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Studio Demo: Mythical Creatures with Vicki Hardcastle

Class/Workshop
The Studio
FREE
No Ticket Required
Crystal Bridges will close early at 4 PM on Friday, May 3, to prepare for the VIP Premiere of The Portal: An Art Experience by Jewel. Lunch will be served in the Great Hall on Friday. The Coffee Bar and select galleries will close at 3 PM.

Meet artisan Vicki Hardcastle in the Studio for a unique showing connected to our Exquisite Creatures exhibition!

Vicki will be bringing a few finished needle-felted characters as well as actively working on a piece. Guests are encouraged to stop and chat with Vicki about her work and journey as an artist. This is not a formal class but rather a tabling of an artist in the Studio. Take advantage of this enlightening opportunity and see a craft artist in action!

Free, no tickets required.

About the Artist

It has been over 40 years since Vicki Hardcastle made her artisan debut in southeastern Oklahoma. In the early 1990s, after relocating to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, she continued her craft production and overall exposure to the area as the sole proprietor of Hardcastle Folk Art. Working arts and crafts shows throughout a multi-state region, she easily made a name for herself through designs that characterized life in the mountains. Vicki’s unique vision allowed her to create uncommon designs, attracting customers who appreciated items born of both local culture and materials. Over time she found that her most enjoyable form of art involved working with wool, specifically with the 19th-century craft of rug hooking.

In the last few years, Vicki has found a love for the odd and funky, fueling her fascination with needle felting. Mixing her two favorite art forms of rug hooking and needle felting has opened up a whole new world of creative projects.

Today, from the Hardcastle Folk Art shop in Berryville, Arkansas, Vicki continues to be an inspiration for those interested in these rare and almost lost arts. She has hosted rug hooking camps with teachers from around the world, and she had the honor of being voted into the Arkansas Craft Guild last year.

By exposing her work to so many who otherwise may never have heard of these underappreciated crafts, Vicki continues to create new generations of fiber art aficionados throughout the region and the world.

Spanning hand-died wools, vintage embellishments, hooking, needle felting classes, and more, Vicki’s influences and contributions to the artisan world are many, and they all originate right here, in the heart of the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.