Pasadena Pattern Keepers: Batchelder Nature In Relief Workshop – Birds

Batchelder Nature in Relief series (Photo – Pasadena Heritage)

Explore Pasadena Heritage archives on Saturday, January 17, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm with artist and community facilitator @_shagho (she/her) leads you into the motifs and movement of birds and the natural world as found in Batchelder’s tiles.

By Melanie Hooks

This is the second of three workshops exploring Ernest Batchelder’s ornamental legacy through nature’s hidden patterns. Tickets are available on Eventbrite for $39.19.

Starting with a brief discussion and field inspiration on local bird species with a guest from the Pasadena Audubon Society, participants will translate shapes, gestures, and textures into their own relief and surface designs using clay and found materials. Expect sketching, pattern exploration, and creative experiments that guide from observation to crafted motifs rooted in ornithological forms, culminating in a collaborative artistic project.

Eucalyptus seed pods crack into star forms, California live oak acorns nest in textured caps, and Anna’s hummingbird throats flash ruby coin-sized patches. These patterns wait for hands and found materials to bring them into new forms.

Working with local museums and heritage sites, participants will translate nature’s geometries into relief and surface design, encoding collective wishes about a more harmonious, abundant world. Each repeated motif becomes anticipatory consciousness—active projections reshaping reality through patient ornamental work.

This series of events is hosted to bring the community together to help Pasadena History Museum in compiling a registry of Batchelder tile installations throughout the United States and Canada, asking for assistance from the public to document for the first time the scope of the business and distribution of the tiles throughout North America.

Other Pasadena Heritage events can be explored at pasadenaheritage.org/events-tours.

Batchelder Nature in Relief - Birds Workshop
Saturday, January 17, 2026
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Location
Pasadena Heritage
160 North Oakland Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
Tickets: $39.19