To all knitters, crocheters and jewelry-makers: Consider joining me on a Moroccan adventure in March of 2010!
Moroccan Muses II
An Interactive Artists’ Exploration
March 21st – April 3rd, 2010
with fiber & jewelry artists
Julia Bryant
&Melody MacDuffee
The Kingdom of Morocco
Set in the northwest corner of Africa, Morocco is exotic, friendly, and guaranteed to bewitch your not-so-average right-brained visual artist type. Meals are an excuse to gorge with unfettered abandon on sinfully delicious food that isn‘t even fattening. The weather in spring doles out just the right portions of dry, sunny days and the kind of cool nights that encourage wild bouts of unbridled revelry. Postcard-ready scenes of Moroccan life on the move are pretty much everywhere you look.
And...oh, the streets and marketplaces! Unbelievably vibrant colors bombard you from every side, making your fingers itch to get hold of yarn or thread or beads or paints so that you can at least attempt to capture the vividness and beauty that parades past you on every street and in every marketplace.
Moroccan Arts
Morocco is also one of Africa’s best places to plunder the markets for hand-crafted goodies. In fact, a whopping ten percent of the whole country’s income comes from its traditional crafts. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising when mind-dazzling examples of silver inlay, wood painting, pottery, ceramic tiles, leather work, embossed brass, copperware, sculpted wood, and hand-woven baskets somehow end up in your suitcases in staggering quantities. For fiber artists, it’s even worse—everything is so portable! And breathtaking, often collectible textiles literally walk the everyday streets here. Even the mules and camels can be seen wearing them half-hidden under bushels ofmarket-bound goods. It makes you want to sprint for the nearest studio and start madly weaving or knitting or crocheting or embroidering or beading to somehow preserve your impressions of all that glory for posterity, not to mention for your own creative self.
Your Facilitators
Join us, Julia Bryant and Melody MacDuffee, along with a small group of fun-seekingcreative crafters and artists, for a high-spirited, interactive journey into the visual extravaganza that is Morocco. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, Julia is a well-known Canadian fiber artist and teacher with a mischievous sense of humor and a profound love of everything Moroccan. She is justly renowned for her ground-breaking innovations in the field of Tunisian Crochet with Color Inlay. Melody is that American crochet & jewelry artist/teacher who came up with the technique now known as Overlay Crochet. Both of these fun-loving, adventurous women are widely published, and have taught extensively all across the North American continent, as well as in northern and sub-Saharan Africa.
Accommodations
Experience some of the most charming and personalized accommodations Morocco has to offer. The Villa Bourdoud is a delightful, privately-owned home in the seaside town of Harhoura near Rabat, with beautiful gardens and unfailingly gracious service by the owners’ daughters, Mouna and Houda. Hotel Hippocampe, in the enchanting coastal village of Oualidia, is also family-owned and operated, giving it a delightful personal touch. In Essaouira, stay at the elegant Villa Quieta, a private palace recently opened to the public by its gracious owner. Be in the thick of things in Marrakesh at the Residence Koutoubienne, situated right on the square of Jamaa El Fena at the vital center of Morocco’s largest medina. And in Fez, a special treat awaits as you relax into the opulence of an exclusive riad, a beautiful example of traditional Moroccan architecture built around a captivating interior garden.
Your Journey
The Moroccan aesthetic is opulent, complex, and lusciously colorful, and our exploration of it is pretty much going to run the gamut. Let your jaw drop and your tongue hang out as you glory in views of magnificent hand-woven cloths and garments, braided edgings, Berber rugs, silken scarves, lushly embroidered fabrics, and decorative fringes and tassels. Lose all consciousness of your left brain as you watch the deft movements of skilled local artisans demonstrating rug-making, silver inlay techniques, tile making, braid and button making, thuya woodcarving, and more.
Drown your senses in sumptuous cactus silks, opulent tapestries, elaborately-wrought jewelry, and intricately embroidered cushions in three of Morocco’s spellbinding UNESCO World Heritage sites: theancient medinas of Essaouira, Fez, and Marrakesh. Scour the produce markets of Rabat with Houda and Mouna, and then go home and learn to prepare a traditional Moroccan meal. Languish on the sand or go beach-combing beside Oualidia’s peaceful lagoon for some of nature’s own works of art.
Now, here’s the part that makes this particular journey particularly special. Throughout the trip, every time you think you’ve soaked up all the beauty your spirit can hold, head for your current home away from home, bringing the colors and images of Morocco back with you. Then, right there, while inspiration is still fresh and the Moroccan muses are still whispering in your ear (or screaming out orders, as the case may be), indulge your creative side with interactive workshops that allow you to express yourself in your medium of choice while enjoying the pleasure and enrichment that only the company of other artists with similar interests can provide.
