Student Marybeth Boone making wooden book covers in the fall books and letterpress Concentration. Marybeth, who has an MFA in sculpture, recently finished up 25 years as a school art teacher. “I thought about getting another MFA in book arts, but instead I come here.”
“As a glass maker I’ve found myself drawn to ceramics more and more. Both mediums have a fluidity that in order to really harness, you have to hone in on the moment. You can’t just let go of molten glass or a spinning potter’s wheel whenever you desire. Sometimes you have to though; sometimes my glass starts cracking and fighting against me and I have to set it down.
This happened to me a few times during my recent study at Penland. When it did, I’d go visit Upper Clay. Then I felt rejuvenated.”
“The clay studio is a safe haven compared to the flameworking studio. There’s a gorgeous light coming in from the windows. The colors of clay and glazes are subdued and easy on the eye. More often than not, a chill tune is playing while wheels hum in the background. It’s the perfect place to see my medium from another maker’s point of view.”
—Arlie Trowbridge, glass artist and owner of Urban Revisions, who took a one-week workshop in wearable glass with Rachel Rader in the flameworking studio last week.
Find out more about our hot glass and flameworking workshops.
Find out more about our upcoming workshops in clay.
Students in Rachel Meginnes’s textile workshop picked up some crochet moves during a demonstration this week. The hands on the left belong to Elizabeth Meyer of Madison, Georgia, a return student to Penland. When we quizzed her about when she was last here, she furrowed her brow, and then suddenly removed her wedding band to look at the date on the inside. Turns out the year of her marriage was also the year she did a concentration with Julia Leonard in bookmaking. As she turned her ring, Meyer remembered zipping back and forth between workshop and wedding planning, workshop and wedding planning, and smiled.
