THE QUEEN'S STUDIO RETREAT

Ceramics · Ecoprinting · Pen and Liquid Watercolour · Bookbinding ·
Il Baciarino, Tuscany

May 21 - 30 OR
September 3 -12, 2027

Most creative retreats teach you a technique. This one asks a different question.

Not what can you make, but what do you actually want to say. Not which medium suits you best, but what happens when you stop asking the work to be impressive and simply let it be yours.

The Queen's Studio Retreat is ten days of making across four media — ceramics, ecoprinting, pen and liquid watercolour, and bookbinding — woven together in a way that lets each one inform the others. The mark you make with a pen finds its way into the surface of a bowl. The colour you pull from a leaf shows up in the way you mix a wash. The book you bind at the end of the week becomes the place you keep the record of everything you made.

The seven practices of The Queen's Studio run underneath all of it — not as a separate programme, not as a schedule of morning meditations, but as the subtext of the making itself. Or perhaps the making is the subtext of the practices. After ten days, you may not be entirely sure which way around it goes. That is the point.

The Making

The four media are not taught in sequence. They weave. A morning of throwing on the wheel might lead to an afternoon of ecoprinting cloth that will line the inside of the book you are making. A session with pen and liquid watercolour might change how you think about glazing. The connections are not forced — they emerge, which is what happens when you give a creative mind enough time and enough material to find its own direction.

Ceramics — throwing, hand-building, and surface work. We make pieces that are personal rather than functional, though they may be both. The focus is on what the clay wants to say rather than on technical mastery, though the teaching is rigorous.

Ecoprinting — bundling leaves into silk and linen, working with the plants growing on and around Il Baciarino. The science is taught because understanding what is happening in the bundle is part of what makes the practice feel like yours rather than like following a recipe.

Pen and liquid watercolour — working directly on paper and on cloth, finding the line that belongs to you. No drawing experience required. The only requirement is willingness to put something on the page without knowing in advance whether it will be right.

Bookbinding — simple, elegant structures that become the containers for the week's work. You leave with a bound book that holds the record of what you made, what you noticed, and what you want to make next.

The Queen's Studio Workbook

Every participant receives a copy of The Queen's Studio: Seven Practices for Claiming Your Creative Reign — included in the price of the retreat. The workbook is a companion to the ten days, and the ten days are a companion to the workbook. They were built together and they play well together.

Who This Retreat Is For

Anyone. That is not a hedge — it is the most accurate answer.

The Queen's Studio Retreat is genuinely open to makers at any level of experience across any or all of the four media. You do not need to be a potter, an ecoprinter, an artist, or someone who has ever bound a book.

What you do need is to be a woman who is ready. Ready to stop putting the creative life last. Ready to find out — or remember — what it feels like to make something that is entirely yours, in a place that has been designed to make that possible.

This retreat was built for the woman who has been listening to the In the Studio podcast and thinking: yes, but what would it actually look like to live this way for ten days? It is the answer to that question. Not a workshop. Not a course. Ten days of finding out what you are capable of when someone gives you the time, the materials, the teaching, and the table to do it at.

Come as you are. Leave as someone who makes things.

A Typical Day

Mornings in the studio — moving between media, following what is alive that day. The pace is unhurried but the days are full. There is always more to try than there is time to try it, which is as it should be.

Afternoons sometimes given to the life around the making — the beach, the olive grove, the hill towns of the Maremma. The sea is twenty minutes away. The hot tub is closer.

Evenings at the table. The food at Il Baciarino is as much a part of the retreat as the studio time. We eat well, we talk about what we made and what we noticed, and we go to bed with our hands still slightly stained and our minds still slightly turning.

2027 Dates and Price

May 21–30, 2027
September 3–12, 2027

€2,600 per person — all inclusive. This covers all tuition, all materials and tools across all four media, a copy of The Queen's Studio workbook, all meals and drinks, all day trips and cultural excursions, and pick-up and drop-off from Grosseto train station.

Accommodation is separate. See below for options and pricing.

Accommodation

All accommodation is on the property at Il Baciarino. There are five cottages available for retreat participants, each with its own character.

La Pesca sits at the top of the property with a large deck and an open main living area. It sleeps four across two levels — each of the four bedrooms has its own charms and are individually priced from €540 to €720 for the nine nights.

La Medea (€990), La Dolce Vita (€1260), La Quercia (€1260), and La Rondine (€1320) are smaller cottages suited to those who want more privacy.

Partners, plus-ones, and families are welcome if you take a cottage to yourself. Additional costs for food and excursions: €1,600.

Before booking I recommend spending time with the Il Baciarino website and Instagram — it is the kind of place that sells itself once you see it.

To Book

Write to me directly at chandra.l.rice@gmail.com with the subject line Queen's Studio Retreat 2027 and your preferred dates. I will hold a place for you and we can sort the details from there.

This retreat fills quietly and quickly — the women who find it tend to know immediately that it is for them. If that is you, write soon.