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• Memento Mori with Sand Casting

  • Start
    Sat, January 03, 2026
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  • End
    Sun, January 04, 2026
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  • Schedule
    2 sessions
  • Location
    3749 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN
  • Spaces left
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  Siblings scottie and Brienna Hall have combined their individual passions and art forms into this unique ritual Sand Casting experience. 

  It is said that in Autumn the veil between life and death is thinnest. In this weekend workshop we will explore the ancient art of sand casting to create a unique piece of jewelry or small talisman memorializing a loved one, pet, memory, or place. Through metalworking, fire, and guided ritual, you will cast a personal keepsake imbued with presence, memory, and intention.

  You're invited to bring a cherished object, cremains of a loved one, symbolic material, or a personal offering to incorporate into your piece. Together we will mark this sacred time of year through co-creating an altar honoring the cycle of life and death and learning to sand cast sterling silver in red clay.

  This workshop is open to all levels of experience. The only prerequisite is a willingness to reflect on the impermanence of life through ritual, storytelling, memories, and art making.

  $460 ($400 tuition + $60 materials)  |  Weekend workshop
  Open to ages 18 and up. 

  scottie hall (ze|zir) is a Minneapolis-based artist, hospice chaplain, and childless cat queer. Ze invites hospice patients and their loved ones to meet death with curiosity through ritual, self-discovery, and radical acceptance of the natural dying process. A longtime practicing Buddhist, scottie holds a MDiv from United Theological Seminary of Twin Cities where their studies included Interreligious Chaplaincy and Theopoetics.

  Brienna Hall is a jewelry artist and educator based in Mendocino, California, with a BFA in Sculpture and a minor in Fiber Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute. Through her practice, Shrine Jewelry, she explores themes of memory, impermanence, and transformation using sand casting, fabrication and recycled precious metals. Brienna teaches regularly in California and loves the joy and spontaneity that sand casting brings—she’s passionate about sharing that excitement through teaching and helping others create meaningful, personal work.

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• Advanced Silversmithing: Inspired by the Garden with Nicole Ringgold

  • Start
    Fri, May 22, 2026
  •  
  • End
    Tue, May 26, 2026
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    3749 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN
  • Spaces left
    0

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  We're thrilled to welcome Nicole Ringgold to the CAFAC jewelry studio for a 5-day intensive workshop!

    
  

  This workshop is for intermediate to advanced silversmiths. We will convene for eight hours each day which includes a one-hour break for lunch.

  Throughout the workshop, you'll focus on torch control, sawing, forming, fusing, soldering, and so much more to fabricate a variety of garden-inspired pieces. Demonstrations will include the creation of leaves, a beet or radish, a flower, an insect, and other projects inspired by our creativity throughout the week. You'll create several pieces over the course of the workshop, and emerge with an understanding of what is involved in working full-time as a silversmith.

  $900 plus $240 materials* |  5-day intensive  |  Open to ages 18 and up
  Note: this workshop is not eligible for scholarship awards.

  *You may choose to provide your own materials. When you register, you'll choose whether or not you would like us to provide your materials. Sorry, materials are all-or-nothing (we provide all, or you provide all).

  Materials List

  • 1 3x3" sheet of 22 gauge sterling silver
  • 1 3x3" sheet of 24 gauge sterling silver
  • 1 5 ft 16 gauge sterling silver wire
  • 1 5 ft wire of 18 gauge sterling silver
  • 1 3 ft wire of 20 gauge sterling silver
  • Silver solder

  You are welcome to bring additional materials!
  

  All tools, equipment, and general shop consumables are provided.

    
  

  Instructor: Nicole Ringgold's work is inspired by everything she encounters in her natural surroundings -- a plant, an insect, a bird's nest, natural river rocks, a sound, a glimpse, a smell. She lives in Winthrop, Washington, situated in the North Cascade mountains. Nicole is an outdoor enthusiast, gardener, wife and mother, farmer, and world wanderer. Throughout the year she teaches master silversmithing workshops in her studio and around the globe.

  Nicole says, "My wearable art is hand fabricated. Many people assume that it is cast, dipped or electroformed. I start with silver sheets and wire, saw, solder, file, texture, form, oxidize and polish every piece. My intention is not to replicate the inspiration, but to recreate it with precious metal with as much detail as possible. My goal with every piece is to make the metal appear alive."

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