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Community Open House--2008

The Penland School of Crafts Community Open House will take place on Saturday March 1, from 1-5 PM with hands-on activities and/or demonstrations in clay, glass, iron, metals, paste-paper painting, papermaking, letterpress printing, textiles, and wood. The event is free and open to the whole family; children are welcome.

Visitors to the Penland clay studio will be able to try their hand at throwing a pot under the guidance of a local potter or make crazy clay critter or a small sculptural vessel. In the glass studio, they’ll be able to make glass beads or a paperweight. The glass studio will start signing people up for slots beginning at 1:00 PM, but folks usually start lining up earlier than that, and the slots fill quickly. The paperweights have to cool overnight, so anyone who makes a paperweight will need to come back on Sunday to pick it up.

The pounding in the iron studio will be the sound of visitors making garden stakes or hooks. In the metals studio they’ll be making textured copper or brass key chains using the rolling mill. People interested in papermaking can try making a sheet of decorative paper from wet fibers. In the print studio, visitors can watch a demonstration of the old-fashioned letterpress and make a simple book to take home.

In the textiles studio there will be weaving demonstrations, a landscape drawing demonstration, and an opportunity make a colorful, marbled cotton scarf. The wood studio will present turning and dovetail joinery demonstrations and children can assemble a birdhouse. In the Ridgeway building, everyone can make paste-paper—a traditional Japanese technique similar to finger painting, which produces durable sheets of brightly decorated paper.

The Penland Open House is made possibly with the generous help of almost 100 volunteers from the area crafts community.

How to find Penland? Click here for directions and a map.