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Photo of the Week: Dave and Camera

dave sommer and view camera

Penland’s director of facilities and grounds, Dave Sommer, preparing to expose a glass-plate negative of the folks who have been working on the Craft House restoration. While he was putting in an incredible amount of work getting the new photo and papermaking studios ready for classes this summer, Dave decided he should to take a workshop in one of those studios. So he signed up for a photo class with perennial Penland instructor Dan Estabrook. He had some fun.

 

Dave Sommer glass-plate negative of Craft House

Here’s a scan made from Dave’s negative. The process involves a negative that is hand coated and has to be exposed before it’s completely dry. It also means exposure times that are measured in multiple seconds rather than fractions of a second. This one had a few problems, but creates a striking impression nonetheless.

 

Here’s a scan from another negative Dave did–a portrait of one of the guys who has been finishing up the Northlight building (which is the setting for this picture).

 

The Craft House at Penland School

And speaking of the Craft House, here’s a little progress report. They are rebuilding on the porch now. A porch, we should add, that Our State Magazine said was one of the greatest porches in North Carolina.

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Letterpress Possibilities

Slow down. Be still. Pay attention. Take note.
—Beth Schaible

Details of Beth’s studio desk filled with calligraphy, letterpress, book samples, and more.

There’s an attentiveness and quiet that flows through Beth Schaible’s considerable body of work—tonal letterpress prints, meandering and elegant calligraphy, hand-bound leather journals with stitching along the spines. Her hands seem capable of communicating calm presence into her materials.

Beth is a printer and an artist, an adventurer and an observer. She collects the beauty around her in photographs and on paper with paint and ink. Her travels and her art inform each other, with the same winding trails showing up on the mountains she climbs and the lines she draws with her pen. Both are acts of appreciation.

Beth Schaible (third from left) teaching a bookbinding workshop at Penland in 2017.

Beth has a deep connection to Penland and the surrounding mountains—she spent two years here as a core fellow, lived in Asheville for years while doing design and letterpress at 7 Ton Co., and returned to Penland a couple times to teach summer workshops in bookbinding and printing. This fall, we are thrilled to have her back for eight weeks to instruct a Penland concentration.

Beth will teach Letterpress Possibilities this September 23 – November 16. Students will learn to use a wide range of printing techniques, from hand-set type to polymer plates made from drawings, to get their ideas down in ink and paper.

Whether you’re a seasoned printer or you’ve never turned the crank on a Vandercook press, eight weeks in the studio with Beth will get your ideas flowing and your skills sharp. There are a few spaces left in the workshop—register now to discover the letterpress possibilities for your work!

We also have a few work-study scholarships available. Applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Three of Beth’s letterpress printed notecard designs

Letterpress Possibilities

Students in this workshop will learn to translate type and their own hand-drawn imagery into print using hand-set type, carved blocks, polymer plates, and other processes in both monoprints and editions. We’ll discuss the best techniques for each individual’s work. We’ll cover printing-press basics and upkeep and troubleshooting during printing, and we’ll engage in weekly conversations about content, production, and craftsmanship. While the workshop will be mostly print based, we’ll also cover basic book structures. All levels. Code F00L

Beth Schaible—Studio artist and owner of Quill and Arrow (CA); teaching: Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (MD), Asheville Bookworks (NC), North Bay Letterpress Arts (CA), Penland; former Penland core fellow.

quillandarrow.com

Penland Fall Concentrations
September 23 – November 16, 2018
Clay  |  Glass  |  Iron  |  Letterpress  |  Painting  |  Textiles  |  Wood

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Photo of the Week: Canoe Launch

Thirteen canoes in 2.5 weeks—the class poses on the water in their handmade boats. Photo by Nadia Massoud.

This past session, Gerald Weckesser came to Penland to teach a skin-on-frame canoe building workshop. Over the course of 2.5 weeks, the boats took shape in the wood studio, first as steam-bent ribs, then as fully lashed frames, and finally as Dacron-skinned vessels ready to hit the water. On the final morning of the session, the class strapped their new creations onto their vehicles and headed to the lake for a maiden voyage. The water was calm, dappled sunlight lit up the boats like lanterns, and nobody capsized—a fitting end-of-session celebration, indeed.

Happy paddling, canoe builders!

Penland’s Gary Jobe loads three canoes onto his truck outside the studio.
Each canoe is sized for a single person and is light enough to be maneuvered with ease.
Students made quick double-sided paddles from plywood to use on the lake.
Gerald poses with one of the canoes by the shore of the lake.
Gerald Weckesser, canoe building instructor and A+ canoe model. Photo by Nadia Massoud.