New York Daily News

Courses and tours around the world exhibit area trades

Craft classes let travelers in on local scene

- BY JENNIFER BARGER

As I sit at my loom overlookin­g the Mekong River in Laos, the gray-blue water and jadegreen trees distract me from the melon-colored silk I’ve spent the morning weaving. Thank goodness for Mrs. Vanthong, the patient master weaver supervisin­g my efforts at Ock Pop Tok, a crafts center on the outskirts of Luang Prabang, a dreamy city where jungle landscapes meet French Colonial architectu­re. I’m here for a half-day weaving course that involves dyeing silk with plants harvested on-site, spinning it into thread and then, over several hours of hard work, weaving a surprising­ly profession­allooking silk place mat.

Travelers have long dipped their paws into local culture with cooking classes and tastings of wine, beer and chocolate. But, perhaps because of DIY-mad millennial­s or the current vogue for worldly, fair-trade goods and fashion, there are increasing options to learn regional crafts too. “Many of my clients, particular­ly ones with kids, are asking for hands-on experience­s,” says Bethesda, Maryland, travel agent Michael Diamond, whose Cobbleston­e Private Travel sets up tile-making and pottery classes for clients going to Marrakesh, Morocco.

Some courses consist of an hour or two of demonstrat­ions by a local craftspers­on with a chance to try your hand at their art and create your own memento. Other classes might take all day or a few days, depending on your level of interest and available vacation time. Some programs employ refugees or people who might otherwise be living in poverty; all let you interact with locals in a deeper way than a stop at a souvenir stand.

Artistry tours are cropping up too, leading creative-minded adventurer­s on longer odysseys into, say, Oaxacan weaving or Indian bamboo-bicycle making. Founded in 2015, VAWAA (Vacation With an Artist; vawaa.com) links individual­s or small groups of travelers to 69 artists in 23 countries for “mini-apprentice­ships” of four to seven days. You cover your lodging and meals, then spend four hours or so a day cutting out leather shadow puppets in Malaysia or sewing denim jackets in a Los Angeles design studio. And ACE Camps (acecamps travel.com) take groups of 10 to 16 people on retreats spanning five to 11 days and focused on, for example, batik in Swaziland or flower arranging and pottery throwing in southern Japan.

Here are some places you can exercise your creativity as well as your curiosity.

Lao weaving and dyeing

This fiber-arts center employs weavers and dyers from nearby villages who teach batik, basket making, silk weaving and other traditiona­l crafts, including some aimed at kids. Courses run from half a day (dyeing a cotton napkin) to three days (weaving an ikat scarf ). The five-room Mekong Villa offers lodgings.

Ock Pop Tok

Luang Prabang, Laos; ockpoptok.com

Indian block printing

Visitors to Bagru, India, will see vibrantly colored woodblock-print textiles drying in the sun in a giant communal field, as has happened for centuries in this textile hub. Studio Bagru holds workshops demonstrat­ing how artisans chisel teak into intricate blocks, then painstakin­gly use them to stamp patterns on cotton using natural dyes. Students then imprint scarves, shawls or bags with patterns.

Studio Bagru

Jaipur, Rajasthan; studiobagr­u.com

Moroccan pottery making

Fifteen minutes outside central Marrakesh, Beldi Country Club, a Kasbah-style hotel and garden complex, has small glass-blowing and pottery-making workshops spinning out the region’s trademark candyhued tagines and teacups. In the pottery shop, kids and adults get messy turning clay pots, cups or bowls on the wheel.

Beldi Country Club

Cherifia, Marrakesh, Morocco; beldicount­ryclub.com/en

Appalachia­n mountain crafts

This school and arts space, in a bucolic setting about a two-hour drive from Chattanoog­a, Tennessee, or Asheville, North Carolina, opened in 1925 to preserve Appalachia­n folk crafts. More than 860 weeklong or weekend classes in subjects as varied as “Sweetgrass Baskets” and “Forging an Axe” are taught by acclaimed craftspeop­le.

John C. Campbell Folk School Brasstown, North Carolina; folkschool.org

Macrame and more

Do all current design trends — the return of macrame hangings, pots of succulents — originate in Los Angeles? Maybe, and students can learn how to do these and other crafts at Makers Mess, which holds classes in a slick storefront. Participan­ts scoot an Eames chair up to a long wooden table for instructio­n in producing marbled clay coasters, felted pet portraits, leather sandals and, yes, macrame.

Makers Mess

Los Angeles; makersmess.com

American glass making

In a bright, industrial-chic workshop at this New York museum, adults and kids 4 and older can try glass blowing, etching and fusing. Slip on safety goggles for highly supervised classes at one of the world’s largest showplaces for glass, where students turn out a pendant, a picture frame or even a wineglass.

Corning Museum of Glass Corning, New York; cmog.org

 ?? OCK POP TOCK ?? Students at Ock Pop Tock in Luang Prabang, Laos, learn to spin and weave silk with experience­d local craftspeop­le.
OCK POP TOCK Students at Ock Pop Tock in Luang Prabang, Laos, learn to spin and weave silk with experience­d local craftspeop­le.
 ?? MAKERS MESS ??
MAKERS MESS

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