Modular journeys through design, craft, movement, and place — created to reconnect you with your creative self.
These aren't your typical craft retreats—they're creative escapes years in the making. After countless journeys across Latin America connecting with artisans, collaborating with designers, and discovering how handmade practices capture the essence of culture, I've designed something special: immersive experiences through Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Argentina where you'll explore crafts, design, creation, connection and more while actually reconnecting with what makes you creative in the first place.
Escape
We're talking hands-on learning in local studios, conversations with makers who'll inspire you in unexpected ways, movement practices that get you out of your head, sensorial journeys and the kind of travel that feeds your soul. Whether you're a designer looking for fresh inspiration or a craft lover ready to dive deeper, or just an explorer, these journeys blend making, moving, exploring, and connecting into something that feels less like a workshop and more like coming home to your creative self.
Upcoming Creative Escapes
Studio Iken Creative Escapes are built in chapters.
We begin in cities — places of ideas, design, and cultural exchange — before stepping outward into slower landscapes where craft, material, and movement reconnect you to your creative rhythm.
Each journey can stand alone or unfold into a creative extension, allowing space for inspiration to deepen into experience.
Our ethos:
Craft as culture — not commodity
Creativity as embodied practice — not output
Travel as relationship — not consumption
-
Guatemala City: & Antigua: Design & Context
Duration: 4 days / 3 nights
Energy: Intellectual, contemporary, connective
Focus: Contemporary design, material innovation, cultural context.
Day Highlights
Design studios and creative collectives
Conversations on heritage vs modernity
Architecture + material observation walks
Short hands-on session (textile or material-based)
Movement + reflection integrated daily
-
Antigua → Lake Atitlán: Textile & Embodiment (Creative Extension)
Duration: 4–5 days
Energy: Slower, embodied, relational
Focus: Backstrap weaving, natural dyes, ritual, rhythm.
Structure
Antigua (2 days): ateliers, form, observation, creative slowing
Lake Atitlán (2–3 days): weaving immersion, water-based reflection, integration practices
This is where meaning lands in the body.
-
Duration: 4 days / 3 nights
Energy: Sharp, thoughtful, exploratory
Focus: Craft as concept, identity, and social practice.
Day Highlights
Designer and artisan collectives
Museum + archive visits + show
Conversations on authorship and value
Experimental hands-on session
Urban movement + perception practices
-
Duration: 3 days
Energy: Grounded, intimate
Focus: Fiber traditions, slower production rhythms, integration.
Structure
Fique, Paper, Workshop visits
Nature walks + reflection
Small group dialogue
This is where texture and experimental processes come together at a slower pace.
-
This Creative Escape begins in Mexico City, where contemporary design, material culture, and creative experimentation collide. Through curated studio visits, conversations with designers, and embodied practices, you’ll reconnect with creativity as a way of seeing and sensing.
The journey can then deepen through an optional clay immersion just beyond the city, where hands-on ceramic work and slower rhythms invite creativity to settle into the body.
Duration
City Anchor: 4 days / 3 nights
Energy
Urban, stimulating
Focus
Contemporary design, material culture, embodied creativity
Highlights
Design studios and material archives in Mexico City
Architecture, Photography
Guided creative, sensory and perception walks
Movement, reflection, and group dialogue
-
From Mexico City, the journey can then deepen through an optional clay immersion, where hands-on ceramic work and slower rhythms invite creativity to settle into the body.
Duration
City Anchor: 4 days / 3 nights
Clay Extension: +3 days / 2 nights
Full journey: 7 days
Energy
Urban, stimulating → grounded, tactile
Highlights
Design studios and material archives in Mexico City
Introductory ceramic workshop
Guided creative perception walks
Hands-on clay immersion in a ceramic village
Movement, reflection, and group dialogue
This is where you reconnect with your hands, the material, and feel the culture and tradition of ancestral art.
-
MODULE 1 — Buenos Aires: Design, Identity & Craft (City Anchor)
Duration: 4–5 days
Energy: Cultural, reflective, expressive
Focus: Design authorship, textiles, leather, narrative.
Day Highlights
Fashion and textile studios
Leather workshops
Conversations on identity and making
Urban movement + somatic practice
Group dialogue on creative direction
Buenos Aires is rich and layered — it deserves time.
MODULE 2 — Patagonia: Wool, Land & Integration (Creative Extension)
Duration: 5 days
Energy: Quiet, expansive, transformative, infinite landscapes
Focus: Wool, land-based making, integration.
Structure
Travel south together
Wool and textile work
Nature immersion (walking, silence, reflection)
Closing integration circle
FAQs
-
Not at all! Our escapes welcome everyone, from curious beginners to experienced makers. The local artisans we work with have a beautiful way of teaching that meets you exactly where you are. Craft has a lovely way of bringing people together—you'll find common ground with fellow travelers, regardless of your experience level.
-
These aren't just workshops—they're creative adventures built on years of relationships with local artisans in Mexico, Guatemala Chile, and Argentina. You'll spend time with makers in their own spaces, learn about traditional crafts and practices while experiencing the culture, its people and landscapes that inspire their work. It's intimate, intentional travel that connects you to something deeper—both in the craft and beyond.
-
Our travelers are curious, open-hearted, open-minded people who want to travel with meaning. Some are artists and makers; others have never tried crafts before. Many travel solo and are here to connect. What connects everyone is a desire to learn and process with their hands, connect across cultures, and return home with new ideas. Our escapes welcome anyone 35 and older who's ready for this kind of journey.
-
We intentionally keep groups small and intimate—usually 6 to 10 people. This means you'll have meaningful time to connect, create, and share. Small groups create the kind of closeness that makes these journeys more special and flexible.
-
We want your trip to be exceptional, but also flexible. To that point, we include all visits, workshops and most meals but leave accomodation aside to meet your budget for the City escape only. We are happy to support you with recommendations, but feel everyone has different budget and we do not want accommodation costs to impede you from joining a City trip.
We leave it to you to set your budget and organize:International airfare, travel insurance (required), Accomodation, alcoholic beverages, personal spending money for shopping and optional activities, and tips for guides and artisans.
-
A 50% deposit secures your spot and helps us prepare the experience. The remaining balance is due two months before departure, but you can also pay anytime before that. If you need special payment arrangements, just reach out—we're happy to help.
-
Yes! We want you to feel free to create, rest, journal, or practice what you've learned—whatever feels right. You're always welcome to skip an activity if you need solo time. This balance of togetherness and freedom is part of what makes these journeys nourishing.
-
The answer is YES, we’d love to help you develop a human-centered, ethical supply chain that fits your specific needs. We offer this as a custom service. Just get in touch: sabrina@studio-iken.com
While our creative escapes focus on craft & cultural immersion, we also design bespoke sourcing trips for brands and retailers ready to build human-centered, ethical supply chains. Whether you're looking for a private journey tailored to your specific interests, need help connecting with artisans for your business, or want to source unique handmade products from Latin America, we'd love to help. Our deep relationships with local maker communities and years of experience in this region mean we can create something truly tailored for you. Get in touch and let's talk about what you're dreaming up.