MYTHICAL CREATURES WITH THE PALE ROOK AND ELISABETH VIGUIE CULSHAW

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico

October 11-20, 2024

Mexican Folk Art is a tapestry of symbolism and meaning, reflecting the country’s rich history, diverse culture, and profound spirituality. Join The Pale Rook and Elisabeth Culshaw in Oaxaca to explore the symbols of animals and colors while creating your own mythical creature or doll. This will be the only animal workshop that will be offered by The Pale Rook.

Mexican Folk Art uses colors, symbols, and animals to weave a story of love, pain, birth and death in ancient Aztec and Mayan mythology. Colors are more than just pigments; they convey profound meaning for emotions, nature and spirituality. Red is passion, love and sacrifice. Blue represents spirituality and tranquility, while yellow is a symbol of positivity and joy. Green is nature and growth symbolizing the harmony and balance found in our relationship with the natural world. Purple symbolizes royalty and spirituality and orange, creativity and energy.

Johanna has developed the methods we'll be working with over the last seven years in her own practice and they've been honed especially for this workshop. You can adapted them to make whatever creature, combination of creatures, or mix of human and animal that you want to make. 

The dolls/creatures can also use a collaged combination of fabrics, layered with symbolic embroidery, using as many or as few of the participants' collection of dyed fabrics and yarns as they wish. This means you can have a narrative element to your work, telling stories through symbolic use of color, pattern and form.

Elisabeth is a well known eco printer and natural dye creator and educator in Glasgow, Scotland. She will work together with Roman Gutierrez Ruiz, an artist from the weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle, for our dyeing of fabric and paper for our creatures and a book.  

Itinerary

Day 1, Friday October 11

7:00 p.m. Meet and greet in the hotel with some libations and botanas.

Day 2, Saturday, October 12

We will meet in the studio to go over the week’s schedule, then it is off to spend the day in the weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle.

Elisabeth will lead you in dyeing cotton, silk and yarn using locally sourced plant dyes.  We will work with traditional dyeing methods that have stood the test of time as part of Mexican textile heritage for centuries and continue to be used by contemporary artists and designers today. Each piece of cloth and skein of yarn will be a unique reminder of your time in Oaxaca. We will work with a variety of natural dye plants, creating a rich palette of colors to work with in our sewing projects. We will also be dyeing papers for a small journal. 

Lunch and dinner will be provided.

Day 3 Sunday October 13
Johanna will guide you in making an original doll inspired by the colors, textures and mythical creatures of Southern Mexico.  You can create a "human" doll, an animal or mythical creature from your collection of naturally dyed fabrics and yarns, embellished with colorful embroidery in a Mexican style.  Every stitch will be created by hand, giving you time to connect with your doll in a mindful and relaxing way, reflecting the experience and emotion of your trip to Oaxaca.  All fabrics and yarns will be provided, and you are also welcome to bring your own collection of fabrics, materials and found objects to incorporate into your doll.

9:30 Have breakfast at the hotel before meeting in the studio. Lunch will be at the hotel and class will be over at 4:30. Free time until we meet at 6:30 for a special dinner with our friend Chef Pilar Cabrera of La Olla.

Day 4 Monday October 14

We will continue working on our creatures/dolls.

Breakfast at hotel

9:30 Meet in the studio break for lunch at 12:30. Class is over at 4:30. Free time until we meet for dinner.

Day 5 Tuesday October 15

Have an early breakfast and then we are off on a travel day stopping in San Bartolo Coyotepec to visit our favorite black pottery artisan family.

Then off to visit Jacobo and Maria Angeles in their San Martin Tilcajete studio/school. When we first met Jacobo and Maria, they had a small studio where they worked on their intricately patterned alebrijes that are in museus and private collections around the world. Today, Jacobo and Maria are also painting, creating pottery, and are supporters of their community, teaching children from the village how to continue the traditions of their village.

Lunch will be at the entrance of the village and dinner is on your own tonight.

Days Six-Eight October 16-18

Breakfast in the hotel and in the studio breaking for lunch before continuing on with our creations. During this time, Elisabeth will show us how to create a small journal using our dyed papers.

Class will be over around 4:30 and then you will have free time before dinner in the evenings.

Day 9 October 19

After breakfast, we will finish up our projects and have our Show “N Tell. After cleaning up, you have the afternoon free to shop and pack. Lunch is on your own today and this evening will be our farewell celebration at Nois Restaurant.

Day 10 October 20

Everyone leaves or stays on to further explore beautiful Oaxaca.

This Art Escape includes:

• 9 nights accommodations (double occupancy)

• Two travel days to three different artisan villages

• Six days of instruction with Johanna Flanagan and Elisabeth Culshaw

• Welcome reception and fiesta

• All meals except for one lunch and one dinner

• Visits to markets

• Cooking Class

• Free time to explore

• Farewell dinner

• Some supplies

• Private Facebook page

• New Art Tribe

The price for this workshop is $3,975 and limited to 12 people. A limited number of single rooms are available for an additional $600.

A $1,000 non refundable deposit is due upon registering. The final payment is due June 11, 2024.

Price does not include:

• airfare to/from Oaxaca

• alcoholic beverages

Travel insurance is highly recommended. See FAQs for recommendations.

Accommodations: Located in a colonial building just two blocks from the zocolo, Hotel Naura has free wifi, a restaurant, a pool, bar and rooftop terrace. It is located across from the Textile Museum. 

Airport: Xoxocotlan International Airport is an international airport located in Oaxaca City, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Airport has only one terminal that handles domestic and international air traffic. Code: OAX.

Materials provided

• Florist wire

• Wool fleece

• Felting needles

• A selection of sewing threads

• Tailors chalk

• A selection of embroidery threads

• Pattern drafting paper

• Unspun flax

• Pliers

• Wire cutters

• Felting sponge

Materials to bring

• Hand sewing needles ( mixed sizes)

• Fabric scissors

• A small pin cushion

• Pins

• A sketch book

• A pencil

• Coloured pencils ( or any other colour medium you'd like to work with when designing your project)

• A pencil sharpener

• A selection of fabrics and found objects/trimmings from your own collection (optional)

• A range of interesting paper - size A4 or 8 1/2” x 11 “ - art paper or hand-made

• Some trinkets or beads

• Ruler

• Apron

This itinerary may change due to weather, new opportunities or the whim of the group.

We are so thrilled that Johanna Flanagan of the Pale Rook is teaching another Bellissima Art Escape. She is a Scottish textile artist, doll maker and costume designer, trained in fashion, constructed textiles and historical costumes. Doll making was her first love, and she has been making dolls for as long as she can remember. In the last fourteen years, Johanna has taught in art schools, museums and colleges throughout the UK and Europe, as well as writing and tutoring correspondence courses for the last two years.

You can see her work on her Instagram and Facebook feeds.

French artist Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw is a well known eco printer and natural dye creator and educator in Glasgow, Scotland. She started a Natural Dye Garden in the Glasgown Botanic Garden in 2022 and is very active in community art, often traveling to Thailand, Myanmar, and other places known for dyeing when she is not teaching at her Lansdowne House. She is a strong believe in collaborative art and invites students from around the world to her studio and online courses. We were fortunate to meet Betty to share a day of dyeing in her home studio. We are thrilled to share Oaxaca with her.

You can find her classes on her blog and follow her journey on Instagram.

WHEELING AND SITTING CREATURES WITH MORGAN BRIG

September 26-29, 2024

Port Orchard, WA

Back by popular demand is another whimsical workshop with Morgan Brig. We just can’t get enough of her amazing creatures.

Itinerary

Day 1, Thursday, September 26

We will meet in the studio at 9:30 am for introductions and Morgan will provide a class overview with samples. She will also demonstrate foil, masking tape, and Apoxie Sculpt.

We will break for lunch which will be provided around 1:00. Afterward, we will continue working on our sculptures. At the end of the day, Morgan will demonstrate painting and dry brush. Class is over at 4:30. Dinner is on your own this evening.

Day 2 - Friday, September 27

Meet in the studio at 9:30 am when Morgan will demonstrate torching, annealing, and fitting metal pieces to clay bodies, brazing ears, wings, antlers, and cones. Safety will be discussed.

We will break for lunch at 1:00 and then afterward, Morgan will demonstrate how to cut pipe, and make legs/arms. Class is over at 4:30. Dinner is on your own this evening.

Day 3 - Saturday, September 28

We begin at 9:30 am with demos on scraffito, fabric eyes, attaching parts to figures and attaching wheels.

Lunch will be at 1:00 and afterward, Morgan will demonstrate how to make charms, jump rings and wire hangers.

Dinner will be provided this evening.

Day 4 - Sunday September 29

We start at 9:30 am as we continue working and refining our sculptures. Lunch will be at 1:00, then you will make any last minute changes to your pieces. At 3:00, we will clean up and have our Show “N tell. Class is over at 4:00.

This workshop is full. A waitlist has been started.

This Art Escape includes

• Four days instruction from Morgan

• A beautiful studio to create in

• 4 lunches, 1 dinner

• Some supplies

• New art tribe

The cost for this Escape is $950. A $500 nonrefundable deposit is due upon registering. The remaining $450 dollars is due May 14, 2024. Once registered, you will be sent information for payment.

Port Orchard is the site for the workshop. The location is 9 miles north of Gig Harbor, WA which is listed as one of the most desirable cities in the US to visit (or live). It is located south of Seattle, across the Narrows Bridge on Hwy 16.

The Bremerton-Kitsap Airporter stops in Gig Harbor and in Port Orchard.

There are many Arbnbs and B&Bs in the area. A list of accommodations will be provided if requested

We will Provide

• copper kit

• torches

• firing stations

• brazing rod

• acrylic paint

• drills, drill bits

• grinder

• tin snips

• metal and wood forming blocks

• forming hammers

• elmers glue

• epoxy glue

• nitrile gloves

Student Supply List

• Aves Apoxie Sculpt, white, size 4 lbs.

• Clay tools

• Box or at least 20 Phillips flat head wood screws #4, 1/2”

• Small Phillips screwdriver

• Rag

• Scissors

• Small and medium paint brushes

• Several sheets of copy paper for pattern cutting

• Pencil

• Exacto knife with extra blades

• Blue or black extra fine point Sharpie pen

• Needle nose pliers

• Found objects: anything you love to be used as a body part or for decoration. Morgan likes wood forms (old wood net floats), large fishing flashes, dice, etc.

• Small ruler

• Scotch tape

• Beads, charms, stringing wire or string

Optional

• 4 toy wheels, approximately 2 3/8” diameter

• vintage casters

• plain jute twine

• glass eyes

• round nose pliers

• fur, feathers

• tin snips

• wire cutters

• colorful interesting string - small quantities

• Threaded rod with nuts

Morgan Brig is a mixed media artist from Vashon Island, WA. She loves to capture emotion in her sculptures using multiple layers of media that bring the subtlety of expression to each character. Her layers include etched metal detail, enamel patinas and found objects that suggest the old and familiar, but ask to be viewed in a new light. She often uses language and occult symbols in her designs to support her belief that there is always guidance to be found from external and internal sources as we go through life. There also is playfulness in her design inspired by her love of old metal and tin toys and her desire to lay humor next to truth or fear in her work.

Kathie Vezzani, who is hosting the workshop, also is an artist who paints, rusts and waxes. She organizes trips for other artists and in a former life was a caterer. She has over three decades of experience organizing trips for foodies and artists.

Join mixed media artist Bridgette Guerzon Mills in a mixed media exploration in allowing nature to be our guide in creating artwork in book form. We will explore our environment for natural materials to act as inspiration and jumping off points for design and concept, as well as elements with the pages of our handbound books and mixed media pieces. We will use art as the bridge to explore reconnecting to the earth as our hands dialogue with nature and create earthy works of art.

Bridgette will lead the class through a variety of mixed media techniques that draw upon elements found in her creative practice: encaustic, fabric, thread, photo transfers, collage and the addition of natural elements. We will use plaster, fabric and found natural materials to create book art pieces.

This mixed media exploration will act as a bridge to reconnect us to the stories of the earth around us

Itinerary

Day 1, August 8

Class starts at 9:30 Intro to encaustic — painting and mixed media techniques such as transfers, glazing, collage on 5x7 inch panels that will eventually be book covers for an accordion (paper) book

Prepping of plaster for pages—for either a hanging book or to be attached to branches that can be bound together

Selecting and prepping bark pieces to use for book covers

We will break for lunch and class will be over at 4:30

Day 2, August 9 

Class starts at 9:30. Discussion of using natural materials in artwork, create our own small nature art meditations, take natural elements apart and designing with them.

Fabric and wax demo and attaching natural and found materials to it, make pages out of fabric and attaching natural elements to them.

Plaster cloth and wax demos and discussion of binding plaster pages, make a collection of plaster pages with encaustic transfers and collage and natural elements attached to them.

We will break for lunch and class is over at 4:30.

Day 3 August 10

Class starts at 9:30. Bridgette will demo accordion construction with paper for covers made on day 1 (optional to make these covers into a book or leave as paintings)

Demo of using encaustic + paper

Demo of attaching smaller pieces to bound pages

Continue working on binding plaster pages and fabric pages

Lunch and dinner will be provided today.

Day 4 August 11

Class will start at 9:30. We will continue to work and finish up our books.  After lunch we will finish any last minute details, clean up and have our show “n tell. Class will be over at 3:30 p.m.

Only one spot left

This Art Escape includes

• Four days instruction from Bridgette

• A beautiful studio to create in

• 4 lunches, 1 dinner

• some supplies

• new tribe

The cost for this Escape is $900. A $500 nonrefundable deposit is due upon registering. The remaining $400 dollars is due May 14, 2024.

Port Orchard is the site for the workshop. The location is 9 miles north of Gig Harbor, WA which is listed as one of the most desirable cities in the US to visit (or live). It is located south of Seattle, across the Narrows Bridge on Hwy 16.

The Bremerton-Kitsap Airporter stops in Gig Harbor and in Port Orchard.

There are many Arbnbs and B&Bs in the area. A list of accommodations will be provided if requested

We will Provide

• Electric palettes for encaustic

• Drills with drill bits

• Wood glue

• Spray bottles

• Bookbinding needles

• Burnishing tool

• Paper towels

• Glue sticks

• Embroidery floss

• Collage materials

• Fabric scraps

• Single edge razor blades

• Bark for covers

• waxed paper
  

Student Supply List

• Awl

• Scissors

• Exacto Knife with extra blades

• 1 roll of plaster cloth 4”x180” (Dick Blick carries its own brand called Blick Plaster Cloth

• 1 yard white cotton muslin

• Favorite oil bar or oil paint for glazing techniques (Bridgette’s favorites for creating earthy glazes are burnt umber, burnt sienna, ochre

• Natural materials such as sticks, leaves, pine cones, seeds, etc. You may also forage in the woods adjacent to the studio

• Images to collage. Can be photographs that are printed on regular paper (non-photographic paper). They can be inkjet or laser prints, black and white photocopies (images should be smaller than 8x8 inches), or they can be drawings on a variety of papers

• Images to transfer: black and white photocopies (images should be smaller than 8x8 inches)

• Apron

• Heat gun - if you have one please bring it.

Bridgette Guerzon Mills is a mixed media artist whose work incorporates a variety of materials including photography, paint, encaustic, as well as fiber, textiles, and other reclaimed materials. Her artwork and journals have been published in magazines and books and her work has been collected in the United States and internationally. She currently resides in Towson, MD with her family.

As a mixed media artist, encaustic is a versatile medium that allows her to create depth in layers and serves as a means for further exploration in both form and meaning. She combines her photography with encaustics to create a bridge between two worlds, the real and the reconstructed. The canvas becomes a multilayered surface that speaks to both the visual and tactile senses.  

Her outdoor installations, often created using foraged or recycled materials, focus on environmental issues and seek to engage and educate the public about these concerns.

Kathie Vezzani, our host, is a mixed media artist who loves anything rusty. She rusts, paints and uses encaustic and cold wax in her practice. She also creates mixed media sculptures. In her spare time, she organizes workshops for other artists. She will be hosting this workshop in her new studio.