Penland School of Crafts Announces Hot Glass & Electric Light Workshop This Spring

For art students interested in ways to take glass sculpture a step further, Jen Elek and Jeremy Bart's spring concentration "Hot Glass and Electric Light" will be the ideal opportunity to do just that. During the eight-week workshop, which runs March 13-May 6 2016, Jen will lead students through a strong base of hot glass techniques and Jeremy will add instruction in the fundamentals of incorporating various forms of light into glass, from neon to LEDs.

The Penland glass studio will be all about exploring the possibilities and ideas that open when glass and light combine. It’s an area that collaborating artists Jen Elek and Jeremy Bart are already quite familiar with. In their recent exhibition Look! See? at The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, the two created a dynamic and interactive landscape of forms, colors, reflections, and luminescence. Just as with a single light bulb, their pairing of glass and light combines to make more than the sum of its parts.

Jeremy Bart and Jen Elek's Installation "Look See?" at The Museum of Glass

"Believe" a part of the Look See? Instaqllaation

Jeremy Bert and Jen Elek — Most of us live within the glow of electric light, often protected or filtered by glass. This class will empower the nontechnically inclined artist to harness these omnipresent media by exploring the mechanics of glass and light while considering the potential for electric light in sculpture. Jen will teach the fundamentals of glass furnace work for the full eight weeks. Jeremy will teach for four weeks to cover the basic principles, vocabulary, and techniques of neon and other forms of electric light, including LED and incandescent. Artists ready to explore the combination of glass forming and electric light will find this workshop a great fit. All levels.  

Jen has been a member of glass artist Lino Tagliapietra’s team since 2002; Jeremy is a certified welder, crane operator, and sign electrician. The two have previously taught at Pilchuck (WA) and have exhibited their work at Museum of Glass (WA) and Pittsburgh Glass Center. 

Human Heads" Collaboration by Jeremy Bert and Jen Elek

Register HERE for Hot Glass & Electric Light to give your work a literal jolt of electricity, and discover the potential for striking, communicative, and even humorous sculpture that the combination offers.

The information and photos in this post were provided by The Penland Sketchbook.

Penland School of Crafts Offers Fall One-week Workshops

BOOKS

Nontraditional Longstitch Binding

with Beth Schaible

Create an array of functional longstitch books, starting with basic stitching and moving quickly to nontraditional patterns.  All levels.  October 5-11.

GLASS

Other Possible Outcomes: Reexamining Glass Beads

with Amy Lemaire

In this workshop we'll reexamine glass beads as portable sculpture that is both personal and public, and we'll consider the body as a site for wearable sculpture. We'll cover traditional and experimental approaches to flameworking as well as cold-working and jewelry fabrication. All levels. October 5-11.

METALS

Surface Adornment on Steel

with Ben Dory

Using steel as a base, we will explore how to transform the surface of this rigid material with texture, thin layers of precious metals, and gemstones. All levels.  October 5-11.

CLAY

A Week of Shino

with Kent McLaughlin

Bring your stoneware or porcelain bisqueware suitable for cone 10 temperatures, and we'll explore a variety of shinos and some of the techniques that are possible with this intriguing glaze, including carbon trapping, wax-resist patterning, manipulated drying, carbon cooling, and glaze layering. All levels. October 19-25.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Rethinking Wet Plate Collodion Photography

with David Emitt Adams

In this workshop we'll explore tintypes and ambrotypes - two photographic techniques based on wet plate collodion materials. You'll explore the possibilities of these materials, experiment, and create alternative methods of display for your photographs. All levels. October 19-25.

WOOD

Foundations of Furniture

with Russell F. Gale, Jr.

There are so many things to think about when building a piece of furniture: design, material selection, joinery, edge and surface treatments, shop safety, etc. In this workshop we'll work through these issues and more as we each build a small table. October 19-25. All levels. Class is currently full; please contact registrar@penland.org to be placed on a waiting list.

  

LETTERPRESS

Letterpress Basics & Beyond

with Jessica C. White

Get to know your way around letterpress printing by learning the basics and exploring a variety of ways to create relief prints on a Vandercook press. All levels. Nov. 2-8.

 TEXTILES

Weaving: The First Layer

with Beth Ross Johnson

By learning to warp with multiple threads, to beam on without tangles, and other tricks of the trade, we can use the process of winding a warp as a way to establish a foundation for fabrics that will go where we want them to go.  All levels. Nov. 2-8.

WOOD | METALS

Carving Wooden Jewelry

with Sarah Martin

Looking to expand your jewelry repertoire? This class will show you how to carve wood on a small scale appropriate for jewelers. We'll cover how to safely carve with both knives and dremels and how to transform these carvings with surface embellishment, findings, and finishing techniques. All levels. Nov. 2-8.

Get complete details HERE

Find Registration Information and forms HERE

Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education located in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. Penland's focus on excellence, its long history, and its inspiring, retreat setting have made it a model of experiential education. The school offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, photography, printmaking and letterpress, textiles, wood, and other media. Penland sponsors artist residencies, a gallery and visitors center, and community education programs. Penland is located at 67 Doras Trail, Penland, NC - near Spruce Pine.