Altars & Amulets
Conjuring Meaningful, Magical Objects from Everyday Materials
A two-day hands-on creative workshop
with Sara Saltee and Melissa West
April 5 & 12
10 am - 1 pm PDT
Online via Zoom
$200 (Save when you register before March 31st and/or bring a friend! see below.)
Come learn to craft an amulet or travel altar for creativity, healing, and soul connection!
In this moment, when so much of our attention is being pulled toward chaos and darkness, this playful workshop is an opportunity to focus on making something affirming and life-giving.
Altars, shrines, and amulets offer us places to store our most fervent wishes - for protection, for peace, for hope, for remembrance, or for whatever our hearts desire.
Using everyday materials, we’ll follow in the footsteps of women around the world who know in their bones how to scrap together the ephemera of life to create spirit-filled objects of magic and meaning.
No art experience necessary, just a willingness to play.
Meet Your Teachers
Young Melissa (Right) sporting her snazzy Mardi Gras headgear
MELISSA WEST is a 13th-generation New Orleanian: gumbo, voodoo, and magic run wilder than the Mississippi through her veins.
She grew up surrounded by shrines and altars and magical objects, accompanying her mama to the St. Christopher shrine before trips and the St. Jude shrine when all hope was lost. Her family threw French bread crusts—blessed by the Archbishop at a St. Joseph’s Day altar—up on the roof before hurricanes to protect home and family (it worked!).
She retains a deep love for altars, amulets, and magic. At last count Melissa has more than a dozen altars throughout her home and garden, and she always wears a secret amulet or two around her neck.
This New Orleans magic has deeply influenced her dollmaking and painting through her adult life.
Young Sara showing off an exciting bit of something.
Sara Saltee grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she absorbed the rich cultural mix of Mexican, Anglo, and Indigenous cultural traditions. She was particularly taken by the Mexican folk art traditions of nichos and retablos, and learned to savor the smell of roasting green chiles and the sight of brightly colored hot air balloons against a crisp blue sky.
Sara started making her own shrines and altars in 1999 as part of a self-designed program of recovery from academia, and she’s never looked back. Each of her one-of-a-kind art boxes brings together Sara’s crow-like love of shiny objects with her poetic and philosophical sensibility to express themes of nurturance, creativity, freedom, and the Feminine.
Today, her assemblages are shown at the Rob Schouten Gallery in Langley, Washington and at art fairs on and near her home base of Whidbey Island.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP:
In this 2-day hands-on workshop, you’ll create a three-dimensional amulet or pocket shrine that expresses an intention, wish, or prayer.
SUPPLIES
Supply lists are available for download here. We’ll also email you a copy when you register.
Aside from a few basic supplies, the emphasis will be on using what you’ve got lying around or what you can thrift or salvage.
RECORDINGS
Both sessions will be recorded, and replays will be available to all who register. So, if you need to miss part or all of a live session, you don’t need to miss out on the workshop!
CLASS PLAN
Session One: Saturday April 5th
Discover the fascinating history of women’s amulets, altars, and shrines.
Get inspired by examples of easy-to-make amulets (and their cousins, poppets and spirit dolls) and pocket shrines, also called travel altars.
Develop a clear intention for your project through guided reflection and writing activities.
Begin to design your project.
Session Two: Saturday, April 12th
Open creating time with project guidance and technical support as needed from your two facilitators.
Circle of sharing - show and tell about your project.
Throughout the workshop, you’ll get to:
Play with paper, paint, glue, ribbons, fabric, sequins, beads, random ephemera, natural bits and shiny things.
Meet amazing people, and...
Get your creative juices flowing!
NO SPECIAL SKILLS OR ART EXPERIENCE REQUIRED - JUST A WILLINGNESS TO GET MESSY AND EXPERIMENT WILDLY
After you register: You'll receive an email with supply lists and suggestions for things to think about as you prepare for the workshop.
SIGN UP NOW! - Group size is limited to 15.
FEES:
Early bird fees through March 31st: $175
After March 31st: $200
Save more when you bring a friend: send us an email with the name of your invited friend (sara@salteeacademy.com), and when they register, we’ll refund you $25!
Payment plans are available: *Contact Sara at sara@salteeacademy.com to arrange a payment plan if that helps make it possible for you to participate!
