- This program is made possible in part by generous support from the American Battlefield Trust, connecting you to the places where our nation was forged.

Visit battlefields.org today.

♪ - Next on North Carolina Weekend, we're bringing you Creativity Unleashed.

We'll take in the scents at Bright Black Candle in Durham, visit the historic Turnage Theater in Washington, and find inspiration from handcrafted goods at the Mountain Thread Company.

Coming up next.

- Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

(upbeat music) ♪ - Welcome to North Carolina Weekend, everyone.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we're bringing you Creativity Unleashed.

Today, we're at Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor, where artistry is on full display during the gallery's 13th National Teapot Show.

This beloved tradition brings the craftsmanship of artists from across North America under one roof.

The months-long exhibition features imaginative teapots crafted from a wide range of materials and styles.

We'll explore it more throughout the show, but first, I recently visited a business in Durham that's honoring the past and present through scent.

Tiffany Griffin and her husband, Daryl Heron, create candles and sensory experiences inspired by Black culture and history.

I teamed up with producer Miriam McSpadden to bring you the story of Bright Black.

- Candles as an item are to mark a moment.

It might be a moment of solidarity.

It might be a moment of celebration at a birthday.

It might be a moment of peace and centering.

And so what we hope that we offer folks is an opportunity to mark a moment.

I am a psychologist by training, focused on the relationship between racial identity, racial discrimination, and education and health outcomes.

Whatever I do for work, I'm honoring the beauty and brilliance of Blackness.

I think that scent would be a nice medium for doing so.

- What are you trying to create in terms of a feeling for your customers?

- We settled on, we wanted like a really nice cold throw.

So you smell it and it's like, you actually smelled something.

I don't know if you've ever smelled a candle and you're like, I don't smell anything.

So we wanted a really nice cold throw, a really nice hot throw.

So when you burn it, you can smell it in your space without it giving like headaches and stuff.

- So those are the words.

- [BOTH] A cold throw and a hot throw.

- Okay.

- We wanted something that was healthy and clean.

So all natural, like phthalate free, sulfate free, all the toxin free stuff.

- What are the four categories of scent that you have?

- Yeah, so we have our diaspora collection, which tells the story of five cities of Black greatness through scent.

We have our genres collection, which tells the story of five Black musical genres through scent.

We have our giving collection.

From the very beginning, you know, cooperative economics was front of mind.

And the way that we're realizing it, at least at this moment, is through our giving collection, where we partner with different nonprofits.

We almost always take the lead on distribution and then we donate a proportion of sales to help support their work.

And then the fourth is the ritual collection.

These are scent stories designed to mark moments of time.

Received an email from Meredith Coop, who is Michelle Obama's long time stylist.

She's like, "Hey, we're looking to shake up voting merch."

Like, we wanna create statement pieces that spark conversation in ways that lead to sustained and meaningful civic engagement.

Enter a candle.

So, you know, we designed our Ida scent.

We sold it and then donated a portion to When We All Vote.

- Bright Black goes beyond candles.

And you have something called scent stories and the oils.

Tell me about those products and that experience.

- So we started offering body fragrances as well.

And then once we moved into our current location, we had this like beautiful public facing space and decided we wanted to be this hybrid retail experience where folks can come in and create their own scents for themselves.

- Well, this afternoon, I'm gonna have a friend of mine join me.

So what will be the experience?

- We usually center, just take a breath together.

And then there'll be a guided meditation.

So I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes if you feel comfortable.

I want you to bring to mind a moment when you knew, without a doubt, that you were exactly where you were supposed to be.

And then you go through a process where you translate what came up for you during the meditation into just a brainstormed list of scents.

- How do you represent sunshine as a scent?

- What are you, I mean, I have thoughts, but what are the first things that come to mind for you?

- Because it's outdoors, definitely trees and a little bit of herbs, probably not as much flowers, trees and greenery.

- And then you take that list and start playing.

And then you go into mad scientist mode.

Everything that's here on the scent note sheet is at our scent lab behind you.

So let's say your memory conjured up sandalwood and peppercorn, just for an example.

So halfway up the dropper is 0.5, and 0.5 is one part.

And then I'm gonna stir it up, and then I'm gonna smell it.

Waving it is the best approximation of how it will play as a candle and/or on your skin.

Deep inhale, not so much.

Waving, yes.

Get to something that feels right and then tweak from there.

So which were the two that are the contenders?

These two?

- One and five.

- All right, here's one.

Got it?

Here's two.

- Hmm.

I think I would prefer two.

- Two?

Y'all are officially scent storytellers!

(cheering) - Let me put this on and be empowered right now!

- Right?

- Bright Black retail store is in the Lakewood Shopping Center at 2020 Chapel Hill Road, Suite 24 in Durham.

For more information about their scent story experiences and more, go to brightblackcandles.com.

I'm here with Jennifer Dolan, the curator for the National Teapot Show, and already I've seen some really unique pieces.

Jennifer, tell me about the teapots.

- This year's teapot show is our 13th.

We're gonna have over 200 teapots by over 150 artists.

Functional, not functional.

They can be in metal, wood, ceramic, a little bit of everything.

- This has been going on for some time.

Tell me about the teapot show and some of the history.

- So founding potters of Cedar Creek, Pat and Sid Oakley, developed the teapot show back in 1988.

Today it's every three years.

It's an invitation-only show where we get excited by inviting different artists and different media to submit whatever they want.

We have no idea until it walks in the door what it's gonna look like.

I've been here since teapot show six and it's now 13.

So I've seen a lot of teapots and I get excited every time.

- Are there any particular criteria for the teapot?

- Really there's not.

It's what is that artist's idea of what a teapot is.

- So you've brought some teapots to show me.

- I did.

This is an example of Brad Tupper, who's on site.

- I'm a functional potter, so I make sure that these things really work as they're supposed to.

My wife brews a pot of tea every day, so these are used every day.

And that really helps me get into design and just in the producing of it.

- And then we have an artist out of Durham, Liz Paley, who actually, it's not tea that spills out, it's light.

So she's made it for a tea candle to go inside.

Whenever we invite an artist to be part of the show, it's their interpretation of what a teapot is.

So you can look and try and figure out where the handle is, where the spout, where the lid is, where the body is, and each artist will attack that with a very different vision.

- This is sort of looks like croissants on the end.

- The Teapot Show is gonna showcase so many different styles, and they'll all have a different point of view.

It's an opportunity to see all the facets of pottery making.

- When we come down here, it's a big collaboration.

It's a wonderful thing.

Everybody gets together and we share glazes and share ideas as a pottery community here.

And it's a big reason why we come down.

- The National Teapot Show is definitely gonna be a draw, but there's so much more to enjoy here at Cedar Creek Gallery.

Tell us about it.

- Cedar Creek Gallery is 4,000 square feet of pottery, glass, wood, jewelry, and more.

- Those cards?

- Yeah.

Look at these cards.

- Each is a different fabric, you know?

So each of these layers and the trees.

- Yeah -Mm hmm - We have gardens outside with garden art for sale.

We also have a plant nursery on the property.

We ask everybody to come out and bring a picnic.

There's lots of picnic tables.

People hang out after they've kind of toured around.

- Well, I can see why you'd wanna spend the day, spend the afternoon here.

- It's a little bit of magic.

- Cedar Creek Gallery hosts its annual Teapot Show May 16th through September 14th, 2026.

For more information, visit cedarcreekgallery.com.

- On the coast, the historic Turnage Theater tells the story of entertainment's evolution.

It was built in 1913 as a vaudeville stage, and in 1930, a movie palace was added to the bottom.

After years of decline, it was restored and today it serves as a community arts hub.

Producer Clay Johnson takes us to Washington.

(upbeat music) - My name is Morgan Hudson, and I am the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of our band Morgan Hudson & Company.

So we are a five-piece blues rock and roll band roots from everywhere.

We have different influences from blues to jazz to rock to country.

- Tonight, Hudson's band won't be playing a bar or restaurant, but at Washington's historic Turnage Theater.

- This is an awesome opportunity.

We're super excited because a place like this, a theater where people come and sit and the band is the focus, it's really artist-centered.

- It all started in 1913 when local businessman Cat Turnage bought a two-story retail building downtown.

- He had a vaudeville playhouse on the second floor, and then in the '30s when cars started rumbling down the street and the windows had to be closed because of the dust, he added a second theater on the back of the building.

- That's the 432-seat Palace Theater.

It hosted live performances and movies.

- As a child, I would come here to the Turnage Theater a lot, but one thing I especially remember was having my first date with my husband coming to the Turnage, and we called it the Picture Show back then.

- The theater closed in the 1970s, was nearly torn down in the '90s, then in the early 2000s, a community group rescued it and renovated it.

It's now home to the Arts of the Pamlico, the Arts Council for Beaufort County.

- It's a hub for arts and cultural events.

- In front of the theater, the Turnage Gallery is a maker space for groups like the Tuesday Painters.

- In this group, we have oil painters, acrylic painters, pastel painters.

- Scratch artists.

- Scratch artists.

We just offer the flow of creative juice.

We sit here and we critique each other's work.

We offer suggestions.

We sit and just talk.

The Turnage is a godsend for us.

This space, there's nothing like this in town available to us on a regular basis.

- It's a space for self-proclaimed mudslingers too.

- The Pamlico River Pottery Guild is a time for potters to collaborate, grow together, learn together.

So today is Pottery Fest.

We have at least, I think, 10 different potters doing demonstrations sporadically throughout the day.

We have vendor tables where our potters have work for sale, and then we have a pottery show that's up as well.

It's one of the oldest forms of art in the world, and we're still doing it and learning more and changing the way it's done.

- The gallery hosts exhibits like this show by artist Mike Bennett, a past winner of AOP's Regional Fine Arts Show.

- I never had any formal training, but I just always loved to draw.

It's sort of like breathing, you know?

It's just part of me.

I love landscapes, I love beauty, I love people, and it's just an expression of things that I really care about.

- I think it's important for artists to have a place that they call home in order to have connections to others that are in the field, be able to sell their art, be able to share their art, be able to transform their art, and to grow their skills.

- Upstairs, the old Vaudeville Theater that used to host acts like Roy Rogers and Red Skelton is being transformed into a museum with plans for a complete renovation that may have it hosting performances once again.

The Palace Theater hosts rehearsals and performances by local theater groups and jam sessions by the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association.

- We are here because we love traditional music.

We love playing it, we love talking about it, we love the instruments, and we have just done so many things here at the Turnage Theater.

It's a wonderful place to play.

- It can also be a launching pad for rising stars like Morgan Hudson and Company.

Being in front of a large audience, being the centerpiece and not the background, I think is really important for any artist to try, and we are here to support them in doing that.

Not many small towns have a historic gem like this.

We are very fortunate that many people before me and currently and those that will come after us have preserved such a vibrant space for artists and culture and for the community.

We're so excited to be here at the historic Turnage Theater.

- The Turnage Theater is located at 150 West Main Street in Washington.

Its regular hours are 11 to five Wednesday through Friday, and 11 to three on Saturday, with addition hours for concerts, plays, movies and other special events.

For more information, go to artsofthepamlico.org.

Over in Blowing Rock is a shop so charming you'll wanna linger and learn more about mountain culture.

Producer Teresa Litschke introduces us to Kathrine Lile, a fourth generation quilter who's keeping the traditions of sewing and coiled rope basketry alive at Mountain Thread Company.

(gentle music) - The Mountain Thread Company is a working studio in downtown Blowing Rock, and we make items on site by sewing rope together, and we also have inspiration for people who wanna make things themselves.

- That also includes everything you need to make a quilt or purchase a finished one.

- Hey, welcome in.

- Hi, how are you today?

- Kathrine Lile is the owner of the Mountain Thread Company, whose goal is to share her passion.

- I like what I do, and I love it when people are like, I've never seen that before.

This is so cool.

Yeah.

(laughs) - These are our fabric selections.

It's constantly rotating, and we curate our selection based on nature themes and outdoorsy themes, seasons, kind of the unique things that people might see when they're visiting Blowing Rock outside.

We want that to be represented on the fabric.

- I love the woodland themes.

- So we have fabrics that have insects on them and little critters and flowers, like all the kinds of stuff that people might see when they come here.

- So we do make quilts in here primarily as demos for what people can do with fabrics and patterns that we have in stock.

And so we'll use a particular fabric line, color scheme, maybe with a seasonal mindset to create a particular project.

And then once all of those fabrics and the patterns sell out then the quilt is for sale.

- It's a craft Kathrine learned from her mother.

- We would do it together.

I would take her little hands (laughs) and I would just put them through.

It's fine, we're going through and show her how to sew.

- And it's her mother who also taught her to make a coiled rope basket.

- The basics though of making baskets are that you're coiling something and finding a way to hold it together.

And I'm coiling the rope around itself underneath the needle and thread.

And the zigzag is actually a zig on one rope and a zag on another.

We make a flat base, sometimes a different shape, sometimes larger or smaller sizes.

And once we lift that base to shape the sides, you can see that angle come up.

Different baskets for different uses.

A lot of folks are looking for landing places for their little things.

- Oh, jewelry on my bureau.

- You'll need bigger ones.

- These sizes here, this oval is everybody's favorite for things like a remote control or sunglasses, or I need a place to put my phone when I walk through the door.

So as soon as you start adding handles to a piece, it feels really portable.

So you can put your projects in here and take it on the go, or you can use it as a purse.

And then also each basket that we make is unique and different.

So for someone who's looking for a gift, if you saw us a year ago, what you see today is different than what you saw a year ago.

- If you want to make your own basket, Kathrine has a kit with everything you need, except the sewing machine.

- And what we're doing here is giving a project that can be completed in a couple of hours, giving the supplies, so a bundle of rope and the right needle, and then giving step-by-step instructions.

And then some other fun kits and other supplies for people who are feeling crafty, but maybe not quite at a sewing machine.

- You don't see shops like this on every corner.

- It's such a homey feeling, a nice, comforting feeling.

- Because it's rooted in tradition.

- I'm not real sure that I knew I impressed on her what she is doing now, but I'm very thankful and very proud of her for doing what she does.

- And for Kathrine, that's what it's all about.

- So much of our lives revolve around digital things.

And when you actually can do something tangible with your hands and produce something, there's a different kind of satisfaction that comes from that.

And so for, you know, some folks want to do this themselves and other people appreciate that that's still alive.

And we welcome all of those here.

(gentle music) - Mountain Thread Company is located in downtown Blowing Rock.

They're open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

And they're closed on Sundays with classes and workshops offered throughout the year.

For more information, visit mountainthreadcompany.com.

This week's celebration of America 250 takes us to Boone and the Hickory Ridge History Museum, the stage to North Carolina's longest running Revolutionary War outdoor drama, "Horn in the West."

Here, you don't just learn about history, you experience it.

Producer Lucas Pruitt shows us the story.

- This is the Hickory Ridge History Museum in Boone, North Carolina.

Nestled high in the Appalachian mountains, costumed interpreters guide visitors through recreations of daily life for the colonists who first settled this corner of the state.

- All any spinning wheel does is put twist in your fiber.

- But to understand their world, you'll have to go back more than 250 years.

In 1763, King George III drew a line straight down the spine of the Appalachian Mountains following the Eastern Continental Divide.

The settlers crossed it anyway, but they were caught between two forces, indigenous nations like the Cherokee, protecting their homelands and supported by the British Crown and their own lust for land.

Britain had just spent a fortune fighting France and their native allies for control of their North American colonies.

So when the Seven Years' War ended, the King drew that line as a promise to make terms with those same nations.

But settlers kept coming.

The King was an ocean away, Britain's treasury was exhausted, and there were never enough troops to enforce the border.

By the time the revolution started, many colonists were already living on the wrong side of that line.

Hickory Ridge brings that world to life through six historic cabins, period interpreters, and hands-on demonstrations in the crafts that defined backcountry survival.

Hearthside cooking, blacksmithing, candle making, spinning.

The self-sufficiency of a people who had no one to rely on but themselves.

- When you get here, it's like a step back into time.

All of a sudden, things, they start getting slower.

- Right in the woods, I'm in your marshes out here in the open.

- Our goal is to educate the public on what life was like in Western North Carolina during pretty much the American Revolutionary period.

- We really want people to be able to kind of wet their curiosity, but in a very authentic way.

- Life in the backcountry for settlers in the late 18th century was not the easiest.

(laughs) Technically, everything around here was out to get you, was out to kill you.

But it was a daily struggle to survive.

They don't call it the frontier for nothing.

- You get to see everything that happened from back many, many generations ago, and it's a great educational tool.

- And when the sun goes down, the story continues.

Horn in the West is one of the nation's oldest outdoor revolutionary war dramas.

Set in the years before and during the Revolution, it follows a small mountain community torn between loyalty to the crown and the fight for independence, with Daniel Boone as their guide through the wilderness.

According to the museum, since its premiere, 1.4 million people have seen this historic play.

- We've got romance.

We've got battles.

We've got fire.

We have everything you can possibly imagine.

There's plenty for anybody to enjoy it, young and old.

- It is a full-on theatrical production that takes many hands.

It means so much that we can share what happened many years ago.

It moves you, and we would love for folks just to come and enjoy and be a part.

- But both the Hickory Ridge and Horn in the West show are seasonal operations with robust summer offering, so check visitor information before planning your trip.

- When you learn about history, I think you develop a certain amount of understanding and respect for what came before you.

- Hickory Ridge History Museum is located at 591 Horn in the West Drive in Boone.

You can take a guided tour Tuesday through Friday from 10 to three, or explore on your own Saturdays from 10 to one.

For more information and seasonal events, visit hickoryridgehistorymuseum.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

It's been so fun seeing creativity unleashed here at Cedar Creek Gallery in Creedmoor.

We want to thank them for hosting us.

And don't forget, the National Teapot Show is on display through September 14th, and you can purchase teapots.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, and you can find all of our stories on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina weekend, everyone.

(upbeat music) ♪ - Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of Barrier Island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

- This program is made possible in part by generous support from the American Battlefield Trust, connecting you to the places where our nation was forged.

Visit battlefields.org today.

(upbeat music)