3 Years of Material Exploration: Core Fellow Lars Shimabukuro

Lars Shimabukuro is leaving Penland after three wonderful years as a Penland Core Fellow 🥹. Anyone who has had the pleasure of sharing space with them can tell you how capable, curious, and intentional they are in everything they do.

At Penland, Lars spent time in nearly every studio, learning techniques to work in paper, wood, clay, and textiles, just to name a few. Here are images of some of the stunning work that Lars created at Penland.

“Tradewinds” installation at the Praxis Fiber Workshop Gallery in Cleveland, OH

This piece, titled “Fish Trap,” combines ceramic and lashed reed.

Chair caning (the chair is old; the rainbow caning is new).

This year, Lars will teach weaving at both John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina and Arrowmont in Tennessee! Learning from Lars is sure to be a wonderful experience and we encourage you to sign up. You can also follow them on social media and check out their website for more of their thoughtful work.

LARS IS TEACHING the following weaving workshops:

A Survey in Blocks
John C Campbell Folk School, May 14-20, all levels
This workshop will cover twill blocks, doubleweave blocks, and more

Imagery with Theo Moorman
Arrowmont, October 15-20, all levels
Learn a unique inlay technique that allows you to draw on the loom.
(Theo Moorman is the name of inlay technique, which was developed by a weaver named Theo Moorman.)