Core fellow Seth “Thor” Gould, using a power hammer to shape a hammer head in the iron studio. Seth has been making a bunch of new hammers for use in the metals studio.

We are in the process of taking down the old Homosote building, which has been replaced by some new housing built this year. Much of the material in the building is being recycled by community members, and when the ceiling was removed, these elaborately decorated rafters were discovered. Perhaps this is the key to finding the long-lost Penland gold.

(Don’t get excited; there’s no such thing.)

Here’s a bunch of people installing a new milling machine in the downstairs metals studio. This is just one of dozens of studio improvements going on this winter. It’s a good thing we shut down for a while every year or we’d never get anything done. (Photo by Amy Tavern)

This may not look like much to you, but to us, it’s a beautiful sight. This section of the Penland road, which lies between the school and the post office (not to mention the homes of many staff members), has been closed for months. It was falling off the hill and the only solution was to move the road. This involved a number of large machines, a bunch of workers, and a lot of dynamite. Yesterday, they opened it to traffic (it will be paved after it’s good and packed) and our detouring days have come to an end.

Nobody is happier than Bill Ford, who drives to the post office twice a to pick up and drop off the school’s mail.

In the printmaking studio, local conceptual artist Rabulette, the littlest January printmaking resident, proof-checks the week’s work.

January print resident Leslie Lachance, a poet and creative writing professor at the University of Tennessee, rolls a broadside through the Vandercook press. Leslie is also a teacher of hatha yoga, and led some evening classes for residents and staff.

Studio manager (and glassblower) Simone Travisano helping registrar Gretchen Travers make a glass ornament in late December. Simone and glass studio coordinator Dean Allison generously invited everyone on staff up to the glass studio to roll their own (with a little help and instruction).

A self-portrait by drawing instructor Janet Link at the fall show and tell. (Photo by Wes Stitt).

You may recall the steel dolphin being made in Vivian Beer’s fall iron class (see October 20, below). Well it was finished a few days ago, fitted with a saddle, mounted in a large steel ring, and hung from the bridge crane (which moves back and forth through the studio). The iron class hosted a party on Saturday night that included dolphin rides. Here’s Penland’s communications manager Robin Dreyer testing it out. (Photo by Vivian Beer).

Here is the beautiful thing by itself.

Unloading pots from last week’s excellent firing of the woodkiln.