- Joined
- Jul 25, 2008
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- 3,988
It was amazing! I am very certainly returning in the future and would recommend anyone that has an interest in a craft to go.
As you know (and I didn't
), the location is gorgeous: up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Mt Mitchel. The campus is around a main field, with many smaller buildings dedicated to a craft (metals, clay, paper, fibers, iron, photography, wood, etc). Many of the buildings are historic and all are very well equiped and pleasant to work in (although metals was very hot throughout the day). Nothing like sitting in a rocking chair on one of the porches at the end of a long day of work or going down to the fields, to watch the fireflies.
The atmosphere is great: the teachers are wonderful and masters of their craft, yet very approachable and willing to talk about their work or just chat around the dinner table. The students range from artists who earn their living with their craft to art students to hobbists like me. Everyone is very friendly and you are more than welcome to visit all the studios and see what work is being done and how. You are, in fact, encouraged to develop projects that will take you to others studios, such as incorporating a glass piece in your jewelry or working with the irons people to make a decorative element to your woodworking project. The studios are open 24hrs a day (although the gas was shut down at around 11pm to avoid accidents) and there is all the coffee and tea you need, as well as cereal, in the dining hall. If that isn't enough to sustain you during all nighters, the coffee shop opens at 9pm all the way to midnight (the cookies are to die for!). If you are tired of working, there are always people chatting, books and parties to attend.
The courses offered range from fundamentals to specialized techniques to some rather odd (but fascinating) topics. I took an eyeglass making course with Deb Stoner. Incredibly, by the end of the 2 week session, I had made my own sunglasses (including cutting and dyeing the lenses), had a good prototype of the second and a third on the way. Deb is a great teacher, as well as designer. Our days were a balance of demonstrations, slides (showing different concepts, designs and mechanisms) and work time. Of course, the nights were long, since we all wanted to master as many techniques as possible and try out all the design ideas we had. If you visit the Penland page and click on the blog, you can see pictures of the work we did.
As well as all the instructions, we had access to a range of other activities: slide shows by the different instructors, presentations by outsiders (most organized by Phil, who was teaching a course on resins and brought a range of amazing people to talk to us), hands on demos, the 4th of July parade (held on the 3rd for reasons unknown ) and the auction at the end of the session (featuring work donated by students and instructors). One of the students also organized a wonderful Pocket Art exchange, where each person donated 6 small pieces of art of whatever medium they chose and received 5 pieces by other participants. The remaining pieces were made into a collection and donated to the auction, where it sold for $450! I am also happy to say that the pendant and chain I donated sold for a respectable amount. If you are in the area, I recommend you go to one of the auctions. While the large one at the end of the summer is very competitive, there are smaller ones every 2 weeks where art by some very well known names are sold for a lot less than what you pay at a gallery.
And, between all those activities, we also ate very well! The food was very good and very plentiful (in other words, we stuffed ourselves at every meal with great dishes and wonderful salads - some of which was grown right there at Penland).
As you know (and I didn't
), the location is gorgeous: up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Mt Mitchel. The campus is around a main field, with many smaller buildings dedicated to a craft (metals, clay, paper, fibers, iron, photography, wood, etc). Many of the buildings are historic and all are very well equiped and pleasant to work in (although metals was very hot throughout the day). Nothing like sitting in a rocking chair on one of the porches at the end of a long day of work or going down to the fields, to watch the fireflies.The atmosphere is great: the teachers are wonderful and masters of their craft, yet very approachable and willing to talk about their work or just chat around the dinner table. The students range from artists who earn their living with their craft to art students to hobbists like me. Everyone is very friendly and you are more than welcome to visit all the studios and see what work is being done and how. You are, in fact, encouraged to develop projects that will take you to others studios, such as incorporating a glass piece in your jewelry or working with the irons people to make a decorative element to your woodworking project. The studios are open 24hrs a day (although the gas was shut down at around 11pm to avoid accidents) and there is all the coffee and tea you need, as well as cereal, in the dining hall. If that isn't enough to sustain you during all nighters, the coffee shop opens at 9pm all the way to midnight (the cookies are to die for!). If you are tired of working, there are always people chatting, books and parties to attend.
The courses offered range from fundamentals to specialized techniques to some rather odd (but fascinating) topics. I took an eyeglass making course with Deb Stoner. Incredibly, by the end of the 2 week session, I had made my own sunglasses (including cutting and dyeing the lenses), had a good prototype of the second and a third on the way. Deb is a great teacher, as well as designer. Our days were a balance of demonstrations, slides (showing different concepts, designs and mechanisms) and work time. Of course, the nights were long, since we all wanted to master as many techniques as possible and try out all the design ideas we had. If you visit the Penland page and click on the blog, you can see pictures of the work we did.
As well as all the instructions, we had access to a range of other activities: slide shows by the different instructors, presentations by outsiders (most organized by Phil, who was teaching a course on resins and brought a range of amazing people to talk to us), hands on demos, the 4th of July parade (held on the 3rd for reasons unknown
) and the auction at the end of the session (featuring work donated by students and instructors). One of the students also organized a wonderful Pocket Art exchange, where each person donated 6 small pieces of art of whatever medium they chose and received 5 pieces by other participants. The remaining pieces were made into a collection and donated to the auction, where it sold for $450! I am also happy to say that the pendant and chain I donated sold for a respectable amount. If you are in the area, I recommend you go to one of the auctions. While the large one at the end of the summer is very competitive, there are smaller ones every 2 weeks where art by some very well known names are sold for a lot less than what you pay at a gallery.And, between all those activities, we also ate very well! The food was very good and very plentiful (in other words, we stuffed ourselves at every meal with great dishes and wonderful salads - some of which was grown right there at Penland).
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