Tin Can Art. What a blast! Where else can you have fun with whimsical creative folk art?

Sunday night we got started by deconstructing our first tin cans and making ourselves distinctive name tags. See the picture below.

An olive oil can gets a second chance

Our Folk School name tags, adorned with tin

Monday bright and early after a quick review, we got our initial projects started. What were they? Clocks, robots, dolls, boxes, flowers and more. What a great time! We found out that we can be creative and make anything we want, as soon as we learn the necessary cutting and joining techniques. Check back for an update in a couple of days…

A tin doll—one of the first of many creative tin can projects

The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activity.  Tin scraps flying, pop rivets popping, soldering irons and torches doing their work, shears snipping, punches punching, seamers bending, and nibblers nibbling.  The results were spectacular and stole the show on Friday afternoon.  All the student’s goals about learning about tools and construction techniques and strategies were accomplished and everyone pleased with their journey to Tin Can Artdom.  Well done!  Check out some of the beautiful work.  Additional photos will be posted at www.orlandoforge.com

It’s raining again, and if this were boy-scout camp, there’d be a lot of soggy tents, unroasted marshmallows, and unhappy campers.  But here at the John C. Campbell Folk School, each shower puts another bud on the lilies and another apple on the bough over at Orchard House, which will make for fine cider come the Fall Festival.  Over one hundred people have gathered to weave backpacks from straw, piece fabric into quilted jackets, build their own mountain dulcimer or learn to play one–just a few of the projects this week.

In the class I’m teaching—Writing Life Stories—one of my students is a fellow who recently celebrated his 95th birthday; another is a 33-year-old woman who just returned from a teaching stint in Ethiopia.  One student wrote a heart-breaking piece about the loss of his young son; another hopes to complete a piece that celebrates 47 years of marriage—a gift to take back to his wife.

Last night over a fabulous supper of eggplant parmigiana—served piping hot in hand-crafted bowls—I broke-bread with a psychologist from Syracuse, NY, a retired rabbi from Florida, and a stay-at-home mom from Charlotte, NC, who is taking a break this week from molding twin toddlers to molding clay pots.

When the rain showers break, the fog lingers in the mountains, the barn swallows swoop through the pasture among bales of rolled hay, and the air smells like summer is supposed to.  A student from Oklahoma points out a few menacing clouds still lingering in the blue hills.  No matter.  Rain or shine, it’s Contra Dancing tonight—and I’ve never cared much for burnt marshmallows anyway.

By Glenda Beall:

What is it about the John C. Campbell Folk School that seduces us into coming back again and again, either as student or teacher? Like so many others, I was hooked after the first class. In 1995, I moved to the mountains of western North Carolina and found the folk school through Nancy Simpson, Writer in Residence at John Campbell. My first class with her, a poet, changed my life. Although I’d been writing since I was old enough to hold a pencil, I would not ever have called myself a writer. I told Nancy I was not a poet, but after her class my poetry was published in slick and in literary magazines. I won a couple of awards from poetry contests.

Glenda Beall: Photo taken by Valorie Luhr

I’ll never forget my first class in the Orchard House, an old farmhouse turned dormitory for students. Our poetry class met in the living room which looks out through a window wall on a wide meadow bordered by dark trees. In the distance the Blue Ridge Mountains ride above the layered landscape. For that special week, my dream of writing and publishing began to come to fruition. Since then my poetry chapbook, Now Might As Well Be Then, has been published by Finishing Line press.

The greatest thrill of all was the day I turned the key in the lock to open the room where I would teach writing for the first time at the Folk School. I remembered all the writing classes, the outstanding teachers like Maureen Ryan Griffin, Darnell Arnoult, Ruth Zehfuss, and Elizabeth Hunter. I also thought about R.T. Smith, Gene Hirsch, Steven Harvey and so many others who educated me a week at the time in a comfortable atmosphere, the safety of a non-competitive group of adults who were eager, like me to write their stories and poems. My goal was to give my students that same experience. I hoped my students would leave the class room wishing the week would go on and on, just as I had done.

Writing Students: Chigger, Kay Lee, Teresa, Toni

Happily, I tell you, my students seem to have that same unique experience. I hear them say, “I don’t want to go home. I don’t want this week to end.”

I take great pleasure in the bonding and trust developed between my students as we talk and write about memories from childhood or from recent happenings. Women and men over sixty develop closeness with younger students. They form online writing groups with those in the same class.

One man told me at the end of the week, “You dragged me kicking and screaming into this class, but I am so glad I stayed.”

Others have said to me, “My week here in this class changed my life.”

Through participating in classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School, I learned what the students want and what the best teachers do to bring about the kind of experience that brings people from all over the United States to this tiny little place in western NC. I also learned that helping others to reach their writing goals, even if it is only to give a writer confidence to send out a manuscript, lifts my spirits, makes me proud, and fills my heart to overflowing with joy.

Take a moment to visit Glenda Beall’s blog at http://glendacbeall.blogspot.com/

I’m Pam East, and my first experience with the Folk School was teaching an enamel bead making class in 2003.   From that very first time I knew I had stumbled upon a truly special place.   Since then the John C. Campbell Folk School has become my home away from home.  Even though I’m usually there to teach, it feels like a vacation.  I can feel my soul relax the minute I drive onto the campus.

I now have the good fortune to teach a variety of jewelry making and enameling classes, and once in a blue moon, I get to teach in wood-turning.  No, I’m not also a wood-turner.   How that happened is a great illustration of the supportive and collaborative spirit that embodies the Folk School.  One February I was teaching a silver class and happened to be staying in the same house as Frank Penta, the wood-turning teacher that week.  We started talking in the evenings and ended up exploring the idea of using my silver clay to embellish his boxes and platters.  As luck would have it, we were both due back to teach again the same week in April.   We agreed that I’d make up some medallions and finials, and he’d bring materials for boxes, and we’d see what we could put together then.   When April rolled around, we were both as good as our word and some really lovely little boxes were created.

Metal inlay by Pam East, box by Frank Penta

Frank’s class was captivated by our joint project and immediately began asking when we were going to teach it.  We approached Doug Barnes, the resident wood-turner at that time, with our proposal for a joint class and the rest, as they say, is history.

Last week I had the pleasure of co-teaching the Silver Embellished Wood-Turned Boxes class for the second time.  Frank and I had eight terrific students.  It’s amazing to me how much they can absorb in just a few days!  They made a variety of medallions and finials AND got them set in boxes by the end of the week.    The silver elements were all made using Art Clay Silver, a media that can be worked like clay, but fires up to pure fine silver.   It’s amazing what can be accomplished without expensive silver-smithing equipment and in just a few short days!

Medallion by Pam East, woodturned box by Frank Penta

Whatever your interests, I hope you’ll give the Folk School a try.  I promise you won’t regret it!

Pam East will be teaching at the Folk School again in May 28 – 30 (weekend) and May 30 – June 5 (week.)  See more of her work and learn more about her at www.pameast.net

Kaleidoscope class with David Baker

This week is a time of celebration for David Baker’s Kaleidoscope Class.  It all started Sunday night with Valentine’s Day when the students arrived at the studio and the walls were covered in red heart fabric.  Everyone was invited to take a treat from under the white Valentine’s tree covered in Cupid’s feathers decorated with heart-shaped ornaments. 

 

Hi, I am Alan Leland, a professional woodturner and one of the many Woodturning instructors at the John C. Campbell Folk School. I first discovered the Folk School through Doug Barnes who was the JCCFS resident woodturner for many years. I took my first class at the Folk School in January 2004 with the intent of experiencing the Folk School and to get a feel for how classes were run and to see if my teaching techniques and personality would be a good fit with the atmosphere of the school. Fortunately for me, Doug Barnes was willing to offer me a class and my life has become more open and fulfilled ever since. I always look forward to spending time at the Folk School, as it is one of the highlights of my life.

Woodturned mushrooms by Alan Leland

My first experience at the lathe was in a Windsor Chair Class that I took in 1989. Shortly thereafter, I purchased a mid-sized lathe with the intent of making chairs and soon discovered the multitude of things that could be turned on a lathe. Then in 1995,   my job making crate style furniture for This End Up Furniture Company was eliminated and the lathe and woodturning seemed to take over my life. I joined a local woodturning club and shortly thereafter became a member of the American Association of Woodturners. My active involvement with the local and national organizations soon led to my demonstrating and teaching at regional and national symposia, where I was well received. I started to write articles on woodturning and began to develop a basic skills and techniques curriculum which I now teach at the Folk School and elsewhere. Along with the curriculum, I supply my students with a 50 plus page lab manual that is chock full of handouts on different skills and techniques but also includes many handouts on fun and interesting projects that build upon the skills being taught in the class.

Woodturned ornament by Alan Leland

I am known in woodturning circles for my Hollow Globe Ornaments with their delicate and elegant finials and for my very attractive and comfortable Three Legged Stools. Recently teaching has become a large part of my business. I do a bit of architectural turning when I can and design many pieces of furniture that have at least some turned parts. I lean more toward the functional side of woodturning but have a good eye for shape and form and do, at times, slip to the arty side of woodturning by adding color and texture to my work. In general, I prefer to bring out the best that Mother Nature has put into a particular piece of wood and to create an object that will become a family heirloom.

Three Legged Stool by Alan Leland

Alan Leland will be teaching at the Folk School again in July 4-9 (week) and July 9-11 (weekend.)

Pottery by Mike Lalone, Resident Artist in Clay

If you find yourself in Cleveland, Tennessee (or are looking for a really good reason to go to Cleveland, Tennessee), the Young Guns and Ol’ Geezers Pottery Exhibit is a not-to-be missed show at the Museum Center at 5ive Points. Mike Lalone, our Resident Artist in Clay has curated a wonderful exhibit showcasing the work of 17 local potters (past and present) who have made lasting contributions to the Folk School community.

I went there this past weekend to see the exhibit. What a great reminder of the fact that a lot of craft artists make their home AND living in Brasstown – and what an attractive display! I’d like to personally commend Mike for his hard work in putting the exhibit together. The exhibit felt like a warm extension of the History Center, complete with the Folk School documentary playing in the background. A few items on display are on loan from the History Center (reprenseting the “Ol’ Geezers” component of the show).

Big Pig by Rob Withrow, Clay Studio Assistant at the Folk School, on display at the Museum Center at 5ive Points

The permanent display at the Museum Center is worth the trip too. The museum, though 10 years old now, feels almost brand new – and details the interesting history of the town and the region, with lots of hands-on activities for kids of all ages.

After I toured the museum and the Brasstown Potters exhibit, upon the recommendation of Ken at the gift shop, I took a short driving tour of downtown Cleveland, and then went to The Spot, a local diner downtown. It was just a few blocks from the exhibit, and had fantastic rootbeer floats and fresh-squeezed limeade and that great genuine diner feel (and a very interesting history all its own).

It’s a great day-trip! See some pottery, take a hike in the Cherokee National Forest, have a limeade. Don’t miss it – just 18 days left!