Glenmore Square Branch

Christina won the Eco-Journal

Our second to last Inspired Journal session based on the Book of Awesome was held on Thursday at the Glenmore Square Branch tucked away in the corner of a small shopping mall. The group was lively and enthusiastic and jumped right in trying out some new found hand lettering skills and decorating their pages.

Glenmore Square Branch

Our final session of the Inspired Journals will be held next Saturday, November 24 at the Thornhill Branch  from 10:30 - 12:00. Sign up on line at the Calgary Public Library. 

The Book of Awesome - Inspired Art Journals

We've completed two of the four sessions of Inspired Art Journals at the Calgary Public Library for the One Book, One Calgary programs based on The Book of Awesome by Canadian author Neil Pasricha.

The first was at the newly opened Bowness branch in the NW and the Southwood branch in the SW. Participants were shown a number of mixed media techniques to decorate their journals and discovered that with a few white dots and some black dashes that their own handwriting was quite cool! We also wowed them with heat embossing with embossing powders and our industrial strength heat guns! Fortunately we didn't set off the fire alarms this time!

Bowness Library

Southwood Library

There are still two sessions of Inspired Art Journals remaining. November 15 at Glenmore Square and November 24 at Thornhill. You can register at the Calgary Public Library site.

Each participant is given a wonderful journal courtesy of the Calgary Public Library. For a $12 per year library membership fee these adult programs are a real bargain!

Arts Club @ the Library

Jan and I have just returned from the Saturday Arts Club at the Central Library in downtown Calgary where we gave a 2 hour workshop called Mixed Media Madness. A small, but enthusiastic group of participants learned to paint canvas boards with a credit card, use rubber stamps, embossing powder and a heat gun, and embellish their canvas with a mixture of die cuts, tissue napkins and buttons, all adhered with a healthy dollop of Mod Podge. Our theme for the session was Nature.

Many thanks to Candace at the library for all her help. Candace even dove in and started on a panel for herself. Thanks also to Scott Gerlitz, Financial Adviser for Edward Jones Financial for being our very first Patron of the Arts and giving FOG a grant to purchase art supplies for these sessions at the library.

Arts Club Participants and Their Finished Canvas

Encaustic Update

As promised last week, some photos of the encaustic projects we worked on at our last FOG session. Arlene took the more painterly approach and the rest of us did mixed media collage. As you can see our styles are quite different. I'm sure that there are more projects in the works.

Untitled - Jan S.

Untitled - Arlene W.E.

Serenity - Meredith H.

Just a Little Cog - Diane D.

We Were Smokin' on Tuesday!

Our October meeting came and went so quickly but we had a great time trying our hand at Encaustic Mixed Media. Despite all the safeguards we put into place, windows and doors open for ventilation, the stove hood fan and table fan on, location of the fire extinguisher, we still managed to set off the smoke detectors!

We called the building manager to say that we had NOT set the place on fire and would she come to turn off the alarm for us. She was very nice about it all and has even offered us a locked cupboard to store our items.

Encaustic - a very interesting addition to collage mixed media. An old process brought up-to-date and finding its way into a new generation of mixed media artists. While we all still have lots to learn about it - mainly working out of doors on a nice day - I think that we all agreed that we liked the process.

I was most intrigued that you could put rub-on decals, Letraset letters and foil accents directly onto the wax.

Photos to follow...

Calgary Public Library Sessions

In a previous post I promised that I would update everyone on a fun series of Mixed Media and Art Journaling sessions that Jan and I will be facilitating for the Calgary Public Library in November.

The first Saturday of November we will offer Mixed Media Madness as part of the ongoing Arts Club offered by the library on Saturdays at the Central Library Branch downtown.

During November we are leading workshops on Inspired Art Journals at 4 city libraries based on the One Book, One Calgary event hosted by the library each year. Our Mixed Media and Journaling techniques will be based on The Book of Awesome, the One Book, One Calgary selection for 2012.

EcoJournals a Success!

In the previous post we mentioned our involvement at the EcoLiving Fair using recycled materials to make a denim covered art journal.

Those who attended had a great time creating and it was gratifying to see that our project was a success.