Our Teachers | carolina-folkworks

instructors

Connie Deese Christman (fine art, basket weaving, pottery, fiber arts)

South Rowan High School

BFA Ceramics from ECU

Post graduate classes at UNC-G

Rowan County Teacher since 1996

Current Art Teacher at China Grove MS

Previously taught at South Rowan and

Granite Quarry Elementary School

Daughter or Barbara and David Deese, mother of two boys and now a "Gramma", I started making pottery at home to add to the family income in 2009 when our family split up. It was therapy as well as a hobby. I sold functional pottery in my

grandmother's yard on Old Concord Rd. whenever my shelves got too full in order to make room for more. Eventually, I started signing up for local festivals such as Railwalk's Festival of Gifts, Troyer's Fall and Spring Festivals, Chickweed, Pops at the Post, Hippie Fest, and Rowan Arts and Ag. I have missed this during the pandemic.

Basketry and painting are areas of interest, in addition to clay. The surplus products often make it to the "Art Teacher Tent"

as items for sale. I have served as the "Village Basket Weaver" for the Bethlehem Market at North Main Baptist Church

for several years and truly love to weave baskets with my students at China Grove Middle.

I love to promote local farms and businesses and have pottery for sale at Montgomery General Store in Gold Hill, NC.,

Provisions in Rockwell, NC, and West Rowan Farm, Home, and Garden in Bear Poplar. Creating pottery makes me feel connected to "the ancestors" and The Creator. It brings me both joy and peace; and it is something that I love to share with others in the classroom setting as well as at local festivals.

Carrie Webster (fiddle)

CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR of the MARK O'CCONNOR FIDDLE METHOD

Carrie grew up in a family that valued the arts. Her childhood
was filled with music festivals, concerts, museums, clogging lessons, and most importantly, violin lessons. At a young age, Carrie was inspired when she met
artists like Allison Krauss, Robin and Linda Williams, and many others. After
interning as a violinist with the Asheville Symphony for a year in high school,
she earned music scholarships to attend the North Carolina School of the Arts.

After college Carrie moved to the South Pacific and started listening to
and playing along with jukebox country music during her spare time in the Australian Outback (they love American country there!). After a refreshing
couple of years doing farm work "Down Under", she moved back to
North Carolina. Carrie started going to bluegrass pickins around
Salisbury and became completely hooked on roots music and the rest is history....

Carrie and her husband Eric are ecstatic about opening Carolina Folkworks. She loves teaching folk music and passing on the tradition of an art that is as old as our country, and in some cases even older. Her long experience of performing and 20 years as an instructor make her an outstanding teacher. Carrie has played in several symphonies and chamber music groups as a classical violinist. As a fiddler, she has performed as a soloist with the Salisbury Symphony, won numerous fiddler conventions, been honored at the East Rowan Fiddlers Convention, helped found the award winning Dry Run Bluegrass Band, and performed for two years with the national touring female group Sweet Potato Pie. She has taught in the Salisbury Symphony's After-School Strings program and also taught privately in local music schools. Her students have played at nursing homes, for many area events and festivals, in biannual recitals and placed in competitions and fiddler's conventions. Carrie enjoys playing musical games with her younger students to make learning fun and also loves to teach the history of the songs and tunes her students play.

Ms. Webster's musical influences range from Tony Rice and the Seldom Scene, to Vassar Clements, Hunter Berry, Allison Krauss, Mike Hartgrove, and Chris Thile. Carrie is mom to her son Gabriel and daughter Adelaide, and dog Artemis.She is an avid gardener, beekeeper, and bookworm.