Retreat details
Following the beautiful response to our first arts retreat in spring, we are hosting another 2 weeks of creativity, rest and conscious play in the valley this September.
As the season begins to shift, this retreat is an invitation to slow down before autumn arrives. To reconnect with creativity outside of productivity. To make with your hands, move your body gently, share meals, rest deeply and rediscover a more playful relationship with yourself and the world around you
Through daily somatic practice, reflective journalling and creative expression, we explore how awareness shapes both our inner and outer worlds. This week is about noticing how we move and play, what we gather and create, and how we leave our imprint.
The Visual Journal
The retreat will begin with a journal-binding workshop guided by Aissa, where each participant will create a personal space to hold sketches, reflections, collected fragments and observations from the week. This journal will accompany you throughout the retreat as a record of your inner and outer landscape. The making process will be guided by Eloïse and Ana, holding space for curiosity and personal expression.
Ceramics: Creating a Ritual Vessel
During the week, we will explore ceramics as a millennia-old creative practice. Ana will show you how to handbuild your own ceramic vessel and paint a personal altar piece, adorned with forms, textures and symbols that emerge naturally through the process.
Jewellery & Silversmithing
Using the ancient lost wax technique, we will design and carve a small wax amulet in the form of a pendant or a ring, inspired by personal symbols, pieces of the valley, memories or intentions. These miniature wax sculptures will later be cast into silver.
For those wishing to explore traditional silversmithing techniques like forging and soldering, an optional forged silver ring workshop will be available as an additional one-on-one session.
Optional Extras
There will also be plenty of space for stillness and spontaneity: slow mornings, shared conversations, river swims, afternoon tea, reading in the gardens and evenings gathered around nourishing vegetarian and vegan meals prepared with care.
To deepen your experience, additional massage treatments and Ayurvedic consultations will be available to book throughout your retreat.
Optional creative sessions may also be booked: a wheel-throwing pottery workshop (2 people per session), a cooking class with the Chef, or a one-to-one pendant wax carving workshop with Eloïse.
These offerings are designed to allow you to shape your retreat experience — adding rest, exploration or further creative immersion as you feel called.
What’s included
Morning somatic movement posture practice
Afternoon Ceramics workshops with Ana
Afternoon Jewellery workshop with Eloïse
Journal Binding Workshop with Aissa
3 freshly prepared, nourishing vegan/vegetarian meals daily
5 nights accommodation in stone cottages or Glamping belle tents
Ayurvedic consultation
Trip to the Rio Zêzere for wild swimming
Transportation to and from Oleiros
Your Team
Ana Magro, Ceramic Artist
Eloïse Winter, Artist - Translator
Ana Magro
Ana is a ceramic artist whose work centres on presence, material sensitivity, and the quiet dialogue between hand and clay. She began her practice in 2018, developing a deep connection to wheel throwing and a respect for technical precision grounded in repetition and care.
After working within studio communities in Manchester, she returned to Portugal, where she now creates small-batch functional ceramics inspired by Portuguese and Japanese pottery traditions, interpreted through a contemporary and organic lens.
Ana also facilitates clay workshops that focus on attention, touch, and process rather than outcome. She guides participants through simple making practices that encourage slowing down, observing closely, and working with care. Balancing technical structure with openness, she creates a supportive space where people can reconnect with their hands, their creativity, and their immediate environment.
Eloïse Grace Winter
Eloïse is an artist-translator of Bajan and English descent, raised in rural Portugal, whose practice weaves together silversmithing, linguistics, illustration, and collective gathering. Through their work, they seek to translate and invite the magic of the natural and the spiritual into the continuous present, through adornment and collective care.
An interest in social and artistic practices motivates the creation, curation, and facilitation of various community projects, forest retreats, events, exhibitions, and creative directions. Since 2021, they have worked with the arts collective The Blacker The Berry Project, as the first and current Head of Safer Spaces.
Writing is an integral part of their practice. Moving between poetry, creative and asemantic writing, exploring language as a material flexible in meaning and in purpose. Their asemantic writing functions as a visual and intuitive form of illustration, inspiring the symbolic emphasis present in their jewellery.
Travelling to us
We are located approximately 2.5 hours from both Lisbon and Porto and accessible by car, with a number of hire options available in both cities. For those looking to travel by public transport, we recommend travelling via Lisbon for the early morning 7am coach to our local town of Oleiros (Tickets available one month in advance from Rede Expressos bus services ) where we’ll pick you up for the short drive to the retreat. You’ll arrive in time for breakfast on Monday morning.
If driving here, check in anytime after 10am. At the end of the week, everyone departs early Saturday morning for a buffet breakfast in a café in Oleiros before boarding the 8.15am bus to Lisbon or Porto.
Check in/outs and transportation outside of these times may be available at an additional cost, please contact admin@valedemoses.com to confirm.
Accommodation & Prices
Single bed in the Moses Cottage, Adega Cottage or Glamping Belle Tents - 800€
Double or Twin beds in farmhouse or Belle tent - 1,400€ for two people
Double bed in farmhouse or Belle tent for single occupancy - 950€
To stay for just a night or two during the retreat - 175€ per night
Children under 18 - half price. Children under 5 - stay for free
We ask for a 20% deposit to secure your place and if for any reason you can’t make it, we simply carry your deposit forward to any retreat with us in the next 3 years.
For group or family booking discounts or if you have any questions, please contact admin@valedemoses.com