easter – The Penland Sketchbook

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Penland

Handmade Bonnets, Handmade Eggs

This past Sunday, Penland students, instructors, staff, and friends celebrated Easter and the arrival of spring the best way we know how: with craft, community, costumes, and a bit of candy thrown in for good measure. The annual Easter Bonnet Parade included some impressively creative entries, including a panoramic “Bunny Retirement Home” hat that took first place in the 12-and-under division, a hat adorned with marshmallow peeps and layers of pink flowers, and a rather fashionable leather cap with a giant paper bow. The handmade eggs for the egg hunt were similarly impressive: a fried egg made of white and yellow leather, carved clay eggs with dinosaurs and roses, eggs decorated with hundreds and hundreds of sewn glass seed beads, and turned wooden eggs made on the lathe, to name a few. Take a look at the slideshow above for more views of the fun!

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Penland

Pysanky Party

Decorating eggs with wax resist

This Sunday, Penland will hold its annual Easter celebration and egg hunt, which always includes an impressive range of handmade eggs by students and instructors. Many are crafted using the materials at hand in the session’s workshops—wood, glass, iron, clay, and more—but there are often wildcard entries made by Penland’s friends and neighbors, too. This year, thanks to an egg decorating party hosted by Penland’s Community Collaborations Manager Stacey Lane, the hunt will also include a bunch of eggs dyed using the traditional Ukranian method of pysanky.

The pysanky technique is a layered wax resist technique, something like batik on eggs. With a skilled hand, highly complex patterns can be built up with successive applications of wax and dye, wax and dye, wax and dye. The final step is to warm the egg over a small flame, wipe off the hot wax, and reveal the vibrant pattern hiding beneath. Keep an eye out for these beauties tucked around campus this Sunday!

Finished eggs in a variety of colors

Posted on April 8, 2010April 26, 2010 by Penland — 1 Comment

Easter at Penland

On Easter Sunday Penland held one of its annual community celebrations. People from the surrounding area and their families descended on Penland to enjoy delicious homemade potluck dishes, show off their Easter bonnets in the Easter bonnet parade, and, of course, hunt for eggs!

Each of the classes worked on eggs in their respective media during the weeks prior to Easter, and artists from around the area also brought handmade eggs to add to the hunt. There were eggs of all sizes and materials: Glass eggs made using Italian cane techniques, hand hammered copper and enameled eggs, stainless steel eggs, whimsical ceramic eggs, and even eggs made from fiber and paper and printing techniques.

Glass eggs (note fancy Italian cane technique)

After an Easter bonnet parade, the little kids hunted for plastic eggs filled with candy. Then everyone (mostly adults) got to hunt for the handmade eggs. Competition for eggs was fierce, as usual. The adults were more competitive than the kids, each looking for the perfect egg. Folks could only take one handmade egg, so if they found one and then if found one that that they liked better, they had to hide the first egg before they could take the second one.

In the end, everyone had a great time, was well fed, and went home with a little treasure, whether it be a bounty of candy, or a handmade egg.

–Karen Mahardy

You can find more Easter pictures on the Penland Facebook page.