Sneak a peek at the work of four local artists. They’ll join 150 others at the Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair, November 18-20 at Benton Convention Center.

Joseph Anderson
A self-taught blacksmith, Joseph Anderson forges graceful sculptures, large and small, of elegant birds and other organic shapes, along with functional objects such as coathooks and handles, out of his Walnut Cove studio.

Anderson is recognized as an expert in the field of blacksmithing. He teaches, demonstrates, and shows his work at exhibitions and conferences across the country. He is proud to be the first inductee into the California Blacksmith Association’s Bad Boys Hall of Fame.

Kathy Cooper
The first thing you notice about Kathy Cooper’s floorcloths - canvas rugs handpainted with acrylic paints and coated with a sturdy sealer - are her bright colors and whimsical patterns. Daisies dance on a cobalt-blue background among swirls. Big, lemon-yellow abstract flowers sit among smaller flowers inside a border of blue-hued stripes.

Originally a weaver and textile artist, Cooper has been painting canvas floorcloths for close to thirty years. Over time her work has evolved, she says, from early conservative patterns and muted colors to the current bold colors and fanciful patterns.

“I used to paint barnyard animals and stenciled poems, that kind of thing,” says the North Carolina native, now a resident of King. “Over the years, it’s become more about the painting.”

And it doesn’t bother her that people walk on those paintings.

“You have to live with a painted rug to know how functional they are.”

Cooper taught herself the craft, starting the day she found some canvas in her studio and made a little rug for her small Cape Cod-style house in Maine. A friend offered to show a few floorcloths in her shop, and they sold right away. Cooper took those proceeds and bought a roll of canvas and some paints to make more rugs. At her first craft show, a New York City boutique owner offered to sell her work, and Cooper began painting rugs for a loyal clientele of the rich and famous. Along the way she has written two books on the craft.

Cooper prices her work by the square foot and offers customers choices of patterns and colors at her Web site, www.kathycooperfloorcloths.com.

Lynn Hope McNees-Sams
Lynn Hope McNees-Sams creates jewelry in 14k gold and sterling silver featuring natural gems and freshwater pearls. Working out of her Jamestown backyard studio “down in the woods,” she’s has been making jewelry full time for thirty-four years. In the early years, she took custom orders to make a living, but these days the work is all her own inspiration. Her lines range from $10 earrings to necklaces for several hundred dollars.

Part of her work involves collecting the materials. McNees-Sams buys pearls from Chinese wholesalers and other gemstones at an annual show in Tucson, Arizona, “the largest gem show in the world.”

“I’ve been a rockhound and mineral collector my whole life,” McNees-Sams says. “As a little kid, when I first made the connections between gems that came out of the ground and jewelry that you wear - that was it, I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Diane Leshin
She started innocently enough, making funky, textured, one-of-a-kind purses for her daughters. Then Diane Leshin made a few purses for her daughters’ friends. Soon there was no turning back. For the last four years, while raising teenagers, Leshin has devoted her energies to her craft, leaving behind a demanding professional job.

“This is my second life; I have reinvented my life,” she says.

Leshin uses the free-form technique of crocheting, working with yarns and ribbons in no particular pattern to make small pieces, which she sews together into square, triangular, and free-form shaped bags.

Leshin lives in Lewisville but shows her work at exhibits and fairs across much of the Eastern seaboard. Her bags range from $38 for smaller ones to several hundred dollars for the larger purses.

“Free-form crochet suits my personality,” she says. “I’m not one to follow patterns, I just kind of like to go with the flow.”