6/20 @ 9:25
Penland staff member Robin Dreyer attempts to leave work on Friday, May 14.
Program director (and photographer) Dana Moore and I had a thrilling experience last week riding in a helicopter over Penland so we could make some aerial photographs of the campus. We’ll be using a few of them in our upcoming fall/spring catalog and we’ll find lots of other uses for them as well–starting with this blog. The photo above shows the letterpress and print studio in the middle and the clay studio on the left.
Here’s a long view from above the meadow. The red spot in the middle of the frame is the roof of the Craft House.
Here you can see from the Craft House (lower right) all the way up the hill to the wood studio.
Now we are above the wood studio looking down the hill with the meadow in the distance. To the left of the wood studio is the iron studio. The next two buildings down the hill are glass and Northlight.
This is Horner Hall, home of the Penland Gallery. There is a larger group of aerial photos on our Facebook page if you want to see more. And the answer to your question is: helicopters are really, really fun.
–Robin Dreyer
On Easter Sunday Penland held one of its annual community celebrations. People from the surrounding area and their families descended on Penland to enjoy delicious homemade potluck dishes, show off their Easter bonnets in the Easter bonnet parade, and, of course, hunt for eggs!
Each of the classes worked on eggs in their respective media during the weeks prior to Easter, and artists from around the area also brought handmade eggs to add to the hunt. There were eggs of all sizes and materials: Glass eggs made using Italian cane techniques, hand hammered copper and enameled eggs, stainless steel eggs, whimsical ceramic eggs, and even eggs made from fiber and paper and printing techniques.
After an Easter bonnet parade, the little kids hunted for plastic eggs filled with candy. Then everyone (mostly adults) got to hunt for the handmade eggs. Competition for eggs was fierce, as usual. The adults were more competitive than the kids, each looking for the perfect egg. Folks could only take one handmade egg, so if they found one and then if found one that that they liked better, they had to hide the first egg before they could take the second one.
In the end, everyone had a great time, was well fed, and went home with a little treasure, whether it be a bounty of candy, or a handmade egg.
–Karen Mahardy
You can find more Easter pictures on the Penland Facebook page.