A Penland Ramble

I thought I would go over to the Penland School for a few minutes (ha)

today and check out the pots coming out of the wood kiln.

They had already unloaded the kiln but there was still
signs of the charcoal and very large wads the size of cookies(yummy)
in the first chamber.

Here is studio assistant and Windgate Fellow Josh Copus holding a piece

of special kiln furniture. It is wadded to the pot to enhance the flashing around the pot.

Here are a couple of pots with flashing marks from
the stacking with these large cookie sized wads. The one on the
left is by studio assistant extraordinaire, Maya Machin.
The bottle on the right is by Josh.

Here is a flask with a similar mark and flashing from a super
d duper cookie wad, made by Vermont potter, Rob Cartelli. See some more of Rob's pots here.

Rob also had a customized throttle built for his Brent wheel
which he is standing up to throw. Instead of tapping the foot pedal
with his hand, he changes wheel speed by grabbin holt of the skull
with the glowing eyes!

Here is a really nice curvaceous bottle by North Carolina
potter James Ward. This pot had quite a bit of flashing
and salt and was fired on its side.

Here is a nice 3 gallon blondie from instructor David Stuempfle.

The m-u-g on the left is by itinerate stoker Gloria Kosco, and the big
drippy ash glazed jar by Maya Machin, both students in
my Fall 2007 concentration at Penland.

By some crazy luck I ran into an old classmate
from my university days in Knoxville, Robin Surber
who is here doing a special one week class in the
metals studio with Bobby Hanson.


The brooch Robin is wearing incorporates a childhood
photograph that her mother gave to her shortly before coming
to Penland yesterday and some metallic garland (bird)
and some old game pieces.

Well after catching up with Robin for a while I strolled over
to the Coffee House and saw a couple of friends sitting
in the sunshine enjoying some tea.


Here are artists John Snyder (l) and Tom Spleth (r) looking over a catalog of Tom's recent retrospective show at the Gregg Museum in Raleigh, NC. It's a beautiful catalog of Tom's vast artwork in sculpture, ceramics, painting and printmaking.

It looks like Tom is telling a story about the one that got away.

It was, I guess, a typical visit to Penland. The school is a nexus for all of the wonderful artists who live in the area and others who are here to teach. I often avoid stopping by the school for fear that I will get stuck like iron filings to a magnet and be perfectly content passing the day going from friend to friend, studio to studio, and consequently get nothing done. Today was a great day to get nothing done. Thanks for letting me ramble.