We are exited to announce a second year of Student-Led Creative Workshop series. It’s a wonderful series of workshops established by the Learning Zone in collaboration with the Writing Learning Centre through the First Generation Program.

It’s an opportunity for students to develop valuable teaching experience while providing hands-on skill-building and community building for OCAD U students.

This year’s workshop line-up includes:

Arabic Calligraphy with Nabeela Malik, Monday October 23, 4 pm to 6 pm

Nabeela Malik will introduce basic techniques and words of Arabic Calligraphy letter forms. You will practice using brushes, ink and calligraphy pens, and by the end of the session you will be able to create and keep a word or phrase in Arabic. Examples of Arabic calligraphic art, sample words and phrases will be provided as a source of inspiration.

All materials will be provided.

Stop Motion Animation: Paper Puppets Workshop with Nikole Hidalgo Tuesday October 24, 4pm – 6 pm

This workshop will begin with building jointed paper puppets and then creating an animated short production using your puppet. Nikole Hidalgo will introduce paper animation techniques for creating backgrounds and other effects. Software will be used execute the animation process. You will have a rewarding experience making an animation using paper cutouts.

All materials will be provided. Students can bring photos and drawings to use as reference or as the basis of their puppet.

Needle-Felting Workshop with Sydney Madia, Thursday October 26, 4pm – 6pm

Sydney Madia will cover the tools, basic techniques and safety tips of needle-felting while taking you through a step-by-step creation of your own project. At the end of the workshop you will take home a small felted apple and a felting needle for future projects. Have another project in mind? You can create your own personal project while still learning from the demo.

All materials will be provided

Watercolour Sketchbook Bookbinding Workshop with Jazmin-Cordon-Ibanez, Tuesday October 31, 4pm – 6pm

Jazmin Cordon-Ibanez will demonstrate how to make a watercolour sketchbook using the kettle stitch method of bookbinding. You can customize you own creation.

All materials will be provided

Workshops are free and open to all current OCAD U students.

The OCAD Zine Library is a really great resource for anyone interested in getting into zine-making. When you’re new to the form there’s lots to consider, even if you already know what you’ll be putting on the pages — like how many copies will you make, and how will you print, bind, and distribute them? Although there are great books out there to guide you (and we’ve got two of them!), there’s nothing like handling some live samples to spark a good idea.

When it comes to binding, there’s lots of options ranging in style from crude to refined. Of course, which method you choose will probably depend on what tools and materials you have, how many copies you’re planning on making, how thick the zine will be, and what your intentions are with the finished piece. If you just want to share with your friends the comic you drew on a napkin last night, then you probably don’t want to spend more than a minute or two binding each copy, and the standard staple-in-the-middle (a.k.a. saddle stitch) will do you (assuming your stapler is long enough — and if it isn’t, just bring your stuff down to the Learning Zone and borrow our long reach!). On the other hand, if you’re making an artist catalogue, you might choose a binding that looks more finished and professional.

Five (Easy!) Ways to Bind a Book by Sharon

In addition to zines, the OCAD Zine Library includes two books about zine-making: Stolen Sharpie Revolution by Alex Wrekk and Make a Zine! by Bill Brent and Joe Biel. And we also have a zine about zine-binding! Five (Easy!) Ways to Bind Books lays out in short tutorials some of the most common binding methods: two which use scissors only (the 8-in-1 and 16-in-1), one using staples (saddle stitch), one using needle and thread (pamphlet stitch), and one using glue (perfect binding).

Right now in the Learning Zone we have a selection of zines on display that use the 8-in-1 method. This method is a long-time favourite in the zine community because it allows you to make a book-style zine from a single sheet of paper (that’s the “in-1” part) without having to print or copy on both sides; you also don’t need any staples or thread, although you do need to follow exact instructions about folding and cutting. The end result is a double-sided 8-page zine (there’s the “8” part). Most 8-in-1s are pretty small (an eighth the size of an A4), but you can make yours bigger by starting with a bigger sheet of paper. Depending on how much care you put into cutting and folding, you can go rough or elegant with it. And instead of leaving the second (hidden) side blank, you could use that space for a poster or hidden messages. Really, it’s a super customizable binding, constrained only by its length — but then, if 8 pages isn’t enough for you, maybe you’re ready for the next step up: 16-in-1! To find out about that, you’ll just have to come in and read the tutorial in Five (Easy!) Ways to Bind Books (call# I14XS).

So come on down and browse through our 8-in-1s! We’ve got fancy ones and messy ones, tiny ones and bigger ones, funny ones and serious ones — we’ve got all sorts! Right now we have some on display above the zine shelves, and some are hanging on the walls; but if you’re reading this after-the-fact, just mouse-over the images below for the call number, and that way you can find them anytime! (And, as always, if you need help finding something in the Learning Zone, just ask our friendly staff!)

A Small Sampling of the OCAD Zine Library’s 8-in-1 Zines

Wanna learn more about the OCAD Zine Library? Check out Zines for Lunch, the OCAD Zine Library blog! Wanna learn more about zine binding? Check out Bookbinding for Zines, a compendium of resources complied by Marta, the Learning Zone librarian!

A three-part Zine Workshop Series held at the Learning Zone concluded on February 13th with a Block Printing workshop lead by Marta Chudolinska, a multi-disciplinary artist and the Learning Zone Librarian.

Block Printing has been a significant part of Marta’s art practice as evident in her graphic novel Back + Forth: A Novel in 90 Linocuts.

Marta demonstrated her printmaking expertise in a three-hour workshop to fellow zinesters, using block printing techniques — carving by hand, rolling out the ink and printing on a variety of papers, ultimately creating some awesome linoleum relief prints.

Thanks to all of the participants and keep making zines!

For all you zinesters, the  Zine Workshop Series continues this Wednesday February 6th and 13th at 3 pm with a Screen-Printing Workshop in the Learning Zone.

Last Wednesday the Zine Workshop Series opened with a Bookbinding workshop presented by Marta Chudolinksa. Marta demonstrated DIY zine making bookbinding techniques such as the No-staple zine, Pamphlet stitch and the Japanese stab binding. You can follow these bookbinding techniques in Bookbinding for Zines.

Interested in attending the screen-printing workshop this Wednesday and the upcoming blockprinting workshop at 3 pm February 13th? RSVP to ocadzinelibrary@gmail.com.