Books and Paper Workshops at Penland
Penland School of Craft offers workshops of varying lengths in the book arts and papermaking taught by visiting instructors in our well-equipped studios. Classes focus on topics including designing handmade books, papermaking, printing, and book binding. Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
Register for Workshops
Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
The summer scholarship application is closed.
We are currently accepting scholarship applications for spring workshops; the deadline is 11:59 PM ET on April 3.
Regular enrollment for spring workshops begins on May 1.
Please read this note about our session schedules.
Please read our COVID-19 Safety Guidelines document.
Books Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Alex McClay
Form, Content, Book
In this workshop we’ll create meaningful and moving works of art by making books that merge form and content. We’ll begin by covering a plethora of bookbinding techniques, including one-page books, zines, pamphlet stitch, coptic stitch, drum leaf binding, case binding, and box-making. At the same time, we’ll practice creative exercises that will evoke your artistic voice and encourage content development. Then we’ll spend some time in the letterpress studio getting that content onto paper. You’ll learn to set type, make polymer plates, pressure print, and collagraph print, all while planning carefully for the book form. We’ll put it all together back in the books studio. Demonstrations, presentations, discussions, meditations, and exercises will enrich the workshop experience. Students will leave with a collection of handbound artists’ books and a working knowledge of bookbinding and letterpress printing. All levels.
Studio artist; teaching: University of Cincinnati (OH), University of Georgia (GA); residencies: Tiger Lily Press (OH), Penland Core Fellowship (NC); exhibitions: Weston Art Gallery (OH), ArtSpace (NC), Haggerty Gallery (TX), Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking (GA).
Papermaking – Spring Short Session
April 30 – May 5, 2023 (4 studio days)
Shannon Brock
Imagery in Papermaking
This workshop will explore image making in handmade paper. We’ll begin with an overview of basic sheet forming, including a discussion of fiber preparation and why we are using specific fibers. Then we’ll mix additives and pigment pulp that will be used throughout the workshop. On the second day, students will learn to prepare stencils with a variety of materials, and we’ll cover pulp transfers, pulp painting, watermarks, and blowouts. The rest of the time will be used to put these techniques into practice. Students may choose to create finished work or a library of examples. All levels.
Studio artist; owner of Gaptoothed Studio (MO); teaching: Melbourne Grammar (Australia), Montclair State University (NJ), Museum School (MA); collections: Metropolitan Museum (NYC), Yale University Art Gallery (CT); publication: Papermaking for Printmakers by Elspeth Lamb.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 1
MAY 28–JUNE 2, 2023
Lotta Helleberg
Clothbound: Textiles in Book Form
This fabric-inspired book arts class will focus on structures and techniques especially suitable for textile inclusions, such as Japanese stab bindings, medieval limp bindings, and scrolls. We will explore how traditional fiber techniques—including stitching, patchwork, and weaving—can be used to create unique and tactile book components. We will also learn to stabilize textiles with interfacing, mull, and wax. Simple mark making, staining, and relief printing will be used to customize our work. With daily demonstrations and hands-on instruction, students will create several books, which, depending on each student’s skill level, may range from blank journals with fabric covers to more elaborate artist books. All levels. Books studio.
Book and fiber artist; teaching: Arrowmont (TN), Fibre Arts Australia, Langwe Ateljé (Sweden), Virginia Center for the Book; exhibitions: Festival of Quilts (UK), Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (OH), Kyoto Shibori Museum (Japan), Sandy Gallery (OR), Wayne Art Center (PA); publications: Little Book of Book Making by Charlotte Rivers, Slow Stitch, Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art, by Claire Wellesley-Smith.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 1
MAY 28–JUNE 2, 2023
Steph Rue
Korean Paper + Textiles
This workshop will explore the intersection of handmade Korean paper (hanji) and textile. Starting with raw dak (mulberry) fiber, we’ll make hanji using a modified Korean sheetforming method and then manipulate our handmade sheets in a variety of ways, including natural dyeing, felting, spinning into thread, and stitching like fabric. We’ll also cover methods for constructing a paper bojagi (patchwork textile) using scraps and samples generated during the workshop. There will be daily demonstrations and some lectures, but most of the workshop will be dedicated to experimentation and play. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Studio artist; teaching: Mills College (CA), San Francisco Center for the Book (CA), Focus on Book Arts (OR); fellowships: Fulbright Research Grant (Korea), Kala Art Institute Parent Artist Residency (CA); collections: Yale University (CT), Mills College (CA), Tufts University (MA), Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (WA).
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 2
JUNE 4–16, 2023
Jaz Graf
Handmade Paper: Strata, Impressions, Geometries
The workshop will explore the physical and conceptual characteristics of handmade paper. We will cook, macerate (by hand and machine), and form paper from natural fibers such as abaca, flax and mulberry. Techniques will include Eastern-style sheet forming using a flexible sugeta mould, pulp dipping, inclusions, and paper layering to generate imagery. Using a “bones to skin” approach, we’ll incorporate armatures, casings, and translucency. A combination of demonstrations and lots of experimental play time will result in sculptural paper forms, hybrid objects, iterative configurations of image/material designs, and paper as a supportive material substrate. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Studio artist; teaching: State University of New York (Purchase), University of Notre Dame (IN), Caldwell University (NJ); West Bay View Fellowship at Dieu Donné (NYC), Salzberg Book Arts Residency at Jaffe Center for Book Arts (FL), Studio Award at Women’s Studio Workshop (NY); exhibitions: Newark Museum (NJ), Seager/Gray Gallery (CA), South Bend Museum (IN).
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 3
JUNE 18–30, 2023
Julie Leonard
Books and Artist Books: Craft and Concept
Books are both objects and ideas; in this workshop we’ll create both. We will cover a variety of bookbinding styles, specific techniques, and low-tech image-making processes, and we’ll work through many elements of the artist book: pacing; pauses; narrative content and structure; turning pages; looking through, around, or under pages; words/no words; images/no images; the sublimity of an inkless book. We will start by developing bookbinding skills and exploring ideas through generative exercises. Then students will work independently, incorporating skills and concepts gained in the workshop and/or the materials and ideas they bring with them. All levels. Books studio.
Associate professor at University of Iowa Center for the Book; other teaching: University of Georgia Cortona Program, Penland, Art New England (MA); co-director of Paper and Book Intensive (MI); collections: Sackner Archive of Concrete Poetry (IA), Yale University (CT), Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (TN); former Penland resident artist and core fellow.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 3
JUNE 18–30, 2023
Lynn Sures
Going Large with Papermaking
We’ll make large-scale paper works using different fibers through creative sheet-forming methods and fashioning assemblage and modular elements. We’ll start with fiber preparation—by hand and with the Hollander beater—and insights into pigmenting our pulps. Sheet forming techniques will include the deckle box, sprayed sheets, poured sheets, vacuum-formed sheets in 2D or in relief, and independently- or collaboratively-formed Himalayan-style sheets. The tone of the workshop will be one of experimentation and discovery as you gain experience in using paper to create larger works or installations that reflect your vision. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Professor emerita at Corcoran College of Art and Design (DC); founding director of Fabriano Paper/Print/Book (Italy); presenter at 2021 International Paper Symposium (Kyoto, Japan); research associate at Smithsonian (DC), Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (Kenya); residencies: Papermill Museum (Spain), Museum of Paper and Watermark (Italy), Palace Press (NM); collections: Library of Congress (DC), Yale University (CT), Schomburg Collection at New York Public Library; representation: Central Booking (NYC).
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 4
JULY 2–14, 2023
Maria Verónica San Martín and Maria Gracia San Martín
Creating Artist Books
In this workshop students will create artist books by examining their history, concepts, and aesthetics in combination with learning bookbinding and printing techniques.
Conceptual part: (First class and individual critiques) We’ll start by looking at some examples of published artist books and asking the following questions: What are artist books? How do they differ from traditional books? What is their place in visual art and cultural criticism?
Hands-on part: (rest of the classes) Students will learn how to construct adhesive and nonadhesive books techniques (pamphlets, one-page-book, double accordion and flag book), how to construct two boxes types (slip case and clamshell box) and the technique of monoprint with oil-based ink. Students are also welcome to create content through collage, painting, photography, or drawing. Every day the instructor will demonstrate a technique and students will follow it, creating their own structure while working together to find ways to interpret messages.
Students will learn to build content, form, and three-dimensional spaces with artist books. Please bring one of your favorite books with you to construct a box for it. All levels. Books studio. All levels. Books studio.
Maria Verónica: studio artist; teaching: Center for Book Arts (NYC), Miami University of Ohio; two New York Foundation for the Arts grants and three Chilean national grants; solo exhibitions: NAC Gallery (Chile), Museum Meermanno (Netherlands), Center for Book Arts (NY), Museum of Memory and Human Rights (Chile), National Archive (Chile); collections: Centre Pompidou (Paris), Metropolitan Museum (NYC), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), National Center for Contemporary Art (Chile).
Maria Gracia: architect, teaching: Harvard Design Discovery Program (MA); lectures: School of Visual Arts (NYC), Chilean College of Architects; represented Harvard Graduate School of Design at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 4
JULY 2–14, 2023
Kelly Taylor Mitchell
Paper, Collage, and the Archive
The archive is a collection of ephemera, material culture, and memory. It can be self-defined, painfully incomplete, remarkably niche. It may live in a library, online, in boxes in your aunt’s garage, or as a vision in your mind. Students in this workshop will use the archive (any archive) as an origin point for a new body of work. We’ll cover papermaking processes such as sheet forming, pulp painting, inclusions, and blowouts along with image transfer and collage techniques that center play. Come prepared by identifying an archive you will be using and bringing tangible remnants of that archive to use in your explorations. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Assistant professor and art program director at Spelman College; artist in residence at Atlanta Contemporary, 2022 inaugural Spelman College Affiliate Fellow at the American Academy in Rome; residencies: Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Women’s Studio Workshop; exhibitions: Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking (GA); collections: Harvard Fine Arts Library (MA), Walker Art Center Library (Minneapolis).
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 5
JULY 16–28, 2023
Sol Rebora
Custom Cloth Binding
Bookbinding arises from the need to protect and use the book. A well-functioning binding enhances the reader’s experience of this magnificent artifact and ensures the long-term preservation of the book. In this workshop students will design and make two custom cloth bindings that will complement text blocks made from pre-printed, illustrated sheets. We’ll start by making personalized book cloth from found cloth and use it to cover the text block using stub binding and endpages. Then we’ll add texture and digitally printed designs to cloth and use this to cover the text using a hollow back binding with embroidered endbands. We’ll use easy-to-learn tools and high-quality materials, create well designed books, and learn conservation concepts along the way. Some bookbinding experience will be helpful, but this workshop is open to all levels. Books studio.
Bookbinder; teaching: San Francisco Center for the Book, University of Iowa Center for the Book, Universidad Nacional de las Artes Argentina, Society of Bookbinders International Conference; collections: Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University (TX), Miami University, British Library, private collections in USA, UK, Mexico.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 5
JULY 16–28, 2023
Peter Sowiski
Pulp Nonfiction
Informed but not bound by history and tradition, this workshop will start with an investigation of Western, Eastern, and hybrid sheet-forming processes as a springboard for delving into personal approaches to paper. A variety of materials, methods, tools, equipment, and their application will move us toward optimizing particular qualities of our papers. We’ll consider fiber type, preparation, color, texture, shape, and dimension. With wet lamination, layering, inclusions, pulp painting, reduction, and hand manipulation, we’ll move to define our “truth” to the medium. Whether as substrate or object, our paper will highlight personal production and our new capabilities and allow us to see our relationship to the field as a whole. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Professor emeritus at State University of New York-Buffalo; visiting professor in Costa Rica dn Jamaica; over 90 workshops, lectures, or visiting artist posts primarily focused on the medium of paper; past president of North American Hand Papermakers; head pressman at Abaca Press since 1995.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 6
JULY 30–AUGUST 11, 2023
Marianne Dages
Thinking in the Language of Books
A book is a place to hold thoughts. It could be a journal waiting to be written in or an artist’s book waiting to be read. This workshop will be about making books for your ideas. We’ll cover a variety of book structures for journaling or artist books with a focus on simple folded and sewn structures ranging from pamphlet to long-stitch to hardcover. We’ll also inset text or images onto covers and make simple folded sleeves and cases. As we’re making we’ll talk about how to generate ideas for books using chance operations and other fun exercises. Demonstrations will help students understand how book structures work so they can start experimenting and creating their own. All levels. Books studio.
Studio artist and writer; publishes as Huldra Press and Sistrum (PA); teaching: Tyler School of Art (PA), Pyramid Atlantic (MD), Common Press (PA); exhibitions: Print Gallery Tokyo (Japan), Center for Book Arts (NY) IPCNY (NY), Napoleon (PA) Swarthmore College (PA), PNCA (OR); residencies: Wells College (NY), Herhusid (Iceland), Beisinghoff Printmaking Residency (Germany).
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 6
JULY 30–AUGUST 11, 2023
Akemi Martin
From Substrate to Substance: Dimensional Papermaking
This experimental, hands-on workshop will expand your concept of what paper can be. Beginners and veterans alike will explore how paper pulp can be manipulated into 3D forms. We’ll make and use various relief matrices (often used in printmaking) and rubber molds as we move from the subtleties of debossed sheets to relief casts made entirely of paper pulp. All the while, we’ll cultivate an understanding of basic papermaking techniques such as beating and pigmenting pulp and forming sheets. Students will have the opportunity to make relief plates and at least two rubber molds (and the resulting paper casts), and they are encouraged to bring molds and relief plates to experiment with. All levels. Papermaking studio.
Note: the studio fee for this workshop is estimated at $325-375 per student.
Director/master papermaker at Pace Prints (NYC); teaching: Cooper Union (NYC), Penland (NC), State University of New York Purchase (NY), Dieu Donné (NYC), Gowanus Studio Space (NYC); publications: Hand Papermaking.
BOOKS & PAPER SUMMER SESSION 7
AUGUST 13–18, 2023
Barbara Tetenbaum
Hybrid Book Structures: Form and Content
In this part-ideation/part-structure-exploration workshop, we’ll examine the role that page design, material selection, and book structure play in designing artist books, in particular those with multiple layers of content. We’ll ask what opportunities the artist’s book can offer to display multiple visual and textual voices? We’ll create book structures suited for hybrid reading experiences, such as the dragon scale binding, the magic wallet, a split-page pamphlet binding, and the instructor’s “game board” binding. We’ll jump-start our work with a chance-based ideation exercise. Demonstrations of image and text-generating techniques will help each student find ways to transfer their ideas to the page. The goal is for each student to leave with one finished project and working models for further inspiration. All levels. Books studio.
Visiting professor at Reed College (OR); former head of books and printmaking at Oregon College of Art and Craft; workshop teaching: Haystack (ME), Paper and Book Intensive (MI); two Fulbright fellowships, Walter Tiemann Price for Experimental Books; collections: Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Gutenberg Museum (DE); work published in Masters: Book Arts (Lark Books); representation: Vamp and Tramp (AL).
PAPERMAKING FALL CONCENTRATION
October 1 – November 10, 2023 (six weeks)
Amy Jacobs
Paper: From the Inside Out
Handmade paper has a special magic and a limitless range of surfaces, textures, colors, and forms; this workshop will be a thorough immersion in its possibilities. We’ll cover the preparation of cotton, abaca, linen rag, and flax pulps along with pigmenting and mixing. Other processes will include small and large sheet formation, pulp painting, stenciling, blow-outs, wet collage, embedding, watermarks, drying and finishing treatments, surface manipulation, and sculptural methods with high-shrinkage pulps. By the end of the session, students will understand handmade paper as a complete medium. All levels.
Master papermaker and senior director of artistic projects at Dieu Donné (NYC); teaching: Museum of Modern Art (NYC), University of the Arts (PA), New York Public Library (NYC), University of Georgia Cortona Program (Italy); residencies: Vermont Studio Center, Elizabeth Foundation SHIFT Residency (NYC), Penland Core Fellowship.
We are currently accepting scholarship applications for this workshop.
Regular enrollment will begin on May 1.
