Fun on the U of A Mall!

Hello everyone! I want to talk about the two wonderful workshops I have attended so far this semester. My group's community workshop is coming up on Tuesday on the mall from 11am until 1pm. We will decorate recycled bottlecaps to use in our big collaborative art piece for the annual BICAS Art Auction, so if you would like to take part in this please join us! Our group is working hard to finish gathering all materials needed, and we are all very excited!

On Tuesday, October 18th I attended a great worshop facilitated by my peers in class. I really enjoyed creating bike bags out of picnic table cloth. I never thought about using this fabric before for anything other than a table cloth or a tarp, but it was a great choice for this project because it was easy so to work with. It was effortless to run the needle and thread through and was pretty strong. I sat on a wall by a busy sidewalk and greeted the passers by. I found it difficult trying to talk to people about BICAS because many people seemed to be in a hurry. It was good though, because even when people could not stop and make the project they still learned information about BICAS and the auction. We ended up with a pretty good turn out of people interested in making a bag and learning more about BICAS. I loved the project instruction sheet the group constructed and I want to use a similar project in my art classes once I start teaching.

On Thursday, October 20th another group from class facilitated a different workshop which also took place on the U of A mall. We made coin purses and key chains using old bike intertubes. needles, thread, and other small bike parts. This material was a little more tricky to poke through with the needle, but the plus side was it was very strong! I sat in my same spot from the other day and attempted to talk to people, but I found the same challenges as on Tuesday, in fact most people seemed to be in more of a hurry than on Tuesday. That is alright though, because we seemed to have a lot of interest in the art project. I fell in love with my little change purse. I used "rasta" colors for my thread, and a huge bolt for my clasp. It was difficult to donate my work to BICAS, but I am so glad I did because just minutes after I placed it up on the table for show, somebody was interested in purchasing it! That felt great! I noticed that the woman who bought it was wearing the same rasta colors that day and the purse was a perfect match. She decided to add a big flower to the purse and I felt proud that my art work possibly inspired creativity in another person. I wish I had a picture of the purse or the booth to post, but unfortunately I need to borrow a camera. I plan on taking plenty of pictures during my group's workshop next Tuesday.
Overall I feel the first two workshops were extremely successful! We spread the word about BICAS and had fun creating art together. What a wonderful experience!