Event

Ex Voto Making Workshop with Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann

With Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Sunday, August 4
Time: 1 5 pm
Admission: $150

This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

An Ex-voto is an offering made in fulfillment of a vow, usually offered to a particular saint or other divinity. The term is Latin in origin, short for ex voto suscepto "from the vow made." Ex-votos are placed in chapels, shrines, and other places of pilgrimage to offer thanks for blessings, healing, and to seek grace. Such places of pilgrimage have been found throughout history and in such diverse places as Egypt, Italy, and Mexico.

As ex-votos are often associated with miraculous healing, the forms they take reflect the healed body part. Hearts, lungs, legs, arms, heads, breasts, crutches, etc. often find themselves replicated in embossed and sometimes painted metal which adorn the walls of chapels in fantastic array. They are sometimes accompanied by written verse as well. Such ex-votos stand not only as tokens of thanks, but also as testaments of faith to other viewers.

This class will demonstrate how to construct from sheet metal an ex-voto of one's own choosing. Using metal sheers and embossing tools, students will learn how to lay out a design and create their own individualized ex-voto suitable for hanging on a wall (chapel or otherwise). Metal and tools will be supplied. Samples will be shown, as well as anatomical images suitable for reproduction. Please bring sketchpad and pencil.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled Hairy Secrets: In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.