Category: Classes

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Community Open House 2024

What a magical day! On Saturday, February 24th, 2024, visitors, volunteers, and staff alike were treated to a day that was as varied in activities as it was in weather. As makers of all ages strolled from one teaching studio to the next, exploring media like wood, clay, and glass, the weather vacillated between sparkling blue skies and bright sunshine to Dippin’ Dots snow and swirling fog.

Visitors printed inspiring posters designed by local youth

Learning and Exploring

Ten of Penland’s teaching studios offered a thoughtful hands-on activity designed to be enjoyed by any age and any level of ability. Over 130 volunteers were on hand to help orient visitors and share their passion for craft. And, as often happens in Penland’s studios, we saw those who had just learned a new technique passing their knowledge along to others. This continued throughout the day as visitors learned to weave, print, forge, etc., creating finished objects to take home, including 375 poplar magnets, 300 metal relief images, and 80 forged iron hooks. Over 700 visitors included tiny tots wielding hammers, established artists trying something new, and community members who surprised us with their creative takes on each activity. See more photos from the day HERE.

Makers of all ages learned to forge hooks in the iron studio

Nice!

Student Print Collaboration

Visitors to the Penland print studio created prints using Lego dots and printed inspiring posters on the Vandercook presses with help from volunteers. The takeaway poster was designed by students from Mayland Early College High School (MECH) engaged in PATH WNC’s Youth to Youth (Y2Y) program. Visiting the Penland letterpress studio back in October, these students learned about poster design and letterpress printing from Penland print studio coordinator Adam Leestma and brainstormed ideas that would promote positive messages in the community. Their “Enjoy the Little Things” poster was selected for visitors to print during the Open House. More posters will be printed soon to be hung in area schools!

Making Lives Meaningful Through Making 

Established in 1929, Penland’s mission is Making Lives Meaningful Through Making. Throughout the year, this takes the form of intensive craft workshops, residencies, gallery shows, and community outreach. We believe that generosity enhances education, with close interaction between people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds promoting the exchange of information and ideas for the benefit of all. The Community Open House is a celebration of community, creativity, and the joy of making.

Volunteers in the clay studio shared their skills with visitors who learned to throw a clay vessel or create a sculpture

Come back soon…

As February draws to a close, we are preparing for another action-packed year at Penland. We hope that visitors and neighbors take advantage of all that Penland has to offer, including local standby scholarships for our intensive craft workshops, kid’s camps and youth workshops, rotating exhibitions in our Gallery and Visitor’s Center, a network of walking trails, the Penland Coffee House and Supply Store, a self-guided tour, the Penland Resident Artist studios at The Barns, and many events throughout the year. Fire on the Mountain is coming up on April 27th!

Visitors to the Penland photography studio made cyanotype handkerchiefs

Miss Lucy in the mix!

Thank you!

Community Open House would not be possible without over 130 volunteers, Penland staff, and our open-hearted visitors. We are so grateful to everyone that made the day possible. Thanks to Lil Pete’s barbecue truck and our hard-working coffee house staff who served hundreds of hot drinks to visitors. Thanks to Ellie Richards for designing this year’s volunteer apron. Thanks to Sibelco, who sponsored the volunteer luncheon and who’s employees were among the day’s volunteers. And thanks to PATH WNC and the students who designed the letterpress poster!

Wood studio visitors customized poplar wood magnets using many different techniques

So creative!

2024 Community Open House Activities
  • Clay Studio – Making pots at the wheel or small clay sculptures
  • Glass Studio – Hands on lampwork bead making and hot glass demonstrations
  • Letterpress Studio – Printing posters designed by students from MECHS Youth to Youth on the Vandercooks and Lego printing with homemade presses
  • Metals Studio – Embossing designs of local plants and wildlife onto metal foil
  • Papermaking Studio – Learning the basics of paper sheet formation and pulp painting while making fun paper butterflies
  • Photography Studio – Making original cyanotype prints using patterns from nature, science, and architecture.
  • Paste Painting – Making sheets of decorative paste-paper using pigmented paste and colorful sheets of paper 
  • Textiles Studio – Making small tapestries and watching floor loom weaving and spinning demonstrations
  • Iron Studio – Forging wall hooks
  • Wood Studio –Customizing wooden magnets through shaping, carving and painting

We took lots of photos! You can find them HERE.

This magnet says it all: “This is awesome! Making wood things!”

Local artist Kurt Anderson helped visitors explore the magic of paste painting

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Exploring the Magic of Cyanotypes with Nydia Blas

We absolutely love the magical photographs that Nydia Blas created during her two-week winter residency in the Penland photo studio. This work was made with cyanotype photography, a technique that involves laying an object on paper coated with a solution of iron salts before exposing it to UV light and washing with water to create white and Prussian blue images. Nydia first explored cyanotyoes at Penland with instructor Tokie Rome-Taylor and was eager to go deeper with the medium and to seek inspiration in the landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Nydia was kind enough to share some of the highlights of her residency with us:

Work by Nydia Blas, finished at Penland

What was your intention for your two week residency in the Penland photo studio?

My plan was to gain a better understanding of the cyanotype process. I began making cyanotypes at Penland in the Summer of 2023 when I took a class with Tokie Rome-Taylor. I loved working with my hands, playing, and returning to an idea over and over again. My plan for the residency was to make cyanotypes rooted in magical realism using appropriated images, my own photographs and items from nature. I also wanted to play around with adorning completed cyanotypes with watercolors, beads, etc.

Digital negatives used in Nydia’s work

We love your beautiful cyanotypes! Can you tell us a little bit about this work?

The work begins with Penland, because I think it’s a magical place and I was drawn to the land from the first time I visited. I knew what I wanted to do but I wasn’t sure of the specifics.  I work very intuitively and I spent my first day connecting to the land and gathering messages about the direction of the work. I had a dream about a snake and I started there, sourcing a snake image online and using a photograph from a previous body of work. And from there that is how my process went. I made digital negatives, cut them out by hand and made collages on cyanotype paper and exposed them in light boxes. Outerspace, the moon, the sun, deer, hawk, and the butterfly make appearances. I often work backwards to create meaning, thus more will unfold as I keep looking and reflecting.

What was your Penland Winter Residency experience like?

My experience was great! I am from New York but have lived in Atlanta for five years, that being said it was so cold and I have never driven in the snow. But, the love and warmth of the people, food, and interactions at Penland made up for that. It was the first time in a while that I got to just play and have fun making things with my hands. Sometimes, I think we forget that at the core, our art practice should be FUN. I made some great connections with new people and it was lovely to see familiar faces again. I enjoy seeing what everybody was working on at the end of the two weeks.


What’s next?

I just began the Spring semester at Spelman College where I teach photography, so I am looking forward to connecting, inspiring and learning from my students. I am working on my third book of photography, which I am super excited about. When it gets a bit warmer, I will begin working on a new body of work about Atlanta, Georgia. Besides that some rest, reading, writing, and self-care/love/healing.

Nydia Blas is a 2024 Penland Winter Residency Distinguished Fellow, one of eleven individuals receiving an award to attend the residency at no cost and with the support of a stipend, made possible with support from the NEA. Discover more of her work HERE.

Thank you so much, Nydia, for sharing your practice with us!

Nydia Blas
2024 Penland Winter Residency Distinguished Fellow

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Learning Greenwood Turning with Raul de Lara

Raul de Lara is a newly-minted bowl turner. 

Invited as a Penland Winter Residency Distinguished Fellow, the New York-based sculptor knew exactly what he wanted from his residency in the Penland wood studio: to learn everything he could about  turning bowls on a lathe.

Red oak logs from a fallen Penland tree await the lathe. 

A solo show coming up in May will feature Raul’s iconic botanical sculptures, supported by large, lathe-turned bowls and vases. Raul was a quick study, and it was a lot of fun to watch him get better and better, turning a pile of Penland red oak into a beautiful body of work.

A work in progress in the Penland wood studio

Raul’s Penland stay even included a trip to visit “wooden potter,” David Ellsworth, who lives an hour away. “I learned so much from David’s book and I use his signature tool,” said Raul. “I was able to show him some of my new work and we became friends immediately.”

Raul will spend the next two months preparing for his show at Reynolds Gallery which opens on May 3.

Raul’s work on display at show and tell

We asked Raul to share a few tips about greenwood turning… Enjoy!

My advice would be to make sure to have friends around who can help you load/unload the big, heavy wet logs onto the lathe. For me, it was important to learn the basic techniques from David Ellsworth’s book before jumping into more intricate forms (like the ones you’ll see in my solo show). David also makes his own signature tool, which is what I used to make my work here at Penland.

Raul makes his way up to show and tell with his newly-turned vessels.

Thank you for sharing your practice with us, Raul! You can find more of his stunning work HERE. 

Raul de Lara is a 2024 Penland Winter Residency Distinguished Fellow, one of eleven individuals receiving an award to attend the residency at no cost and with the support of a stipend, made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Penland’s Winter Residency program is a short-term residency opportunity for artists seeking to work independently in one of our sixteen studios during Penland’s quiet season. This year, nearly 150 residents brought their studio practices to Penland’s teaching studios for for two to four focused weeks.

We are excited to share more Penland Winter Residency stories. Please stay tuned for more…