Visitors to the 10/10 exhibition were greeted by a skillful array of work, including these glass vessels by Eric DePan.
As a rule, Penland studio assistants are a hardworking bunch. They are our instructors’ right hands, helping with logistics and materials preparation and clean-ups and demos and more, while still making their own work and exploring new materials and techniques. Our fall concentration assistants have done all of that, but they didn’t stop there—this weekend, they installed an exhibition in the Flex Studio and invited our whole community to attend and enjoy it.
The show, titled 10/10, was an impressive visual testament to what is possible when energy, talent, and inspiration mix with eight weeks of immersion and experimentation in the studio. It was a beautiful, generous evening, and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect way to celebrate before heading into the final week of the fall session.
Congratulations and a big thank you to these rad artists for a great show: Eleanor Anderson, Jake Brodsky, Eric DePan, Eric Meeker, Amy Young, Elias Sideris, Celia Jailer, DeCarlo Logan, Rachel Dominguez-Benner, and Wyatt Severs!
Studio assistants! Back row: Jake Brodsky, Elias Sideris, Rachel Dominguez-Benner, DeCarlo Logan, Eric Meeker; front row: Celia Jailer, Amy Young, Eleanor AndersonA set of glass vessels and sculptures by Amy YoungA set of six encaustic panels by DeCarlo LoganCeramic pieces by Eleanor Anderson
All photographs of the installation are from textiles instructor Tim Eads. Thanks, Tim!
Slow down. Be still. Pay attention. Take note. —Beth Schaible
Details of Beth’s studio desk filled with calligraphy, letterpress, book samples, and more.
There’s an attentiveness and quiet that flows through Beth Schaible’s considerable body of work—tonal letterpress prints, meandering and elegant calligraphy, hand-bound leather journals with stitching along the spines. Her hands seem capable of communicating calm presence into her materials.
Beth is a printer and an artist, an adventurer and an observer. She collects the beauty around her in photographs and on paper with paint and ink. Her travels and her art inform each other, with the same winding trails showing up on the mountains she climbs and the lines she draws with her pen. Both are acts of appreciation.
Beth Schaible (third from left) teaching a bookbinding workshop at Penland in 2017.
Beth has a deep connection to Penland and the surrounding mountains—she spent two years here as a core fellow, lived in Asheville for years while doing design and letterpress at 7 Ton Co., and returned to Penland a couple times to teach summer workshops in bookbinding and printing. This fall, we are thrilled to have her back for eight weeks to instruct a Penland concentration.
Beth will teach Letterpress Possibilities this September 23 – November 16. Students will learn to use a wide range of printing techniques, from hand-set type to polymer plates made from drawings, to get their ideas down in ink and paper.
Whether you’re a seasoned printer or you’ve never turned the crank on a Vandercook press, eight weeks in the studio with Beth will get your ideas flowing and your skills sharp. There are a few spaces left in the workshop—register now to discover the letterpress possibilities for your work!
We also have a few work-study scholarships available. Applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Three of Beth’s letterpress printed notecard designs
Letterpress Possibilities
Students in this workshop will learn to translate type and their own hand-drawn imagery into print using hand-set type, carved blocks, polymer plates, and other processes in both monoprints and editions. We’ll discuss the best techniques for each individual’s work. We’ll cover printing-press basics and upkeep and troubleshooting during printing, and we’ll engage in weekly conversations about content, production, and craftsmanship. While the workshop will be mostly print based, we’ll also cover basic book structures. All levels. Code F00L
Beth Schaible—Studio artist and owner of Quill and Arrow (CA); teaching: Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (MD), Asheville Bookworks (NC), North Bay Letterpress Arts (CA), Penland; former Penland core fellow.
Penland runs well over 100 workshops every year, and this fast pace means it can be hard to fully appreciate the creative leaps and transformations that happen—quietly but powerfully—in each one. Before we move on to the exciting flurry of summer workshops starting this Sunday, we want to spend another moment or two taking in all the great things that came to life during our spring sessions, from new shoes to new furniture designs to new friendships. Below, we present a mini slideshow of eight photos, one from each of our eight-week concentrations and an extra one of the sweet moments in between. For more spring photos, including shots from our spring one-week workshops, head over here to view our longer album.
