Visiting Artist and Field Trips

We've been having lots of fun in the studio the past couple of days learning printing techniques for clay.  Here, Jason Bige Burnett is getting ready to demonstrate his method of screenprinting engobes.

And, of course, here's Jason hamming it up for the camera!

These are some sassy mugs I am experimenting with after an inspiring visit to the studio of Nicholas Joerling.  Nicholas is an incredible potter with a warm heart, enchanting smile and some wonderful words of wisdom.  He lives right down the road from the school so I think I will be taking another trip down there.  I will share more on the studio visits in the next couple of days.  Today is our day off from the studio and we are headed on another field trip into Asheville.  Have a great weekend!

Sgraffito Daze!

We have been crazy for carving the past few days.  Covering our pots with black underglaze and using a variety of different tools to carve through to create luscious designs.

These are  my covered jars.  Cone 5 B-mix.

Detail

That's all folks.  I'm off to the studio!

Penland Rocks!

Today marks the end of my first week here at Penland.  We have had an amazing time so far!  Weather up on the mountain has been quite dynamic.  We've had warm weather, up to 75 degrees a couple of days ago followed by thunder, lightning and downpours.  Then it is back to clear and beautiful.

I love how the mist settles in between the hills overnight.

Kathy has been teaching us a number of different techniques.  This is my EZ Screen waiting for the sun to come back out to be exposed.  We have also been working on photo litho transfers and have had demos for multi part constructions but I keep forgetting to take my camera into the studio with me.  Lol, even though my bedroom is only 200 hundred feet away, if that.

Here is the group shot while waiting for the sun.  Kathy King is in the black and white.  She is awesome!

Drying in the sun, finally.

My space in the studio.  How did I make such a mess in such a short period of time?

Here are a few of the mugs I have started working on.  I'm still trying to figure out how to balance my work, studio, and personal time.  I haven't made as much work as I would like to but this weekend is free of classes so I have big plans.  And I get to do my laundry!  Really, it's the small things in life, like clean underwear, dontcha know?

Next week, Jason Bige Burnett, will come to the studio for a guest appearance and demonstration of screen printing with underglazes.  The group will also be going on a field trip to the studios of some Penland area clay artists.  Woo hoo!  I can't wait.

Here's a super quick post for y'all.  It has been a whirl wind of activity the past couple of days.  I worked all day on Saturday cleaning the studio, mopping floors, arranging wheels, offloading chemicals and getting a general feel for where everything is.  My fellow studio assistant is great!  He is an incredibly hard worker with a great attitude and lots of youthful energy.  Last night we had orientation and today was our first full day of class.  Sunday I finally got to meet Kathy King after her marathon drive out to Penland.  She is an absolute doll!
Today I got to mix glazes and organize underglazes and we have lots of delicious colors.  We set some of the underglazes out to thicken up for screen printing which we will be doing tomorrow using EZ Screens.  I can't wait.

Here is a pic of the design I am working on for printing.  Can you tell I took this in bad light with my laptop cam?  That's because I am in my jammies tucked away in my little bedroom half falling asleep.  I'll scan this image and clean up all the goobers so that it can be used for the transparency.  I can't wait to see how it prints out!  Nighty, night.

Penland Day One

When I left home, spring was well underway.  It was in the low seventies and the daffodils were already starting to droop.  I got up to Penland today and was pleased to find that I get a spring do over.  The daffodils are still coming up and there are bulbs of various kinds sprouting through the soil everywhere.

I had to get down on my hands and knees to put my nose in this beauty and it smelled heavenly.

Here is the view from my bedroom window.  I was quite pleased that I was assigned a bedroom all to myself! This is an itty bitty room but has lots of storage.  Of course I plan to spend most of my time in the clay studio.  This room feels very homey.  It reminds me of my grandma's bedroom with rustic wood paneling.  Now I just have to resist jumping up and down on the bed like I did at Mimi's when no one was watching.  

A cozy corner in the Craft House by the pay phone.  I love how the late afternoon sun is streaming in!

The Penland campus is full of all kinds of artsy tidbits like this "Wishing Well" in an old tree stump.  Inspiration is everywhere!

Can you tell how I spent my afternoon?  Yes, one of my other passions it photography!  Tomorrow will be a full work day cleaning and prepping the studio.  I better turn in early tonight:)

The Bird Has Landed!

Long time no bloggy!  Life has been crazy, as usual, for the last couple of weeks in preparation for my trip to Penland School of Crafts.  So much so that it seemed hard to bring my mental capacity around to blogging.  But now I am finally in Asheville, again at the lovely Sweet Peas Hostel.  But little did I know that it was spring break here!  There is lots of youthful energy around which I actually kind of like.  It keeps me young, ya know?  I did manage to forget the power cord to my laptop so my posts may be a bit sporadic until it gets mailed out.  For now here are a couple of images of the teapots that I was working on.  The came out of the kiln shortly before I left.

I'm off now to get some grub and start my adventuring around the city and surrounding communities to explore lots of great pottery and art.  Yippie!