Casa Julfa

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We are a newly registered french association Loi 1901 (not for profit organization) dedicated to supporting international contemporary artists.

14/10/2026

Wood firing has become one of the most important parts of my personal practice and one of my favourite things to share at Casa Julfa.
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I love the unpredictability of the fire and the way it leaves its marks on the clay. It humbles me every time as I reminded that however much experience you have, there’s always something you can’t control.
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But wood firing asks a lot. Of time, energy, materials and attention. And with our summers becoming longer and drier, finding the right conditions to fire is increasingly complicated.
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I’ve decided that I won’t be offering wood firing as an add-on to individual residencies anymore.
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Partly for practical reasons, but more importantly because it’s something very dear to me, and I want to keep it that way. I don’t want it to become another service to fit into an already busy calendar.
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Instead, I’ll be keeping wood firing for a small number of occasions when we can give it the time and attention it deserves.
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Next year, there will be two opportunities to join us:

Ancestral Ceramics: The Language of Fire
With Re Jin Lee
15–20 April 2027
&
Earth Magic
With Blue Firth
16–21 September 2027

Both at Casa Julfa, in Montmorillon, France.

Details of both retreats are available through the link in my bio.

Photographs by ella gradwell and Material Research

13/10/2026

This is your official invitation to come some magic with me and Blue 🔮
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All these beautiful images are by ella gradwell

13/10/2026

Our Luna 🌝appartement perched high in the attic ~ 📸 sarahvictoriabates ❤️

12/10/2026

One of my favourite photographs of my studio at the front of Casa Julfa, taken by dearest ella gradwell radwell a few of years ago.

A cupboard full of things I’ve made, things I’ve collected, things I’m working on and things I might need one day and beautiful things that I made with Dohm Ceramics.

Nothing quite matches, nothing is particularly perfect, and somehow everything belongs. It’s probably the most accurate portrait anyone has ever taken of me !

11/10/2026

I spent years thinking a residency meant communal living.
What I actually wanted was my own apartment, my own rhythm and my own work, knowing there were other people making and thinking nearby.
And outside the door, a beautiful old town with exactly enough cafés, restaurants, shops and life to stop you feeling isolated…
but not enough to distract you from why you came.

10/10/2026

A little spotlight on my dear friend and Casa Julfa & Terra Ancestral residency curator, Blue Firth of Dohm Ceramics about her relationship with magic, reminding us that it can exist in the smallest, most ordinary gestures.
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At the end of this month, Blue and I will be hosting Earth Magic together at Casa Julfa.
From 29 October to 3 November, we’ll be working with wild clay, making our own magical and ritual objects, exploring the relationship between earth and magic, and finishing with a moonlit wood firing.
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There is one remaining place available, and we’d love you to join us.

All the details are on the Casa Julfa website www.casajulfa.org

08/10/2026

When I started imagining what I wanted Casa Julfa to be, I wasn’t just thinking about studios or somewhere to sleep.

I was thinking about the kind of days I wanted to have.

Waking up in a beautiful old apartment, making coffee in a kitchen where even the most ordinary objects have been chosen with care.

Wandering into the studio whenever I felt like it. Knowing there were other people making, writing and thinking nearby, but having absolutely no obligation to spend my days with them.

Going to the Wednesday market, buying something lovely for lunch from someone who knows my face. Stopping for a coffee. Walking through the old streets. Coming back to whatever I was working on.

I wanted a town with just enough life in it. Cafés, restaurants, little shops, a market, places to wander. But not so much that I would constantly be pulled away from what I’d come to do.

And I wanted my own front door to close whenever I needed it to.

05/10/2026

I love it when residents pick up on all the details that made me fall in love with here.
Casa Julfa and surrounds by April resident courtney cho | 曹文心
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60 year-old silkscreened wallpapers and
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Organic local flowers by grown right in the centre of town La folie fleurie, Montmorillon
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the dog opposite the studio who likes to sunbathe.
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Everything from the local patisserie.
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to the local flea markets and village fetes (making sure all the chess pieces are there before buying )
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The weekly wednesday market where our town comes to life.
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The eclectic épicerie downstairs at the Casa selling delights collected from all over the world.

04/10/2026

As this endless summer of joy finally gives way to Autumn there is a little bit of my brain that is able to start thinking about how there is so much I want to share with you about life around the casa over the past few months
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For now these images on film by sebitmin in early June give you a taste of this magical hazy summer in Montmorillon, finding wild clay whilst wild swimming, stroking lazy cats and making in the most honest way.

04/09/2026

I’ve long stopped trying to make my life and work understandable to everyone else.
The less I do, the more useful the things I create seem to become to other people.
Casa Julfa is probably the best example of this.
I created the kind of place I had spent years looking for and couldn’t find.
Not quite a tradtional residency. Not quite a retreat. Not quite a holiday. A place where you can take yourself and whatever it is you’ve been longing to work on.
Hundreds of people from all over the world have now found their way here.
Some come to start the book they’ve been talking about writing for years.
Some finally make the body of work they haven’t been able to find space for in ordinary life.
Some arrive with absolutely no idea what they’re going to do.
And increasingly, I’ve realised that perhaps what I am good at isn’t following an established blueprint at all.
It’s creating the experiences I wish existed, putting them out into the world, and seeing who else was waiting for them too.
Friends and family sometimes tell me I’m brave for living and working this way.
But honestly, I just can’t do it the other, linear way.
And the less I pretend I can, the better I seem to get at making spaces and experiences that deeply touch people.
All these incredible photos are by sarahvictoriabates in and around Casa Julfa during our retreat with Bug Clothing .

Adresse

1 Rue Grand Mont
Montmorillon
86500

Site Web

http://www.casajulfa.org/

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