Second week at Penland

Wow... I cannot believe the energy that's in the air here.  There's so much going on.  Floor looms have been dressed and warps woven and cut off; visitors have been here and shared so generously; we've had one field trip and more are planned.  The floor loom exploration has taken over this week as several who haven't woven on those looms before concentrated on that.  Tapestry is proceeding slowly... but that's tapestry making, isn't it?  Bhakti's and my hope is that both kinds of looms and techniques on those will inform the approach to image making on each.  We know that some will probably want to focus in one direction or the other for the majority of our time here.  But we're throwing lots at them from both directions for the first couple of weeks--soon, they'll find their path and take it to amazing places, I'm quite sure.

Some photos of the process--few words to describe:

Jessica Green, our visitor on the right, is talking to student, Caroline.

Allie is spinning and Sarah is enjoying the first warm day here with her.

Bhakti is showing about dressing a floor loom.

Rebecca is working on the class tapestry diary.

Krysten is doing a beautifully complex color arrangement as her first floor loom weaving.

Sarah Rose is tucking in an end as a weft ends.

Catharine Ellis, the woven shibori expert, visited us this week with amazing fabrics!

Milissia and Alan Dewey also visited and Milissa showed about the wood turning they do, as well as spinning.

Alice and Bruce Schlein visited today.  Alice talked first about her work with TC-1 and dobby looms, then showed about spindle spinning to several students (including Bhakti and me) after lunch.

Class presentations by each student when they showed their past work has been an important part of the week.  Here's Nina, our wonderful studio assistant, during her presentation time.

Nina (left) and Sarah Rose (right) sport the scarves they've woven here this week!

Much more to come!