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Our first art workshop today! After visiting the Alhambra yesterday and learning about the tilework done there we walked down to the town center of Granada to visit the workshop where Munira creates beautiful work done in leather. She has lived in Granada for 40 years although is originally from Oakland, CA. When we began the workshop we were given a piece of leather on which to practice stamping. After gaining some confidence we were each given a square piece of leather on which to stamp designs taken from patterns we saw yesterday at the Alhambra.
We learned to first transfer the pattern onto the leather, wet down the leather and then begin stamping. Each tile is different, and Munira taught us to value each piece as unique - including any stamping mistakes we happened to make. After we completed stamping we painted on a coat of light stain to highlight areas of the pattern. We are going to retrieve our tile pieces at 6 tonite on our way to our flamenco class/ flamenco show and dinner. This is going to be a late night and so we all need to be packed up with journals written before leaving tomorrow morning at 9am for Seville. The weather here has been wonderful; 70 and sunny. We will write more about our flamenco lesson later. We began our day at 9am when our tour guide met us at the hotel lobby and took us off to the Alhambra. We visited Generalife (the summer home and gardens of the Islam and Muslim royal families.) and the Nasrid Palace. The Nasrid Palace is the opulent Moorish-style courtyard and royal quarters and the heart of the Alhambra. We visit the Alcazaba which was the housing where the guards lived. The Alhambra is considered to be the most famous example of Islamic art and is the culmination and grand finale of medieval Islamic culture on the Iberian Peninsula.
After lunch we went to the Hammam al Andalus - Moorish/Andalucian baths - which were pools of various water temperatures which were beautiful. The waters were surrounded by alcoves with candles and it was very beautiful. We were served hot, sweet tea. We had learned earlier today how baths were an integral part of life at the Alhambra and the Islamic culture and so it was a great way to tie-in the two visits. We are very excited to be attending our first workshop tomorrow with Munira, a local artist. We will be creating leather tiles with typical Islamic patterns as we take our first lesson in our study of tiles and art. We will fill you in tomorrow night on our workshop. |
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