Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024 - 24

Y
35
YEARS AGO
" If I could have found my
way off that mountain, I'd
have been gone. "
-Warder Harvey,
speaking of his 16-yearold
self, who instead
enrolled in the Civilian
Conservation Corps to help
build Shenandoah National
Park. He was
quoted in Tom
Hill's " The
Skyline Drive
Turns 50, in the
November/
December 1989
issue.
An Artisan Era Ends at Stuart Nye
Hand Wrought Jewelry
W
hen World War I
veteran Stuart Nye
bought a few secondhand
tools and a small
supply of sterling silver
in 1933, he had no idea
his jewelry-making
business would last 91
years. Stuart Nye Hand
Wrought Jewelry closes
for good on December
20. The historic building
on Tunnel Road in East
Asheville that currently
houses the workbenches,
chisels, anvils, hammers and memories
will be sold.
Originally from New England, Nye wound
up in a veteran's hospital in Asheville after
the war. He decided to stay and used
trial and error to create affordable jewelry
adorned with metal leaves and flowers, such
as dogwood, calla lilies and trillium. The
original dogwood jewelry was made in silver.
The company added copper during the
metal shortage of World
War II and brought in brass
when the price of silver
exploded in 1979-'80.
Third generation owner
Joe Morris followed in the
footsteps of his father and
his grandfather in learning
how to keep the business
going. It was his grandfather,
Ralph Morris, Sr., who
bought it from Stuart Nye.
Joe plans to shift production
to his home studio
and concentrate solely
on crafting pairs of the " Backward Loop "
earrings. The earrings are inserted from the
back of the earlobe and worked forward
until the little loop in the back comes up
behind the ear.
Currently, Stuart Nye jewelry is stocked at
the different locations of the Southern Highland
Handicraft Guild Shop. One location is
right next door to the Stuart Nye workshop.
-MARLA HARDEE MILLING
SKYWATCH NOVEMBER & DECEMBER
A Star Like Our Sun Twinkles Overhead
W
hen gazing into the heavens-especially from a dark location along the Blue
Ridge Parkway-folks often wonder about the nature of the stars. Are any
of them like our sun? Almost all stars seen on a clear night are intrinsically much
larger and much brighter than the sun. But one star is neither.
High in the south at 9 p.m. hangs the Great Square of Pegasus, four stars of
nearly equal brightness forming the corners of an almost square. These four
luminaries are almost as bright as those of the more familiar Big Dipper.
Head north from the Square's two eastern stars by twice the distance between
them, and the " w " shape of the constellation Cassiopeia is found. This group of
five stars lies smack in the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Slightly northeast
of the second star of the w, counting from west to east, is 19 light-year distant
Eta-which is rather close as interstellar distances go.
Why is this rather unremarkable star noteworthy? Its physical values of size,
mass and luminosity are very much like those of our sun. In other words, it is
sun-like. Just by knowing that, one's imagination quickly wonders: A home for life
elsewhere? Rest assured that astronomers wonder that too as they examine this
star very closely.
-JOHN GOSS
24 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
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Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country Nov/Dec 2024
