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2010 Penland School of Crafts – Ornament of the Year

In 2009 we began the tradition of the Penland School of Crafts Ornament of the Year. We like to think that these ornaments represent the spirit of creativity at Penland all year round.

Penland School of Crafts 2010 Ornament

Created by Jenny Lou Sherburne

Jenny Lou Sherburne is a studio artist and past Penland instructor who lives in nearby Bakersville, NC. She created this special teapot for our on-going series of annual ornaments.

Penland teapot army...they're here.....

I make mid-fired functional pots. The forms are playfully extreme and stretch the boundaries of function as well as the limits of clay. I make thrown and pinched forms that I stack, carve and augment and then glaze with bright slips and glazes. My inspirations range from garlic cloves to onion domes, from the Isle of Crete to the Land of Oz, from Antonio Gaudi to Dr. Seuss. I want my work to be imbued with an attitude of presence that is full of humor, vigor and joy. As I work I try to let go of old habits and assumptions, to let my intuition and enjoyment of the process guide me. After almost twenty-five years as a studio potter, I am still captivated by the belief that I can sustain inspiration through the pressures and tedium of day to day living. In this way my work teaches me about how to live my life.

Thrown and hand-built, white stoneware, teapot ornament, approximately 3 1/2″ high, with hanging ribbon and gift box.

$50 retail price, plus tax when applicable

Shipping – $5

To order:

Please call the Penland Gallery at 828-765-6211

or e-mail penlandgallery@penland.org

We except Visa, MasterCard, and American Express

You may also purchase a teapot in person at the Penland Gallery.

A very limited number of the 2009 ornaments are still available – please contact the gallery if you are interested.

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Penland Gallery Artist of the Week – Marc Maiorana, Metal Worker

 

Cassilhaus Railing

It is not difficult to recognize work created by Marc Maiorana. There are certain identifying characteristics found in the work, whether it is functional or sculptural, recent work or from early in his career.

To work with material in such a spartan and ascetic fashion requires a bit of courage. Rather than the addition of some trademark technique or design element – it is the absence of such things in Marc’s work that is your first clue. Surfaces are clean, clean, clean, with barely a hint that a heavy tool or a loud formidable machine played any part in forming the steel. The courage is that of exposure – if you are going to form a 3/8″ rod into a perfect circle as it peels away from another perfect circle – you open yourself up to a certain vulnerability of perfect-ness, don’t you?

Marc also negotiates the area where function and design intersect very well. His line of steel work for the home, Iron Design Company (even the name is pretty direct and to the point), are not extraneous products – they are items we actually use, and often need in our homes. Here again are Marc’s well-considered details – the tension hold on the candle and the nearly hidden hanging devices for the coat rack and book sconce. The surfaces are pristine but also manage to retain a warmth or softness – the edges are just touched to remove a physical and visual sharpness, the patina is just barely imperfect – enough to remind you that Marc was part of the process – made by human hands.

Book Sconce

One might describe Marc’s work as having restraint. During his time here at Penland it would seem that that discipline is part of his work ethic as well – along with grace and a high standard of craftsmanship that is found in his work.

He has designed railings for Penland School as well as for private homes, has shown his large sculptural work in gallery and museum shows, and his functional work (with partner Robyn Raines) has gotten quite a bit of notice in the press and on the internet design sites. The Penland Gallery is fortunate to have a number of pieces from Marc’s Iron Design Company line, and will have one of his larger sculptural works later this summer when he is teaching.

Circle Wall Panel

About Marc

Marc first learned blacksmithing from his father and later earned a BFA in metals from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He was a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts from 2002-2005 and has taught at numerous institutions including Marywood University (PA), Peters Valley Craft Center (NJ), Penland School of Crafts (NC), and Haystack School of Crafts (ME).

Marc has exhibited widely including the Architectural Digest Home Design Show (NY), the National Ornamental Metal Museum (TN), the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts, and the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design (NC). He has been published in four Schiffer books on contemporary metalwork, and featured in Icon magazine, Gourmet magazine, Dwell’s on-line magazine, and the New York Times.

Marc maintains a studio for his Iron Design Company and Marc Maiorana Studio in Cedar Bluff, VA, in a converted gas station.

Settle

About the Work

Iron Design Company was established to promote modern designs in hand formed iron objects by metalworker Marc Maiorana. Additionally, IDC supports an apprenticeship with the local high school, giving students a unique opportunity to work with their hands.

Iron Design Company shapes steel into inviting and unique articles. Contrary to belief, modern day usage of iron is more accurately steel. Familiar terms such as “wrought” and “forged” describe how iron itself and iron goods were made and continue to be common descriptions of formed steel products. In many ways, our studio is similar to the ages-old iron workshop, yet with a number of modern technical conveniences. We use heat, hammer, and hydraulics to form steel stock; and pencil, clay, and wire to draft and model designs.

Coat Rack

The majority of the items we create are formed in steel, the world’s most recycled material. The steel Iron Design Company uses originates in steel mills producing structural type steels with 80-90% recycled content. Interestingly, steel goods will always contain recycled steel. Our specialty is giving grace to a bold, stubborn building material and kind of defying the structural stereotype that steel is often associated with.

Penland Gallery’s web page 

Marc’s website

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Penland Gallery Artist of the Week – George Bucquet, Glassblower

 

Pond Bowl

There are quite a few ‘do not touch’ signs in the gallery, and most of the time people are pretty good about exercising restraint. George’s Pond Bowl is the exception – allot of fingerprints on a piece that has a Please Do Not sign nearby – but – it is SO inviting. All that cool, clear watery glass with the koi and leaves just beneath the surface; who can blame them for trying to satisfy their curiosity?

Pond detail

Whether it is the pond bowl or the luminous font bowl, George’s work is much admired and respected in the gallery. Technically, the work is beautifully crafted with polished surfaces and crisp details. Aesthetically, the work is calm and inclusive – the weight and solidity of the work combined with the imagery and delicate coloring is extremely approachable. Nothing shy about it either, since the pond is nearly two feet across.

George has been a friend of the school for many years and has had work in our gallery as far as our records and memory can go back. His craftsmanship, work ethic, professionalism, and sense of humor make us happy that he is still producing beautiful work for us to show in the gallery.

Oval Fish Bowl

About George

I enjoy and appreciate many aspects of hot glass, but it’s the aesthetics of cast glass that has held my attention for the last 26 years. I love the whole process of designing work and overcoming the technical challenges that seem to come with each piece. In the end, it’s simple beauty that moves me most, and I feel successful and grateful when it moves others.

George Bucquet began casting hot glass at Penland School in 1984. During his seven years spent at Penland, he became a Resident Artist. After completing his studies and residency, George moved to Arcata, CA, where he has continued to develop new and innovative techniques for creating his cast glass. George’s work is found in galleries around the world and in the private collections of Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, Irvin Borowsky, Noel and Janene Hilliard, and the estate of Jerry Garcia. His work can also be found in the permanent collection of the U.S. Embassy, Ottawa, Canada; the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland; the Asheville Museum of Art, NC; the National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA; and the White House.

Hemi Luminary Font

From an article in World Art Glass Quarterly Magazine:

George Bucquet makes what he wants, and if you like it too, well, that makes his job even easier. And Bucquet’s “job,” as he sees it, is not centered on selling as many pieces of his art as possible. Rather, as Bucquet states, “I try to stay focused on the work that is in front of me, or better yet, the work that is in me. Of course I care very much if people are buying the work. However, it is important to keep in mind that selling the work is not the end, but the means.”

Fortunately, Bucquet has had ample financial success and collectors’ acclaim to keep his studio running. His cast glass pieces have found homes with the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates. He doesn’t care much for throwing around those names, however, and is quick to point out that “they’re just people and nobody’s more important than anyone else who buys the work.” Rather than dwelling on commercial success, which he says has come by the “Grace of God,” Bucquet’s priorities are on glass for the sake of the glass itself.

Bucquet’s artistic journey began in Carmel, California, when he visited a prominent glass gallery and felt for the first time the excitement of blowing and creating artistic glass. From there he went to the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle and then finally to Penland School in North Carolina, where he spent one year as a student and four years as a resident artist.

About the Work

Working together with precision timing, George and his assistants pour hot glass, thick and translucent as honey, into a handmade sand mold, and then carefully press it into shape. A mold is individually created for each casting and the colored molten glass, formulated from scratch, is melted to 2350 degrees F in a custom built furnace. After several days of cooling in an annealing oven, each bowl is hand detailed with copper, silver and gold leaf.

George in the studio

 

Penland Gallery’s web page

George’s website