Carla & Greg Filippelli

Basketry

Greg and Carla Filippelli have been craftspeople in western North Carolina for close to thirty years. Carla majored in fiber arts and education while in college and started her craft career creating original design clothing. Greg Filippelli has been an artist from a very early age. In high school he created mixed media collage and trained as a musician in college which he continues to this day. Our entire career as self employed craft artists has been very meaningful to us. We delight in creating custom pieces for homes and business working with clients to beautify their personal spaces. We feel very fortunate to have the flexibility in our lifestyle to accommodate creativity and travel. Its an excellent idea to take a creative literary work as a children’s book and then create a product line around this work with handmade creations. We feel very fortunate to be part of this project born in WNC.

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.

Greg and Carla have one son,Miles, 25 years old who is a jewelry artist and silversmith as well as a rock hound who enjoys rock hunting in area gem mines. The Filippelli’s create original design contemporary basketry using the random weave technique. They delight in using custom colors and shapes to design pieces for homes and corporate spaces. Utilizing hand dyed reeds, wild vines and custom shapes they are master weavers in many techniques of basketry. They also teach group or private classes to children, teachers and enthusiasts of all ages.Greg and Carla are self taught basket makers, with training in fiber arts, and creative living.