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Posted in Travel & Tourism
Tagged blogsherpa, classes, courses, Mexico, Oaxaca, schools, tourism, travel, where to go next, workshops
Make a Handmade Box within a Book: August 1-7, 2012
Using handmade local papers, and found objects and materials, you will learn to make a travel book with a self-contained box to hold your collected artifacts. Each participant will design a book, prepare the papers and artifacts, stitch the binding, and make the box enclosure. The enclosed box can hold art supplies, treasures, or spiritual talismans. This is a unique art book design created by our instructor Lisa Gilbert. It is portable, versatile and beautiful.
A box within a handmade book
First, we will visit the Taller Arte Papel Oaxaca in San Agustin Etla where local papermakers use the traditional methods and incorporate regional natural fibers into the paper. Here we will see the paper making process and then select text and cover papers for your personalized handmade book project.
During our travel adventures around Oaxaca as you explore the rich culture , you will collect personal treasures along the way. Your book will reflect your unique travel experience as you move from markets, to museums, to art galleries and artist studios incorporating the textures, colors, and artifacts that exemplify Oaxaca.
Front cover has optional pockets
Each day begins with a book making demonstration, followed by a learning and practice session. We’ll have daily discussion about how the project is progressing and have the opportunity to share our discoveries. The workshop will culminate with a book exchange, best of week show, and fiesta.
You will:
For:
We will provide you with a list of equipment and materials to bring with you upon registration. You may want to bring your own ephemera (decorations) or purchase ephemera during your travels around Oaxaca. We’ll provide basic supplies such thread, needles and glue and give you a shopping allowance to select handmade papers from Taller Arte Papel Oaxaca.
Your Itinerary: Each day includes plenty of time to work on making your book!
Use the box to collect milagros + embellishments
Day One: Arrive and settle into your Oaxaca city hotel.
Day Two: Travel by van to San Agustin Etla to the papermaking workshop; select your handmade amate papers; discuss components of bookmaking; overnight in Oaxaca (group breakfast, lunch and dinner).
Day Three: Visit the innovative textile museum, graphics arts institute, and go on an ephemera treasure hunt; discuss project design and paper preparation; overnight in Oaxaca (group breakfast; lunch and dinner on your own).
Day Four: Learn box making; project making and free time; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, dinner).
Day Five: Visit the famed tianguis Tlacolula Market; discuss sewing the signatures; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, lunch, dinner).
Day Six: Finish your book, book exchange, Best of Week Show and Fiesta; overnight in Teotitlan del Valle (group breakfast, lunch, dinner).
Day Seven: Depart OR stay on for an additional day and night to take a cooking class with renowned local teacher (9:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m.—includes lunch)
Select your own papers, cover design, colors
Your Workshop Leader is Book Maker Lisa Gilbert
Lisa Gilbert has been an enthusiastic book artist since childhood. She has been illustrating professionally, and teaching art and/or health for the past 20 years. Known for her use of color, finely tuned creativity, and excellent technical bookbinding, Lisa has been invited to show her work in two North Carolina exhibitions. She has studied bookbinding, papermaking, and box making at programs across the U.S., and most recently completed a Penland School of Crafts program. She has taught bookmaking classes throughout North Carolina, and has a reputation as a patient, encouraging, imaginative, and effective teacher.
Lisa considers herself to be a “cultural navigator” – a well-deserved designation since she has traveled to more than 25 countries. She purchases, collects, and uses exotic papers on her travels, most recently from Panama, Scandinavia, and India. Lisa has visited papermaking facilities and bookbinderies across India and has fashioned books from wood, papyrus, metal, mica, fabric, plastic, vinyl as well as from traditional materials such as handmade and machine-made decorative papers.
She attended Colorado Institute of Art, holds degrees in art and business, and the PhD in health education from University of Maryland. Her background is versatile and inventive.
Insert envelopes to hold extra treasures
Lodging/Accommodations. To keep this experience affordable, we have selected accommodations that are clean and basic. We will spend three nights in Oaxaca and three nights in Teotitlan del Valle. If you prefer luxury accommodations, please let us know and we can customize your accommodations for an added cost.
Cost: The basic cost for the trip is $1,295. USD. This includes six nights lodging double occupancy with shared bath, six breakfasts, three lunches, four dinners, transportation to the villages, all instruction and most materials. Travel workshops of this type and length cost more than twice as much!
The program costs do NOT include airfare, taxes, gratuities, travel insurance, liquor/alcoholic beverages, some meals as specified in the itinerary, entry fees, and some transportation.
You will have the option of sharing a double room with shared bath for the base price of the trip. Please indicate your preference.
Option A: Shared room with shared bath; $1,295. Deposit to reserve: $650.
Option B: Shared room with private bath; $1,495. Deposit to reserve: $750.
Option C: Single room with private bath; $1,645. Deposit to reserve: $823.
Option D: Add additional nights lodging in Oaxaca, +$125 each night.
Option E: Add one night lodging and cooking class in Teotitlan del Valle, $110 on Tuesday, August 7 (depart August 
Reservations and Cancellations
A 50% deposit is required to guarantee your spot. The final payment for the balance due (including any supplemental costs) shall be postmarked by May 30, 2012. We prefer Payment with PayPal. We will be happy to send you an invoice.
Please understand that we make lodging and transportation arrangements months in advance of the program. Deposits or payments in full are often required by our hosts. If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email. After May 30, no refunds are possible. If you cancel on or before May 30, 2012 we will refund 50% of your deposit. We strongly recommend that you take out trip cancellation, baggage, emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip, since unforeseen circumstances are possible.
To register, contact: normahawthorne@mac.com or call (919) 274-6194. Thank you.
This workshop is produced by Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC. We reserve the right to alter the itinerary and substitute instructors without notice.
The exploration of life is like creating an open book.
Posted in Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged art, art journal, blogsherpa, book making, bookbiinding, classes, course, crafts, culture, handmade paper, Mexico, Oaxaca, school, workshop
Behind the scenes, we’re busy! I’ve talked with writers, artists, and designers about new workshops to offer in Oaxaca in 2012. I’m happy to say we are in the final planning stages for the following programs:
Tonight, Stephen and I are going to hear a Witness for Peace (WFP) presentation at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Church in Chapel Hill (106 Purefoy St.) about their work in Oaxaca.
Tony Macias is one of four WFP team members in Oaxaca and former assistant director of North Carolina Student Action with Farmworkers. He and his co-worker Moravia de la O arranged for a local delegation — Sharon Mujica, Alan Young, Eduardo Lapetina and Jane Stein — to visit the region and they just returned. They will be sharing their experiences and points of view about the economic conditions, immigration issues, and community survival in Oaxaca.
Witness trips seek to equip both travelers and their audiences to press for sensible and humane economic and immigration policy.
This is important work! We see the impact of the severe international economic crisis on the streets of Oaxaca — there are fewer visitors than usual, and this is having a huge impact on the ability of crafts people and artists to sustain themselves.
My goal is to help bring affordable travel to Oaxaca and bring visitors in contact directly with artisans who create extraordinary work. We are all in this together! Abrazos fuerte. -Norma
This is the flyer I’ll be distributing tonight. Please pass the flyer!
Program Outline and Approach
Bill Bamberger, our expedition leader, has just sent in a course update about the Oaxaca photography expedition set for this October 29-November 4. He notes that the experience will give you time to produce an extensive portfolio of images that chronicles life in Oaxaca. During the expedition, we will concentrate on photographing city colonial-era architecture, markets, crafts, food, churches and, of course, its mystical multi-day celebration of Day of the Dead. In Teotitlan del Valle, our photographic approach will be more intimate as each participant will be paired with a local host family, traveling with them to the local cemetery to witness and photograph a personal celebration of All Souls Day. See this LINK for program description. (Registration Open)
Bill has organized the experience so that participants can identify a theme on which to concentrate. You can choose to focus on food, religious icons, housing, cemeteries, local artisans, family life, music, farming and agriculture, or whatever suits you. By the end of the workshop, we will have collectively created a range of personal portfolios that reflect the diversity of life in the region.
Our daily workshop sessions will be a mix of presentations and technical demonstrations. We will look at the examples of select regional photographers or those whose documentary style will help us expand our vision. You have the option to bring a sample portfolio to share at the start of the workshop and show what you’ve captured throughout the week. The program will culminate with a final celebration and group show.
We expect that photographic experience will vary widely from participant to participant and we welcome all levels — from beginners to more experienced — who want to come with us on this remarkable learning adventure.
You can choose however deeply you would like to participate in the workshop. If your principal goal is to have fun and enjoy the journey, we will work with each of you according to your interests and needs.
Feel free to email bill@billbamberger.com with any questions or requests.
Expedition Learning Schedule
Saturday, October 29 — Gather and check in at our Oaxaca city hotel.
Sunday, October 30 — After breakfast and a brief orientation, we’ll explore the city. Later that afternoon, we will gather to talk about your photography experience and present the portfolio you brought with you to share. Presentation: Bill Bamberger will share photographs from Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory and Boys Will Be Men. He will talk about photographing in communities away from home.
Q and A: A brief question and answer period about technical concerns and or logistical questions about photographing in Oaxaca.
Monday, October 31 — morning discussion and photography review. Presentation: Revealing Mexico, Photographs by John Mack (Powerhouse Books, 2010) Gertrud Blom: Bearing Witness (UNC Press, 1985) Discussion: Photographing at the Day of the Dead: approach and technical considerations. At 2:30 p.m. we will meet at our hotel to travel together to the famed Xoxocotlan cemetery for an afternoon and night-time shoot.
Tuesday, November 1 — After a leisurely morning, travel by van to Teotitlan del Valle and check-in to bed and breakfast. After lunch, visit Federico Chavez Santiago Family Weavers. Rest of the day on your own to wander and shoot before dinner.
Wednesday, November 2 — After breakfast Discussion: Talk through project ideas for photographing in Teotitlan. Discuss issues related to working with hosts and photographing in the homes of local families. Brief discussion about using natural light and/or flash. Q and A: Question and answer session about photographing in the community and at the Teotitlan cemetery with host families.
Thursday, November 3 — After breakfast, Discussion: Experiences photographing in Teotitlan. Presentation: As a group, edit and sequence the work of one or two participants. Brief demonstration using Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop to edit images. Assignment: Prepare a final portfolio of about 10-20 images to share with the class at the evening session. Bill will be available during the day for optional individual meetings to help edit your work. 7 pm. Evening Presentations: Final projects or portfolios shared with class. Discussion about ways we might share our projects with the host families and the larger community of Teotitlan. We may want to invite our host families to a viewing of the final projects (we can discuss and decide this earlier in the week).
*We will organize photographs as jpegs, numbered sequentially, and loaded on a memory stick or external drive. We will project digital images via Bill’s MacBook Pro. Please contact Bill in advance if you would prefer to show images on your laptop.
What you bring to photograph with is a personal choice and, in great part, dependent on your way of working. Some of the most accomplished photographers work with a single lens using the uniformity of the fixed focal length to unify their approach, while others select a variety of lenses allowing them the option of shooting tight to focus on details or loose to capture a wide-angle scene. This equipment checklist is a suggested starting place. What you bring is ultimately up to you. Your budget and your choice about how much gear you will want to carry will also influence your choice of gear. Sometimes less is more.
Suggested photo equipment:
Memory cards, at least two, 2 GB or larger
DSLR batteries (two)
Battery charger
Tripod, for shooting at night
Cable release (allows you to use slow shutter speeds on the tripod)
Laptop or system for downloading and previewing images
Flash drive or portable external hard drive for backing up images
Software loaded on laptop (optional): Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Bridge CS4 (or similar for editing images), Adobe Lightroom for processing RAW files
Extra DSLR camera body (optional, but it is nice to have an extra camera body when traveling).
Questions?
If you have questions about the optional equipment, please contact Bill or Norma. We will have some personal items, like tripods, available to share and experiment with.
**Let Bill know if you plan to bring a film camera or something other than a DSLR. He tends to travel with my DSLR and a medium format film camera.
Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged adventure travel, Bill Bamberger, blogsherpa, classes, courses, day of the dead, digital photography, DSLR camera, Duke Center for Documentary Studies, lessons, Mexico, Oaxaca, photography equipment, postaweek2011, schools, tourism, travel, tutorials, workshop
Oaxaca Cultural Navigator : Norma Hawthorne
