Haystack & Penland

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

This summer I had the most amazing opportunity to participate in the Open Studio Residency at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. It was an amazing experience meeting wonderful artists from all over United States and abroad, making new friends, reconnecting with nature and re-experience the natural landscape of Maine.

Landscape of Maine

Explorations during Open Studio Residency

Group Photo with Open Studio Residents

Botanical Alchemy

After the Open Studio residency, I participated in a paper making workshop, “Botanical Alchemy” taught by Melissa Potter. In this class, I had the opportunity to interact with the natural landscape of Maine by observing and ethically sourcing natural and botanical material for papermaking. I learned making natural paper from seaweed, grass, cotton and kozo fiber. I also experimented with making paper with wild flowers and different objects collected as inclusions. At the end of the class, we sewed the paper we made into handmade books with coptic stitch binding.

Penland School of Crafts

Right after my residency and workshop at Haystack, I travelled to Penland, North Carolina. I felt honored to have received the Anna Rosser Upchurch Memorial Full Scholarship from Penland to participate in a summer workshop!

At Penland, I took a class in hot glass called, “Liquid Hybridity” with Shane Ferro and Angus Powers. It’s been a great experience learning glass blowing from Angus and flame working from Shane. I learned to sculpt with soft glass for the first time. I am tremendously inspired by this material and now committed to furthering my knowledge in glass in Seattle, where I would be participating a ceramic residency at Pottery Northwest for the remaining of my summer.