News

Firefly Craft Gallery opens in Flat Rock

Karen Kennedy is the owner of the Firefly Craft Gallery in Flat Rock.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 2, 2016

FLAT ROCK — As soon as shoppers walk into her Firefly Craft Gallery, Karen Kennedy is promoting local artists.

“Everything is hand-made in America,” she says brightly, “a lot of it from North Carolina.”
Kennedy has been selling antiques and crafts in Hendersonville for six years. She had a shop at the Old Towne Market off Seventh Avenue before she fulfilled her lifelong dream and opened her own standalone shop, in the Flat Rock post office building on Greenville Highway.
“I felt like there wasn’t anything in the area that was like this,” she said. “Since Wickwire closed and Hand In Hand left, we needed a small gallery here in town.”
She was born into an antiquing family in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. Since she and her husband moved to Hendersonville in six years ago, she’s been preparing for her own shop.
“We support our local artists,” she says. “They either find me or I find them. I’ll go to shows like the Southern Craft Guild. I go to shows all over the U.S.”
The shop carries sterling jewelry, folk art clocks, modern folk art and rustic handmade twig-and-wood furniture. Christmas houses are on a half-price sale now.
“And I carry some antiques,” Kennedy says. “I go on buying trips and find things and bring them back. Then just little things I fall in love with and bring back.”
She expects to draw customers from the immediate area and beyond.
“I know we get a lot of tourist traffic during the camp time and even now,” she says. “I’ve had a lot of people stop in and say they’re so glad to see me here. They missed Hand In Hand and Wickwire.”
The shop’s hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.