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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

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John Ehle: Writer and Visionary

John Ehle and Rosemary Harris with ceramist Tom Spleth at a Penland event in 2002.

Novelist John Ehle has died at age 92. He was the author of 17 books of fiction and nonfiction, including “The Winter People” and “The Journey of the August King.”

As a special assistant to North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford he helped create the North Carolina Governor’s School and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He is also counted, along with Sanford and Governor James Hunt, as one of the founders of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics.

John shared a long marriage with the actress Rosemary Harris; the actress Jennifer Ehle is their daughter. The Ehle family often spent time at their cabin near Penland School, and John and Rosemary supported the school over many decades. John was particularly close with Penland’s second director, Bill Brown, and worked with him on some of Penland’s first fundraising campaigns. He served on the board of trustees from 1981-1985 and was made an honorary trustee in 1987.

John Ehle will be remembered as a great writer, a great citizen of North Carolina, and a visionary of education. At Penland School of Crafts, he will also be remembered as a neighbor and a friend.

Read more about John Ehle’s remarkable life in this article from the Winston-Salem Journal.

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Molding James

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

This is Penland resident artist Dean Allison beginning the process of creating a mold from the head and shoulders of 10-year-old James Haley. The mold will be used in the creation of one of Dean’s mesmerizing cast-glass portraits. James’s mother, Penland program director Leslie Noell, was close at hand to coach him through the 45-minute process. James got to pick the soundtrack, so Hamilton was playing throughout.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

The first step was to coat James’s hair with cold cream. Then Dean began to carefully cover his face with a silicone rubber that starts to set up in about about 10 minutes. He used his fingers to make sure all the details of James’s face would be well molded. He also took care to maintain breathing holes for James’s nose.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

With his whole head and shoulders covered, James began to acquire a Halloween-enviable, Creature from the Black Lagoon look. At this point it was important for him to sit very still as the material began to set up. “Pretend you are thinking about the hardest math problem you’ve ever had to do,” Dean instructed.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

The next step was to create a two-part plaster shell that will be used to keep the flexible mold rigid later when filling it with hot wax. Dean and his assistant Sarah Beth Post formed the shell using the same kind of cloth/plaster strips that are used to make a cast for a broken bone.

Once both halves of the shell were complete, they were left briefly to harden and then were carefully removed.

Here’s the front half of the shell coming off.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

Dean carefully slit the mold up the back while Sarah Beth separated the rubber from the shirt.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

And with Mom’s assistance, the mold was removed as gently as possible.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

There it goes.

Penland resident artist Dean Allison making a mold of James Haley's head

And James emerged intact!

“I was thinking about bagels the whole time,” he said to Leslie, “so now we need to go get a bagel.”

Hmm…well played.

This process is just Dean’s first step. Here’s the rubber mold back inside the plaster cast (upside down on the chair). The next step is to fill it with hot wax to make a wax positive.

Here is the wax model of James. Dean will clean this up quite a bit and do some additional sculpting—particularly on the hair.

He will use this wax model to create a new mold made of reinforced plaster, which will retain all the detail that’s in the wax. Finally he will melt out the wax and fill the plaster mold with molten glass to create the glass sculpture. After the glass cools Dean will put in hours of polishing and cold work to refine the piece before it will be ready for mounting.

Before joining the Penland residency, Dean Allison was Penland’s glass studio coordinator. He has a Masters of Art in Visual Art from Australian National University. His work has been exhibited recently at the National Portrait Gallery in DC, SOFA Chicago, and Blue Spiral I in Asheville, NC. You can see many examples of his portraiture on his website.