How This Reference Works

Ridge & Kiln is a reference on the painting, kiln-formed glass and studio craft of the Southern Appalachians. This page sets out how it is written, what it will and will not say, and — since a reference is not a switchboard — where enquiries should actually go.

Sourcing

Pages are built from primary and institutional material: conservation and preservation guidance, museum scholarship, manufacturer and school technical documentation, and public natural-history data for anything about species, habitat or season. Where a claim is specific enough that a reader might reasonably want to check it — a firing temperature, a founding date, the mechanism behind a colour effect — the page links to a source rather than to another summary of one.

Figures that vary in practice are given as ranges and described as approximate, because they genuinely are. Kiln schedules differ by glass, by kiln and by thickness; teaching conventions differ by studio. A reference that presents local practice as universal law is worse than useless to somebody trying to apply it.

Corrections

Corrections are taken seriously and pages are amended rather than quietly patched. Where a substantive fact changes, the surrounding text is rewritten so the page still reads coherently, rather than a contradicting sentence being appended to it.

Independence and affiliation

Ridge & Kiln is nobody's official channel. It represents no gallery, school, guild or artist; it is not authorised by, affiliated with, or speaking on behalf of any organisation named on these pages. Citing an institution means only that it is a relevant reference. None of the organisations linked here has reviewed, approved or endorsed anything on this site.

What this site will not do

• Value, appraise or authenticate. No page here should be used as evidence about what a work is or what it is worth. Attribution and valuation are specialist functions requiring physical examination.
• Represent or promote individual makers. The site is organised by subject and material, not by person, and it does not maintain artist listings.
• Rank or review studios and classes. The workshops page explains how to judge a class; it deliberately stops short of judging any particular one.
• Maintain an events calendar. Regional schedules change too fast for a second-hand listing to be safe to rely on. The organisations below hold the current information.

Where to direct enquiries

For anything this reference cannot answer, these are the right first stops. Each is an independent organisation with its own contact channels.

• Classes, workshops and residential study — Penland School of Craft and the John C. Campbell Folk School publish their own catalogues and handle their own enrolment.
• Regional programming, grants and local arts councils — the North Carolina Arts Council and High Country Arts.
• Craft membership, standards and regional galleries — the Southern Highland Craft Guild.
• Collections, exhibitions and art-historical enquiry — the North Carolina Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• Conservation, framing and long-term care — the Library of Congress collections care programme.
• Species, habitat and land — the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the National Park Service for the Blue Ridge Parkway.