Penland School of Crafts – Ceramics in the mountains of North Carolina

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be given a full scholarship to study at Penland School, North Carolina, for a two week ceramic course called Dinner Plans. The class was led by Elisa De Feo. Two weeks ago I flew out to Charlotte and picked up a hire car and headed across the state, alone, and up the mountains. The sat nav I hired refused to acknowledge the  existence of the school or the local roads, so the hire car man programmed in the local town and sent me on my way, a little nervous! With ten print outs of maps and road by road instructions, I managed to get myself a few miles away from the school, at which point signs led the final way. The school is pretty remote, and the roads aren’t for the faint hearted!

The view from the Pines to the Clay House

I arrived in mist and rain, but the following morning the skies cleared and the incredible surroundings of the school became visible. The school over looks a valley of forests and mountains beyond in all directions. The clay house facilities were amazing, with huge wood firing kilns, loads of electric kilns and giant toploaders, and two huge studio spaces.

Big Kilns!

Bisque moulds only!

Our aim was to think about the relationship between food and ceramics, and how best to show off a meal made for us by a local award winning chef, Nate Allen. Using local fresh seasonal produce, Nate wanted us to produce four plates or dishes, one for the main protein part of the meal, and three sides for vegetable he would be serving us.

 http://www.knifeandforknc.com/

I chose this course specifically to challenge my hand-building skills, which I haven’t used in about four years, and to remove me from my comfort zone of slip-casting. I wanted a break from the conceptual sculptural work I had spent the last year focusing on, that would push me explore clay in different way and remind of the reasons why I fell in love with the material. We used Elisa’s own porcelain recipe, and made ring moulds and hump moulds from a rough stoneware clay, exploring shapes.

Blessed Pots

Nate’s food! My dishes!

The meal was incredible, the freshest and sweetest corn I’ve ever eaten, rare varieties of tomatoes picked that day, green beans and handmade tagliatelle pasta with courgettes and peppers, served on my four triangular shallow dishes. It really was a fantastic experience to eat off my own dinnerware, and they worked surprisingly well (apart from being a tad on the small side) and it really made me consider the functionality of my design.

Firing to a low stoneware temperature

Stacked wood

 

Alongside the ring moulds I made for my triangular dishes, I also made a hump mould, and made bowls using the studio’s hump moulds. This was a bit of a revelation for me, as I only started doing to fill the time whilst clay was drying, and quickly discovered how easy and enjoyable it was. I used a cocktail stick to make simple marks in the porcelain, triangles and lines, and put rough foot rings onto the bottoms to help prevent the shape from warping too much during firing.

Nesting bowls

Tree bowls

 

Elisa taught us how to inlay underglaze and glaze, using wax, and how to use latex, neither of which I had used before. I really liked the outcome of inlaying with glaze on my porcelain bowls, and I hope to develop my own tableware range using these simple designs and techniques. This would allow me to split my practice, having an every day range of products that are quick and reasonably simple and cheap to produce, and my sculptural conceptual pieces which are more expensive but unique and further developed.

 

Very close to heaven!

 

Penland was a much needed break and retreat from the stress of finishing the final year of my degree, and being dropped in the deep end of practicing professionally. It helped me find my love of clay again. By taking me back to the basics, making me slow down and think very differently to my norm, I retraced steps I made years ago, came up with many new ideas to take forward, and became excited about clay again! What more could you want? Well, just in case, I should probably tell you the food is amazing! Three meals a day, the freshest ingredients, many from the Penland veg patch, different each day and thoroughly wholesome. Free yoga every day, 7am for the earlybirds and 5pm for the late sleepers. Fireflies at night, thousands of butterflies and birds, the odd hummingbird and don’t forget the bears (not that I saw any). The atmosphere is incredible, full of creative minds from all over the USA, young and old, all who share a desire to learn a knew skill or simply develop their craft and art.

Other courses include jewellery, metalwork, woodwork, glass, painting and drawing, printmaking, bookmaking, photography, weaving, textiles, and more…. Penland has scholarships! Apply! I did, and it was incredible.