The Desert Botanical Garden is offering eight individuals the chance to carve their own beautiful alabaster bowls during a field trip to Camp Verde.

Desert Botanical Garden members and non-members alike are invited to sign up for this workshop, which will take place on Saturday, June 26, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Participants will meet at the botanical garden and be transported to a serene art studio in the picturesque wilderness of Camp Verde, located approximately two hours from Central Phoenix.

Upon arriving, you’ll be treated to an organic continental breakfast in order to charge up for your day of creativity, and in the afternoon you’ll take another pause to enjoy an organic gourmet lunch. While there, artists and alabaster masters Susan Zalkind and Paul Hawkins will guide you in carving a beautiful alabaster bowl, yours to keep at the end of the workshop. This is sure to be a unique experience, and the trip will be limited to eight people in order to keep the setting peaceful and intimate, as well as to optimize your one-on-one instruction with the master artists.

Alabaster, which is a name shared by a handful of mineral varieties, has been used since ancient times to create exquisite works of art, including vases, architectural details, and lovely sculptures of people and animals. The varieties can range in color, from white and off-white to a sandy color, to pink, to green, to a very rare black, but they are all beautiful.

Cost for the workshop is $350 per person for DBG members, $420 per person for non-members. Reserve your place here.

The Desert Botanical Garden is located at 1201 N. Galvin Parkway in Phoenix  480.941.1225

Note: The bowl pictured above is not meant to be an exact representation of the bowls to be crafted in the Camp Verde class.