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Photo of the Week: Iron Pour!

Everybody loves an iron pour, because you’ve got flames, molten metal, face shields, leather suits, and a cheering crowd. Really, what more could you ask for?

 

The spring iron workshop, taught by Remy Louis Hanemann, has spent the last three weeks building a cupola furnace and all the tools needed for casting metal. This was the first test. It went well. (And it looked good, too.)

 

 

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Photo(s) of the Week: Penland Bees

using the smoker on a bee hive

The Penland bees just got an early spring visit from our resident bee expert Marie Fornaro and bee-expert-in-training Rachel Kedinger. They donned their jackets, gloves, and veils to check on the two hives, which are located to the side of the knoll just below the Penland Garden. In the top image, Rachel is using a bee smoker to apply a few puffs of smoke to the hive. Beekeepers have used smoke since ancient times to calm the bees and interrupt the hive’s defensive response.

Below, Marie and Rachel are taking advantage of the bees’ calmer state to check on honey supplies and remaining space in the hive. The bees will feed off their fall honey stores for a couple more weeks until spring blooms can provide a steady flow of nectar. At that point, they will begin to fill open space in the frames with a fresh supply of honey stores.

inspecting a frame in a beehive

A honeybee will forage two miles or more from its hive, but having the Penland Garden right next door is still a win-win situation: the garden offers the bees a supplementary source of nectar, and the bees help pollinate the plants for a more robust harvest. It’s a win for all of us who enjoy the garden’s produce at lunch in The Pines, too.

two beehives with bees flying around

 

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Clay Goes Big

Nick Schwartz torching the top of a coil-built pot

The spring clay concentration has been busy preparing pieces for their first firing, and they haven’t been holding back on the scale or the drama. Here, instructor Nick Schwartz uses a torch to stiffen the most recent layer of clay on a sizeable pot he’s building. Below, two more large pots look on. They were collaborations between Nick and local potter Courtney Martin, whose signature geometric resist patterns you can see painted on both pieces.

And here, a fun and gratuitous flame close-up, just because:

closeup of a torch and wet clay pot

 

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