Current
Building Nichos: Creating Altars of Memory Workshop
with Karla Camacho
Building Nichos: Creating Altars of Memory Workshop with Karla Camacho
Saturday and Sunday, October 3rd & 4th, 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM (Includes a half-hour lunch break in the courtyard with live music)
Member Price $295, Non Members $325
All materials included
No experience necessary
Join artist Karla Camacho for an immersive two day workshop, to learn the art of building, individually customizing and decorating your very own ceramic nicho.
Day 1:
The workshop will begin with a quick community-building exercise, followed by a historical background on nichos, and their cultural importance in various Latin-American countries.
Karla will provide pre-cut templates, slab-rolled clay, and all the tools needed to build the structure of a nicho. After demonstrating all the technical components to building the structure, participants will learn how to customize their own nichos in order to make unique, intentional, and one-of-a-kind pieces that will serve as places of remembrance at home.
On day one, we complete the building of the structure itself and we leave it to lightly dry overnight.
Day 2:
On Sunday, we spend the entire time learning how to paint our nichos with unerglazes. Karla will demonstrate different techniques of color application, carving, and working with texture.
After the workshop, Karla will transport, fire, and glaze each piece. Your finished nichos will be ready to be picked up in two weeks.
Please bring a sack lunch.
Instructors Bio
Karla Camacho is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and storyteller whose work ranges from illustration, painting, installation, sculpture, and functional pottery. Her work explores many themes and narratives around cultural heritage, migration, changing landscapes, and memory that transcends vessels.
Karla received her BA in Studio Art from California State University, Long Beach in 2016. She completed a postbacc and a 2-year residency with the Center for Contemporary Ceramics, under the mentorship of Tony Marsh. These 3 years served as a crucial time of experimentation that helped to evolve her practice, learning and collaborating with a diverse international community of grad students and resident artists.
Shortly after completing her time at the CCC, Karla opened her art studio near Downtown Los Angeles, intentionally building a business of growing collectors from around the country. She worked as a Senior Educator at the Museum of Contemporary Art from 2023-2025, coaching cohorts of 150+ teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and leading many wonderful, inquiry-based tours with students. Karla has been teaching ceramic classes at the Armstrong Community Center in Ontario, CA since the Summer of 2024.