eyes to the hidden secrets within the natural world. Shape and color of course are apparent everywhere but to focus on the acts of creation itself have been our real inspiration. After many years of traditional Appalachian basketry and using patterns of all kinds, we discovered the weavers within nature. The animals that do not use easily recognizable patterns were our guides and teachers. We watched spiders and birds at work, particularly the weaver birds; we observed beavers weave their logs into dams and noticed the tiniest mouse nest was woven from soft, found materials. Suddenly we had become free from traditional patterns, and our work reflected this immediately and has never been the same. We believe Nature’s randomness holds many patterns, as days weave the seasons into the fabric of time, so we weave our baskets. This has been our inspiration and belief.
We are a landscape of all we have seen. Isamu Noguchi
The heart is a big place, go there and roam. Nityananda
www.http://southernhighlandguild.org/cranberry/
