Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Workshops are open to serious students of all levels unless specified in course description; beginners welcome.
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Scholarship application deadline, October 15, 2022
Residents of Western North Carolina and Western Tennessee can access discounted tuition through our Standby Program.
NOTE: Participation in Penland workshops currently requires proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Before you apply, 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).
Clay Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Justin Rothshank
Decals, Soda Firing, and Pottery
This workshop will cover a variety of throwing/production techniques with earthenware and stoneware, and you will learn how to transfer your imagery onto ceramic work using decal, stamping, and layering techniques. We’ll cover image preparation, printing and transferring decals onto greenware and glazed pots, layering decals, commercial decals, and firing temperatures for various types of decals. We’ll fire all kinds of kilns, including wood, and we’ll specifically experiment with electric and soda kilns. We’ll talk about business for the studio potter, including daily production, marketing, and efficiency. All levels. Upper clay studio.
Studio artist; teaching: Touchstone (PA), Arrowmont (TN), Harvard Ceramics (MA), Baltimore Clayworks; co-founder of Union Project (Pittsburgh), Michiana Pottery Tour (Michigan, Indiana), and Indiana Clay Conference; collections: High Museum (Atlanta), Frick Museum (Pittsburgh), San Angelo Museum (TX); author of Low Fire Soda and Ceramic Decals: New Ideas and Techniques.
Glass Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Kit Paulson
Borosilicate Fieldnotes: The Explorer’s Notebook
A notebook is a license to explore the world: in this workshop we’ll explore and catalog ideas, methods, and structures in flameworked borosilicate glass. There will be a strong emphasis on daily hand-skill practice supplemented by drawing, reading, demonstrations, and slide shows. Students will learn techniques for solid structural flameworking along with building a strong foundation in making hollow, blown forms. All levels. Flameworking studio.
Studio artist; teaching: Pilchuck (WA), Bildwerk Frauenau (Germany), National College of Art and Design (Dublin), Pittsburgh Glass Center, UrbanGlass (NYC); residencies: Rosenberg Residency (MA), Tacoma Museum of Glass (WA), S12 (Bergan, Norway); collections: Tacoma Museum of Glass (WA), KODE (Bergen, Norway), Renwick Gallery (DC).
Iron Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Stephen Yusko
Forged and Finished
Participants in this workshop will create objects that balance the industrial history of steel with a gracefulness of form. Building on a solid base of fundamental forging, forming and fabricating techniques, students will expand their visual vocabulary through creative problem solving and by exploring inventive uses of material. Techniques covered will include pattern and texture development, sheet and hollow forming, tube and pipe forging, hot and cold connections and finishing. All levels.
Studio artist; teaching: Haystack (ME), Cleveland Institute of Art, Peters Valley (NJ), Touchstone (PA); residencies: SUNY Purchase (NY), San Diego State University (CA); Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Award (OH); Cuyahoga County Creative Workforce Fellowship (OH); exhibitions: Metal Museum (TN), FORGE, International traveling exhibition (UK and USA); publications: 500 Metal Vessels (Lark), Metalsmith SNAG JAMS, American Craft.
Metals Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
David Harper Clemons
Narrative Jewelry: Well-Worn Tales
Whether they are drama, mystery, social commentary, or personal history, stories can teach us lessons, memorialize events and people, and project the future. Students in this workshop will make wearable pieces and small sculpture. Guided technical and conceptual exercises will help them develop and hone their use of materials, iconography, and form to convey narratives through their work. We’ll cover surface embellishment, cold connections, soldering, mechanisms, hydraulic forming, casting, basic stonesetting, enameling, and using alternative materials. Bring curiosity and willingness to explore as you execute numerous pieces and live a great story during our eight weeks. All levels. Upper metals studio.
Studio artist; teaching: University of Arkansas Little Rock, Haystack (ME), Pocosin Arts (NC), Arrowmont (TN), Penland; collections: Yale University Art Gallery (CT), Arkansas Art Center (AR), Metal Museum (TN), Renwick Gallery (DC); representation: Day in the Life Gallery (OR), Penland Gallery.
Textiles Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Celia Pym
Visible Mending: Damage and Repair
This workshop will explore textile repair: how and why to do it. Students will develop skills for making visible repairs with hand-stitched darning, embroidery, and patching. We’ll play with ideas, color, and materials, and explore narratives, damage and decision making, the qualities of tenderness and care in mending, and mending’s relationship with fashion and the environment. Students will work on their own garments and those of others. A playful attitude and openness to ideas is central to this workshop. All levels. Third-floor textiles studio.
Studio artist; teaching: Royal College of Art (London), London College of Fashion; exhibitions: Herald St (London), Firstsite (UK), Harewood Biennial: Radical Acts (UK), Trading Museum (Paris), Victoria and Albert Dundee (Scotland); collections: Crafts Council UK, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.
Wood Spring Concentration
March 5 – April 28, 2023 (8 Weeks)
Yuri Kobayashi
Design with Curvature
Making curved shapes from flat wood is like making s’mores: it’s messy and fun and requires a bit of strategy. Sometimes it even takes a village, as it is often a collaborative team effort. We’ll first get up to speed on basic woodworking—from hand-cut joinery to coopering, steam bending, and lamination. Through daily demonstrations, exercises, and hands-on instruction, students will tackle design challenges to create utilitarian objects such as trays, containers, wall shelves, small tables, form studies, or other projects that incorporate curved wood. We’ll have weekly design discussions and group critiques. Our goal will be to explore and experiment with ideas expressed in wood. All levels.
Studio artist; teaching: Rhode Island School of Design, Center for Furniture Craftsmanship (ME), recent exhibitions: Arizona State University Art Museum, Center for Art in Wood (PA), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Fuller Craft Museum; residencies: State University of New York Purchase, University of Wisconsin Madison, Arizona State University.
