Category: Penland People

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Golly Peters, ceramist

Golly Peters
Golly Peters

Golly Peters first became aware of Penland when she found the Penland Book of Ceramics in Amsterdam. She was so impressed with the book that she found Penland on the Internet and learned that it was a school that anyone could apply to and attend. She sensed that there was something special about Penland and hoped to go there one day.

Golly lives in Brussels, and has found that Belgian ceramicists are secretive about their processes and not open to sharing with others. Though she had been doing ceramics for five years, she had been struggling with moldmaking and so she signed up for Tom Spleth’s spring class in moldmaking and slipcasting. Earlier this year Golly had to have some serious surgery and coming to Penland was a tremendous incentive and helped her recovery.

Now Golly can’t wait to go home and share what she has learned with others. She feels more confident than ever with her work and now sees flaws that she didn’t see before. “Penland brought the fun back into my work and gave me permission to play again,” she said. “ I have had a great experience at Penland and feel that the class pushed me to go beyond limitations that I had previously and move onto the next phase of my work.

–Karen Mahardy

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Tom Spleth Makes a Plaster Form at Slide Night

When instructor Tom Spleth did his slide night at the beginning of his eight-week class in making ceramics from plaster molds, he projected slides of his work on the wall, then poured plaster on a large piece of masonite, cued some lovely music, and demonstrated his method for making a sculptural form from drying plaster. Staff member Mark Boyd was on hand with a camera and made this beautiful 5-minute video titled Fluid Form.

A technical note on what Tom is doing: The plaster form he makes in the video would be the first step in the creation of a hollow, porcelain sculpture or vase. After the plaster form dries, Tom refines it with scrapers and other tools, then he makes a multipart plaster mold from the form. The next step is to pour clay slip into the mold, let it sit for a bit and then pour it out again, leaving layer of slip clinging to the inside of the mold. The mold is then opened and the clay form inside can be glazed and fired.  –Robin Dreyer

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Elliot Todd, glassblower

Elliot Todd working in the Penland glass studio
Elliot Todd working in the Penland glass studio

Smart, focused and driven: these are three words that can be used to describe what it takes to be a successful artist. They are also three words that describe Penland School of Crafts glass student Elliott Todd, but with one addition: he is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet.

A native of Boone, North Carolina, Elliott used to visit Penland as a boy with his father and attended community open house events. As a teenager, he started making flameworked beads at home with a simple mapp gas torch and rods of glass. After high school graduation, Elliott was unsure of what direction to go until he heard that a beginning hot glass class was being taught by Ed Schmidt at Penland. The two-month class introduced Elliott to the basics of glassblowing and inspired him to continue to learn more.

Though a year would pass before Elliott could take another two-month class at Penland, you would not have known that any time had passed at all. Elliott is a true natural and has a memory for detail that serves him well. He completed the fall 2009 glass concentration taught by Dave Naito with even more skills, ideas, and inspiration, and he immediately signed up for the spring 2010 glass concentration currently being taught by Scott Benefield. “Elliott is an unstoppable force,” commented one fellow student. “He’s always so excited to work in the studio whether he is assisting someone else or working on his own project. He’s just a great person to be around.”

Because of his experiences at Penland, Elliott now plans to attend college and major in glass.

–Karen Mahardy