Penland School Community Open House on March 1

Press release

The Penland School of Crafts Community Open House will take place on Saturday, March 1 from 1:00 – 5:00 PM. This is an afternoon of fun and education for all ages with hands-on activities in most of Penland’s teaching studios. No admission is charged. Many activities are messy, so don’t wear your fancy clothes.

Here’s a rundown of what’s going on. In the clay studio you can make a clay pot on the potter’s wheel or create a little clay sculpture and decorate it. In iron you can use heat, a hammer, and an anvil to create a decorative garden stake. In the metals studio, make a custom brooch or button using kiln-fired enameling techniques. In the photo studio, make a cyanotype (a blue photographic printing process) on a bandana using a large negative and the sun.

You can make a hand-printed and hand-bound soft cover journal in the printmaking studio. Visit the textiles studio and create patterns on cloth using clamps and indigo dye. There will also be weaving demonstrations. In the wood studio, you can watch a woodturning demonstration, and you can make a musical instrument from wood and decorate it. In the school store, you can make decorated postcards. At the Ridgeway building, make decorative paper using the paste-paper painting process.

In hot glass, make either a decorative paperweight or a juice glass. In flameworking, you can make an ornamental glass bead. Please note that glass activities are very popular. Signups for glass start at 1:00 PM, but people start lining up at least an hour earlier, so come early if you are hoping to make something in the glass studio. Glass activities are limited to visitors 12 years of age and above.

Many thanks to the more than 100 volunteers who make this event possible. The Penland open house is supported by the United Way of Mitchell County, Inc., and Dr. Taylor Townsend.