HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — Hendersonville is where you’ll find unique jewelry, and Melinda Lawton, the maker behind it.
What You Need To Know
The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area has spent the last four years wokrking on this system
The Blue Ridge Craft Trails system highlights over 300 artists and galleries in western North Carolina
The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area hopes this system will help connect visitors and locals to the area's craft scene
“People come in here and they say, 'I drive by here all the time, but I’ve never been,' and then they come in, and they’re like, 'wow,'” she said.
For two decades she’s been creating one-of-a-kind pieces that have landed on some of the biggest celebrities.
“So once my jewelry arrived, Carrie Underwood started wearing it on every song,” Lawton said. “So she would meet me in the elevator, and she’d say, 'what did you bring this week?'”
Lawton met Underwood on "American Idol," where she soon began wearing her jewelry.
"I actually have 18 pictures of her performing in my jewelry that I have rights to,” she said.
But before Lawton got into jewelry making, she spent the previous 30 years using her skills in the news business as an artistic director.
“I sort of started the jewelry while I was still doing television design and at that point I was still living in Los Angeles,” she said. “So it actually worked out really well, because I had a lot of connections in the business, so that helped.”
Soon she decided to move to Hendersonville, and now if you’re looking to find her work, there’s a new system in place to help.
Lawton and other artists are part of the Blue Ridge Craft Trail, a system that highlights craft makers from across western North Carolina.
“We spent four years developing and curating a trail of more than 300 artists and galleries in western North Carolina and the mountains and foothills,” Leslie Hartley said.
Hartley is the communications manager for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, which is behind this new system. She hopes this system will help connect visitors to the area’s craft and art scene.
“Our goal is to bring buyers to makers, to support local artists, to encourage people to get off the beaten path too … to explore those rural towns that have the hidden gems of artists in them up here in the mountains,” she said.
This system is something Lawton knows will help her business grow even more.
“I could sit here all day long and not get that much publicity, but just to be able to be represented on the craft trail is quite an honor,” she said.
The craft trail system officially launched early this year, and Lawton can’t wait to see just who she’ll meet next.
If you are interested in checking out the trail and seeing some of the artists located on it, you can find more information here.