After a 15-year break from teaching, I was recently invited by the Penland School of Craft to create a class centered around my studio practice. Though there’s almost nothing as fun as teaching people to solder for the first time, I wanted the return to the classroom to reflect the time that had passed and what I’ve gained since I left teaching in 2003, and I felt like pushing a bit further. My studio has been a laboratory for so many explorations and discoveries over the last decade that I couldn’t have imagined as a student, or even as a beginning teacher, and those discoveries were what I was most excited to turn into a toolkit for other makers on a path like mine.
The resulting course was titled Streamlining in the Studio, and for two beautiful weeks in June, a dozen amazing students joined me in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a deep dive into design thinking as it applies to making jewelry and creating a livelihood.
Starting from the simple exercise of making paper clips by hand, we began to slow down our hands, observe our minds, and take in what we often overlook about getting through a day at the bench. Through a quick series of inquiries we developed a basic paperclip tool, then improved it, and improved it again…and found within an hour or so that a tiny shift in approach can bring the speed, ease, comfort and consistency of what we make to a completely different level. With that as a starting point, we began the search for the pain points in each student’s studio practice, and as a group helped each other overcome obstacles that had been keeping us from moving freely at the bench and in our businesses. We made piles of jigs and tools, shared advice and wisdom with each other, and had a ton of fun.
By the end of the session there were not just new ideas and perspectives on making, but even new language for what was happening. I loved every minute of it, I believe I learned as much as the students did, and I came back to my own studio feeling like a different maker. I’m so grateful to Penland for planting the seed.
Collaborations at Penland:
Top left, paperclip necklace in oxidized silver and 14k gold (Metals Students collaboration, donated to the session auction). Top right, earrings in sterling silver (collaboration with engraver extraordinaire Pierce Healey, donated to the session auction). Bottom row, brooch in paper, wood, ink and steel (multi-studio collaboration using Penland’s meal plan check-in sheets, donated to the session auction)
images from the studios on the Penland campus