New Mexico 2025 January tapestry retreat in Taos

Dates: January 16-22, 2025
Location: Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico

The Workshop
Technique and Image: Finding the Match

I often say that when learning about tapestry weaving, you have to learn to think like a tapestry weaver. Melding your knowledge about technique and your design skills is something that takes some trial and error. That means you have to practice! In this retreat I’ll ask you to bring your design ideas and any projects you are currently working on and we’ll work on figuring out how to realize your ideas in tapestry weaving. This may include simplifying, changing tools or materials, and most probably some sampling to try out your ideas.

We’ll have a few group sessions to talk about designing for tapestry and about any particular examples you’ve brought along that you’re willing to share with the group. This retreat involves a lot of self-directed work, so come ready to focus on your own ideas and find ways forward. You’ll go home with some sampling of ideas completed and maybe even a tapestry in the works.

If you are one of the many people who just don’t have a set direction for your next tapestry or your work in general, we can start from there! Here are some example things to think about before the retreat:

• Do you have a favorite tapestry artist who weaves in a particular way you want to explore? Gather some images of their work or you can explore it at MDL using your internet-connected device (in the lounge—there is no wifi in the workshop room)

• Do you have a set of images that you want to interpret in tapestry but don’t have the design finalized or maybe even started?

• Do you have a collection of images from years of interest in something that you aren’t sure how to turn into weave-able tapestries?

• Perhaps you feel completely stuck about design and aren’t sure where to even start? (If this one is you, we’ll get you unstuck together through some fun exercises and discussions about what interests you.)

• Or maybe you’re deep into your own designs and confident there but want to bounce ideas about color or technique off Rebecca and other participants.

Bring your thoughts and some starting ideas no matter how unformed they are and by the end of the week, you’ll have a direction for your tapestry and maybe your work as a whole.

This retreat is all about fueling your personal ideas and practice around tapestry design and execution. It is a great place for people who feel a little (or a lot) stuck on designing for tapestry. There is no better place to knock around ideas, get some suggestions of how to find an idea and work with it, and then start executing it before the end of the retreat.

For people who need a little more guidance or really want to work on technique, I’ll have some exercise ideas you can pursue during your time here. I would still encourage you to come to the retreat having thought a bit about where you want to focus your current learning. For example, do you want to learn more about making vertical curves or using a particular technique or weft bundling or color use? Think about what your goals are around what you want to learn and take some time to search out examples of tapestries or images you’d like to use to guide your learning.

Private consultation: I will have time slots available for private chats for anyone who is interested. Many students bring works in progress to talk about, but some people just want to talk about other things related to tapestry. Bring me your tapestry-related questions and I’ll do my best to help you find the next step forward. I’ll have a sign-up form for this available on the first morning session of the retreat.

Prerequisite knowledge: This retreat is not for beginners. You must know how to warp a tapestry loom and manage enough tapestry technique to weave the things you’re interested in making. If you’ve unsure, feel free to email me at hello@rebeccamezoff.com with questions. You don’t have to be cranking out lots of tapestries, you just have to know the basic mechanics of weaving tapestry and have a willingness to dive into design. For people who are ready to push themselves farther in their design skills, this is a unique opportunity to do so in a small group of other weavers.

Preliminary Schedule

Thursday, Jan 16

3 pm: Arrival and check-in
3-6 pm: unload your weaving equipment at Juniper House and settle into your room
6:30 pm: Welcome dinner in the main house

Friday

Breakfast 8-9 am
9:30-10:30: Gather as a group in the yoga studio to plan out the week and get a little inspiration.
10:30-12: studio work
12:30-1:30: Lunch at MDL
1:30-5: Open studio or explore the surrounding area
2-4 pm: Consultation times with Rebecca available
Dinner on your own

Saturday

Breakfast 8-9 am
9-12: studio work
12:30-1:30: Lunch at MDL
1:30-5: Open studio or explore the surrounding area.
2-4 pm: Consultation times with Rebecca available
Dinner on your own

Sunday

Schedule as above
6:30 pm: Dinner at MDL as a group

Monday

Breakfast 8-9 am
9-12: studio work
12:30-1:30: Lunch at MDL
2 pm: Group outing to Taos Wools (optional)
Dinner on your own

Tuesday

Breakfast 8-9 am
9-12: studio work
12:30-1:30: Lunch at MDL
1-4: Open studio or explore the surrounding area.
4:30 pm: Meet at Juniper House workshop to review what we did and take a group photo
6:30 pm: Dinner at MDL as a group

Wednesday, January 22nd

Our last breakfast together, finish packing up the studio, say goodbye, and head home until next year. Check out of your hotel room by 10:30 am.

The studio in Juniper House is always available to you. You’ll have a key to get in. Please make sure the door is locked if you’re the last one out.

Mabel Dodge Luhan House

MDL is a warm and inviting place. There will be a fire in the lounge with cozy couches to enjoy Mabel’s living room. Fireplaces in the guest rooms are not currently in use, so plan on enjoying fires in the main lounge. Housing pricing is based on Historic House or Juniper House. Rooms in Juniper House are slightly less expensive. This is also where the workshop room is. All provided meals are in the Historic House. In January, there may be snow and the surfaces at MDL are uneven and can be precarious. Bring good winter shoes and anything else you need to feel secure walking on their old, rocky walkways. If it does snow in Taos, it is usually an inch or less and it should melt as soon as the sun comes up, so don’t expect a great deal of snow unless you go up to the ski valley which is many thousands of feet higher.

Mabel Dodge Luhan House (MDL) is a retreat-style facility with no televisions, alarm clocks, or telephones. There is wifi only in the main lounge area. You will have a key to this area (for 24 hour access) which includes sitting areas, fireplaces, and internet access on your own device. There is cell service and MDL House is within walking distance of downtown Taos.

Many rooms have two beds. Some are double/queen plus a twin, some are two twins. You’re welcome to share a room with a friend. I will say that most of the rooms especially in Juniper House are very small so you should be good friends if you share one! The Gatehouse Cottage is available if you do have a friend coming with you or you want to make a new friend. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living rooms, and a full kitchen. Each room is billed at the Historic House Private rate. One room has a king bed, the other has two twins.

Housing Choices

Please let me know your first and second choices for rooms on the registration form. Housing is assigned in the order I receive registrations and deposits. All rooms including the Gatehouse Cottage are available except Auntie’s Cottage.

Extending your stay: MDL holds all the rooms from bed and breakfast registrations until December 15th. If you’d like to extend your stay, you can arrange with MDL to do so. You’ll need to call them, tell them you’re part of my retreat, and you can reserve additional nights. Please reserve the room that you’ve been assigned instead of taking a room someone else is scheduled to be in so that they have to move before the retreat starts (or email me about this). You’ll need to tell MDL what room you’re assigned. They will release those rooms December 16th, so make those reservations before that date. MDL phone: 575-751-9686.

Companions

You may bring a spouse or companion with you if they are able to entertain themselves while you’re at the workshop. See additional rates under Pricing below. Their price includes sharing your room, all breakfasts and lunches, and three dinners. This is the rate MDL charges me for companions.

MEALS

Breakfast and lunch: These meals are provided in the MDL dining room each day of our stay ending with breakfast on the last day. Breakfast is from 8-9. They will potentially be feeding a few other B&B guests. We will be the only people at lunch each day.

Dinner: We will have dinner together the first night as we get reacquainted and talk about what we’re going to do during our week together. I’ve added a dinner on Sunday night and we’ll have dinner together the last night to say farewell as we usually do. The other three nights are open for you to explore the dining options in Taos. Check in with the group on the first day of class for some excellent suggestions and to find dining companions if you’d like them.

WHAT TO BRING

For the workshop:

• Looms: You must bring your own loom. It can be any loom you can get to Taos and that works for you.

• Tools: Please bring all your own weaving tools.

• Yarn: Please bring the warp and weft yarn you need for what you think you’ll work on.

• Design materials: If you love colored pencils or paint or tracing paper, please bring some. I will have some limited supplies because you don’t always know WHAT you’ll want or what new design technique might be the one for you. But please do bring the sorts of materials you like to play with while designing.

• Headphones for your music. People have vastly different taste in music and auditory tolerance. Please use headphones.

• Task light: The light in the Juniper House studio is fair but not great. Light in the yoga studio is poor. A task light is an important tool for this retreat. If you are driving please also bring an extension cord and if a few people have a power strip they can bring, we could use a few of those also.

For Taos:

• casual dress, clothing for winter in Taos (15-60 degrees)

• walking shoes if you’re exploring the town of Taos or going hiking on the gorge or along the Rio Grande

• It sometimes snows in Taos in January and the surfaces at MDL are uneven and sometimes slippery. Bring good shoes for this environment and if you need a bit of stability while walking on uneven services, there is no harm in a pair of trekking poles or a cane!

PRICING

Price is based on the housing you choose. There are four options. For details on the rooms, visit Mabel Dodge Luhan’s website here: http://mabeldodgeluhan.com/accommodations/rooms/. Please note that the housing rates on their website are not the ones for us as we have additional fees for the conference and food. Those are the rates if you are extending your stay.

Prices below are all inclusive for 6 nights, 7 days. This includes your housing, taxes, the included meals, the workshop fee, plus all handouts and workshop extras.

Historic House Rates

Private room: $2,500
Shared room: $2,200 (shared with another workshop participant)

Juniper House Rates

Private room: $2,300
Shared room: $2,050 (shared with another workshop participant)

Deposit: Rebecca will send you a PayPal invoice for a $300 deposit after you register. This holds your spot and gives you priority in housing choices. The remainder of the payment is due on or before December 9, 2024. You are welcome to pay via PayPal or if you’d like to send a check, please contact Rebecca for a mailing address.

I will contact you if I don’t receive your full payment by 12/10/24. If I don’t hear from you by 12/12/24, your spot will go to the first person on the waiting list.

Companions: You may bring a significant other to this retreat. Your room will be billed at the private room rate plus a fee of $600 which covers the double occupancy and extra meals that MDL charges me. For example, if you want to stay in the Historic House, you’d register for a private room for you and your companion. The total amount paid would be the private room fee of $2,500 + $600 = $3,100. Companions are welcome at all meals and are free the rest of the time to enjoy Northern New Mexico.

Taos County Residents: MDL has a special rate commuter for residents of Taos County only. You must be a resident of Taos County and want to stay at home to take advantage of this. Please contact Rebecca at hello@rebeccamezoff.com for your rates. This rate includes all meals and teaching and excludes housing.

CANCELLATION TERMS

I will refund your payment in full until December 9, 2024. After that date, nothing is refundable unless I can find someone to fill your spot in which case, I’ll send you a refund minus a $300 administration fee.

I will make refund exceptions for COVID positivity on a case by case basis because no one wants you to come if you have it! Please be careful in the weeks leading up to our retreat.

COVID precautions

I require people who come to my retreats to be vaccinated. There are health exceptions to this so please contact Rebecca if you have questions about it. I encourage you to get boosters as your doctor recommends. I implore you to be very careful in the weeks leading up to the retreat. Holidays are the time everyone gets COVID and the workshop rooms at MDL do not have any ventilation in the winter. They have radiant floor heating so there isn’t much air exchange. I will bring a HEPA filter, but the rooms are large and this likely doesn’t do a lot to filter out the virus.

Testing: Please take a COVID test the day of or day before the retreat. If you are positive, you cannot come to the retreat and I will work with you on as much of a refund as is possible. It will not be a full refund so again, please be very careful before the retreat. Masks work well, so let’s go back to wearing them for travel as you come to Taos. I have an autoimmune disease, so if you need any further convincing, please please keep those of us who need you to be careful safe by being considerate and taking precautions. Thank you!

Getting there

If you’re coming from Chama, NM for any reason (this is my route!), know that Highway 64 from Tierra Amarilla to Tres Piedras is almost always closed in the winter. If there is any snow on it, they just close it. Please choose to go south to Española instead of north over Cumbres Pass if the TA to Tres Piedras route is closed. Cumbres Pass can be very bad in the snow.

From Albuquerque or Santa Fe, just head north to Taos! You’ll find directions on your phone or road signs. If the weather is gorgeous and you have time, the High Road to Taos is beautiful and leaves the main highway at Nambe north of Santa Fe. Please only take that route if there is no snow. They won’t close this road but it can be very bad if there is snow on it. It is worth the extra time to see the scenery up there and to go through Chimayo (visit Centinela Traditional Arts on the way!).

From the north I like to come over La Veta Pass near Walsenburg and turn south at Fort Garland off of Highway 160. This is a good two-lane road but it is remote, so don’t expect any gas stations after you leave San Luis. I don’t recommend the routes through Eagles Nest or Cimmaron unless you have a lot of time and there isn’t any snow. If you do have time, they’re beautiful!

Finding Mabel Dodge luhan house once in Taos

Once you get to Taos, you’ll turn right on Kit Carson Road. There is usually a stoplight there. In October of 2024 as I’m here in Taos, that stoplight has been taken out for road construction but the road is still accessible. Turn right there and you’ll pass some cute shops and go down a tiny hill. Morada Ln is a road to the left at the bottom of that hill. It is a tiny little road and you’ll think you’re in the wrong place, but you’re not! Just keep driving, watching for oncoming traffic, and look for an adobe sign that says Mabel Dodge Luhan House. The driveway is to the left of that sign. Pull into the parking lot and look for a set of wooden steps. Go up those steps and into the main building and register in the office inside.

What to do next: Registration

Registration opens October 11th at 9am MT. Please fill out the registration form linked in the button below. Feel free to email me with any details or changes at any time.

IMPORTANT DATES

December 9, 2024: Payment in full is due.
December 16, 2024: Last day to extend your stay at MDL. If you want to come early or stay later, you need to call MDL and make that accommodation. Just let them know you’re in my retreat and what room you’re in. 575-751-9686
December 16, 2024: Last day for a refund. After this point, I’ll give a refund IF I can fill your spot minus a processing fee of $200.
January 16, 2025: Check-in after 3 pm, dinner with the group at 6:30 pm
January 16-22, 2025: See you in Taos!

The button below will be live and linked to a registration page on 10/11/24 at 9am MT.

The gallery below is images from past Taos retreats. Click on the images for a larger version, use arrows to scroll, hover for full captions.

See you in Taos!