Workshops — Chrysalis Studios

There is something that happens when a small group of people sit together around a table with materials and a question. Something different from reading alone, or making alone.

The materials are part of it — the weight of a bone in your hand, the smell of dried botanicals, the way a piece of clockwork fits together. But the conversation is part of it too. The thinking that only happens in the presence of other people who are also trying to think.

"These workshops exist at the intersection of studio practice and philosophical inquiry — making as a way of knowing, and knowing as a way of making."

Chrysalis workshops are small by design. Intimate enough that everyone in the room can hear each other. Unhurried enough that something real has a chance to emerge.

Dates and registration are coming. In the meantime — tell us you're interested. We'll let you know first.

Two Gatherings

What's Coming

🜂

The Assemblage Workshop

Making · Material · Meaning

A hands-on studio gathering for making small assemblage pieces of your own. You'll work with the same material vocabulary as the Chrysalis studio — bones, dried botanicals, clockwork parts, frames, preserved specimens, cast objects, found relics.

No art experience required. The materials do most of the work. What you bring is attention — a willingness to let an object tell you what it wants to become.

Each participant leaves with a finished piece and, usually, a question they didn't have when they arrived.

Format In-person, Portland

Size 8–12 people

Duration 3 hours

Includes All materials, a finished piece to take home, light refreshments

Schedule Dates coming — notify me when registration opens

Notify Me

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The Chrysalis Salon

Philosophy · Discussion · Wonder

A live version of the intellectual spirit behind Chrysalis — a small group gathered around a table to think together about one question. The format draws from the tradition of the salon and the cabinet of curiosities: not a lecture, not a class, but a shared inquiry.

Each gathering takes a single theme as its starting point — consciousness, grief, time, myth and science, the nature of ritual — and sees where the conversation goes. Objects from the studio are present. They tend to generate better questions than abstract discussion alone.

Come with a perspective. Be willing to leave it somewhere different than you found it.

Format In-person, Portland

Size 6–10 people

Duration 2 hours

Includes Guided discussion, a reflection prompt to take home, light refreshments

Schedule Dates coming — notify me when registration opens

Notify Me

Why small, and why in person.

Most workshops are designed for scale. These aren't. They're designed for the thing that only happens in a room with a small number of people who are all genuinely present.

Every Chrysalis workshop takes place in Portland. No virtual option — not because it couldn't work, but because part of what these gatherings offer is the experience of being physically together with materials and ideas and other people who came on purpose.

When dates are announced, spaces will be limited. Patrons of the Chrysalis Salon receive early access to registration.

Location Portland, Oregon — venue announced with each gathering

Size 6–12 people maximum, always

Frequency Occasional — when the studio has something worth gathering around

Patrons Early access to registration for all Chrysalis Salon members

Private events Available for small groups — inquire via the contact page

Gather & Make

What's Coming

Why small, and why in person.

Be the first to know.