Our first one-week class at Penland this spring was a special treat, added to the schedule only a few months ago: Slow and Savor, a workshop on mindfulness and service in the craft arts led by beloved Penland neighbor and many-time clay teacher Paulus Berensohn and meditation teacher and former core student Caverly Morgan.

 

 

The class practiced daily meditation and mindful-attention to their actions from the walk to lunch to the studio bench, created handmade journals, made bowls for the Empty Bowls Project, wrote love letters to their future selves, and became more deeply acquainted with clay – its story, properties, and behavior.

 

 

The workshop reunited Paulus with one of his first students, Jeff Carter. Jeff took a class with Paulus at Swarthmore College (Paulus’ first, he says) many years ago. He came down to Penland in summer 1966 with Toshiko Takaezu and Byron Temple, staying on at the invitation of Bill and Jane Brown to manage the clay studio, in effect becoming one of the school’s first studio coordinators. He’s since had a long career as a physical therapist in Charlotte and Boone, and recently retired to Deep Gap, North Carolina.