On The Road Again

Throughout this process, the grant group has been through many options we could potentially work toward, but with difficulty in communication and gaining insight into BICAS, we are now working toward writing a grant where funds will flow directly to the next Community, Culture, and Art Education class. These funds will aid the next class in developing and putting on workshops for BICAS.

Here is the list of supplies the other two groups came up with as needs with some of the prices found:

JEWELRY SUPPLIES
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WIRE (silver and copper
o Beadalon Satin Series Stringing Wire, Bright (Walmart.com) $9.99
o Soft Flex Beading Wire – Satin Silver (.014” dia.) (Target.com) $9.99
o Soft Flex Beading Wire – Copper (.014” dia.) (Target.com) $10.89
FINDINGS (pin broaches, earring wire, clasps
o Westrim 6/0 Bead Box Set E Beads – 192gr/Multi (Joann.com) $9.99
o Darice 1-1/4” Pins – 44pk/Nickel-Plated (Joann.com) $2.99
o Darice Toggle Clasps – 6pk/Nickel (Joann.com) $2.99
TOOLS
o Westrim Jewelry Pliers Mini Tool 5-Piece Set (Walmart.com) $11.99
o 6-Piece Craft & Jewelry Tool Kit 6-Piece Craft & Jewelry Tool Kit (Walmart.com) $19.99
*3 pairs of pliers / tweezer/scoop tool / flush cutter / bead reamer *

PRINTING SUPPLIES
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SCREEN PRINTING SUPPLIES ( ink and screens)
RELIEF PRINTING SUPPLIES (blocks / cutting tools / ink)

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
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FLYERS (design, paper, printing)
ADVERTISING (ads in local newspapers to promote workshops)
THANK YOU’S (cards / envelopes)
PRINTING (printing costs / xerox / advertising)

BASICS
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PAPER
MARKERS
o Assorted Sharpie 12 pk. -Fine Point (Target.com) $15.99
CRAYONS
o Crayola 832-Count Regular Size Crayon Classpack, 64 Colors (Walmart.com) $44.98
GLUE
SCISSORS
o Westcott Pointed Tip Scissors with Microban, 12 Pack (Walmart.com) $19.00
o Westcott Preferred Line Steel Scissors, 8” Length, 3-1/2” Cut (Walmart.com) $9.90
CLIPBOARDS
o Saunders Plastic Clipboard, ½” Capacity, Holds 8-1/2w x 12h (Walmart.com) $6.90
THREAD
o Janlynn Cotton Embroidery Floss Jumbo Value Pack (Walmart.com) $14.99
*105 skeins of 100% cotton embroidery floss/ 37 different colors of 8.75 yard 6-strand skeins*
NEEDLES
BUTTONS
BEADS
FABRIC (felt)

We are now taking the items on this list to create an itemized list of items to include in the grant.
Megan and I were both originally involved in creating documentation to help BICAS follow up on grants that could potentially help their eligibility for future grants. We are now going to switch gears and create that documentation plan for this grant instead.

We are on the right track and I am excited to see where this grant will lead!

Mobile/Mall Workshop Reflection

Last Friday Emma, Michelle and I had our Mobile workshop. To prepare to facilitate the workshop I came in on Thursday to create my own hanging wind chime mobile. When I was creating the mobile, I found that the overall tying and bending of wires was very tedious and tiring. I was a little worried that if any kids came, they wouldn't be able to make a mobile very easilly. It is a very labor intensive process. When it was completed, however, I was satisfied with how my mobile came out.

On Friday, Emma and I met at BICAS at 1:30 to go over logistics. We decided to both discuss the different techniques of mobile making and breifly discuss what one should consider when making a mobile. Balance and weight were a major factor in the effectiveness of the mobile. Aescetically, the mobiles looked better with minimum wire and fishing line. Afterwards we set up for the workshop. Fortunately, Michelle brought some extra wire in the clutch!

Overall, I think the workshop was successful. Despite the fact that we started a little late, I think everybody had a really good time. I enjoyed working with Valerie's son. He had a little trouble tying knots and bending the wire, so I had to assist him but I didn't mind. I feel like these workshops are trial and error and it could go either way. I know he had fun regardless so I wasn't too worried.

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The Mall Workshop on Tuesday. I, also, found that this workshop ran a lot smoother then the other. There was a lot more solicitation going on and more people coming up to the table. I had planned on posting some solicitation statistics to see how we could improve mall workshops in the future with tally sheets that our class could give back to me before they left. Unfortunately, I only got 3 tally records back.

I thought that the real success at the Mall Workshop was the workshop in itself. More people were interested then in the first, which baffles me considering we didn't even have a tent. What I really enjoyed was that the UANews reporter was truly interested in what we were doing. It is great that our class got an interview set up with her. That will probably give us the most publicity for the Art Auction, and the community class in general.

Process

On Friday morning I met with Michelle, Jessie, and Erin to create thank you cards for the artist’s who donated work to the BICAS auction. Our plan was to make post cards out of index cards with rubber block printed designs on the front. I have never done block printing before and did not feel creative enough to make my own block to print. I ended up printing “thank you” blocks that Casey had lent us to use. After Michelle’s demo of how a print is made, we rapidly began printing. We quickly realized that the “thank you” block I was printing was a little too plane and impersonal, so Michelle carved a bike wheel block as the rest of us continued printing. Then we placed the wheel between the “thank” and the “you” and the cards looked great! I think it was a great idea for use to make these cards for the artist’s, and hopefully it will encourage them to submit work again next year. It was a fun and easy thing that we did to help BICAS with little need of assistance or instruction from them. Hopefully we will be able to obtain the list of donators soon so we can begin to write the thank you notes and send them out shortly after the auction. Ihad fun learning this new technique!

Photos from the Green Up Your Wallet and Jewelry Mechanics workshops

Jewelry Mechanics

Friday, I taught my workshop. At first, no one showed up, so that was disappointing. Then about half way through, 3 people came, a mom and her 2 daughters. I felt kinda stressed trying to help the two young girls. I had to go back and forth between the two showing them what to do, and helping them do it. I also had to think on my toes of how to do the specific jewelry that they wanted to make. Over all, it was a very rewarding process and I had a lot of fun! I will post some pictures later tonight! :-D

MMM Money!

Radical Printmaking
Justseeds A Pittsburgh-based design collective brings together a group of North American artists to tackle various political issues through remarkable prints and design.

This week the Grant Writing Team gathered valuable information from the class about materials needed to make the workshops even more successful. It feels good to be supporting our own class and BICAS simultaneously! We've seen examples of successful grants that Marissa has composed, and we can use those as a guide when writing our own.

We are going to include monies for scholarships for workshops to kids that might not have the money to attend and subsidies to the instructors to make workshops more affordable. Now that we have a materials list, we can make a budget that is specific down to the dollar. We have to show how these funds will support Wells Fargo's philanthropic goals of supporting lower income neighborhoods so we might be able to use the statistics gathered from last year's grant team to highlight this. It seems like every year the grant teams build on the past work of the last year's team. If we keep this up, we can provide a guide for next year's teams to be even more successful!

Workshops, workshops, workshops

The last two weeks have been very busy. Last week Shantaye, Michelle and I had our mobile workshop. Michelle was a lot of help helping us gather information for the mobilesI went last Thursday to create a mobile before the workshop as an example. It was one of the first times I was able to simply hang out in the art area and look at all the parts. I was a little overwhelmed at first but as I walked around and started picking up the pieces I began to feel better. Soon I was able to put together pieces to make a mobile. The next day was the workshop. At first I was a little nervous because there wasn't a lot of people there. After a little a couple more people started to show up and we were lucky to have Dr. Garbers husband come and show us his bike art. He makes some amazing belts. Although there weren't a lot of people at the workshop I thought it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed watching everyone take different objects and put them together. Its interesting to see how people go about making art.

The next week was the mall workshop. On Monday I went to pick up the table and kit at BICAS. Casey was very excited to show me all the new art work that they were getting in and how the gallery was coming. You could see she was getting very excited about the auction although she also seemed a little nervous. I made a bracelet out of bike tubes that night and although it didn't come out that great it was definitely a good experience.

I thought the second mall workshop was a lot better then the first one. I thought we got a lot more attention from the people on the mall and a lot more people came and made art. I think overall it was a lot more successful then the last one. I think art auction group needs to sit down and look at what made this one work better. To me it just seemed like the day but maybe other people had other ideas.