Posted on

Elizabeth Brim’s Steel Inflation Demo

 

brimpillow

 

Blacksmith and Penland’s close neighbor Elizabeth Brim (a.k.a. Miss Betty) is known, among other things, for a series of steel pillows like the one shown above. The initial forming of these pieces is done by welding two sheets of steel together around the edges, getting them red hot, and then inflating the form using compressed air.

 

 

Elizabeth is frequently asked to demonstrate the technique for Penland iron classes. This summer, Dan Bailey’s class in photo and video attended one of these demos armed with still cameras, video cameras, and sound equipment and recorded the whole thing. Then Dan and his students Charlotte Humphrey and Wes Stitt lovingly crafted the footage into an intriguing five-minute video. Want to see steel blow up like a balloon? Take a look.

 

Posted on 2 Comments

Photo of the Week: A few quiet days…

Bamboo House at Penland School
Maintenance tech Allen Brooks blowing leaves out of the ice guards and gutters at Bamboo House.

 

At Penland, we love summer. All the studios are filled with classes. Every couple of weeks we greet a new group of fascinating, creative people. And amazing things are made every day.

But then summer comes to an end and we have a few weeks of welcome quiet. The studios or more-or-less empty (save for a staff or community person here and there, firing a kiln or working on a project in the wood shop). The dining hall is empty. Our studio coordinators and facilities crew lean into important tasks that have been waiting for the moment when they won’t be in anyone’s way. With no students on campus, gallery traffic ticks down a bit. The registration, financial, front office, and development staff keep humming along as usual, but at a slightly lower frequency.

Then, before we have a chance to forget what we’re actually doing here, we’re welcoming students and instructors, beautiful objects begin to stack up on studio shelves, instructors carefully demonstrate and explain, people are surprised by how much they are learning, the air gets crisper, the leaves begin to turn, and it’s fall at Penland again.

 

Posted on 5 Comments

Late night core fellows

Roaming through the studios after 10 PM late in the summer, it wasn’t hard to find Penland’s core fellows at work.

Sarah Brown at Penland School

Sarah Brown was finishing up a pewter “girly flask.”

 

Will Lentz

Will Lentz was lining a box with red paper in the book studio.

 

Mike Krupiarz at Penland

Mike Krupiarz was making a blue goblet.

 

Audrey Bell at Penland School

And Audrey Bell was doing some delicate woodcarving (she’s not whistling; she carefully blowing away the chips).

If you are thinking about applying for the core fellowship, the application deadline is October 15.