The Learning Zone

photo credit Aruvi Rajasingham

Looking for a perfect way to celebrate the New Year with us at the Learning Zone? Join us for some great workshops starting next week.

Marta Chudolinska, Learning Zone and Zine Librarian will be leading OCAD Zine Library Workshop Series: Publish It Your Self.

A fantastic line up of hands-on introductory workshops to get you started on the zine you’ve always wanted to make: Soft-Cover Bookbinding, January 15 & 16; Hard-Cover Bookbinding, January 17 & 22; Intro to Self-Publishing, January 23 & 24; Linocut Printing, February 12 & 13. Open to all OCAD U students.

grOCAD is sowing the New Year with a second hands-on seed propagation workshop lead by Sayeh Dastgheib-Beheshti who teaches Sustainable Practices in the Design Program. Last semester Sayeh shared tips and techniques and native plant seeds to get a jump on Spring. Save the date for January 30th at 2:30 pm, for another chance to get started on that wildflower garden. Open to all members of the OCAD U community.

Other great events, workshops, exhibitions will continue this semester. We will see the return of Career Development: Résumé/CV, Portfolio and Interview Skills Drop-In Clinics every Wednesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 – 4:30pm starting January 10. Open to OCAD U students and recent graduates.

Research Wednesdays returns January 24, 1-2pm with Lindsay Gibb, E-Reserves & Learning Zone Coordinator who will be presenting Researching Pop Culture. Lindsay will discuss the research she had undertaken on actor Nicolas Cage when writing her award winning book National Treasure: Nicolas Cage.

We always look forward to your visit.

Here are some highlights taken from the Student-led Creative Workshop Series that was held in October for a second straight year at the Learning Zone. This year’s talent included Nabeela Malik, Nikole Hidalgo, Sydney Madia and Jazmin Cordon-Ibanez.

The Student-led Creative Workshop Series serves as an excellent opportunity for students who are leading the workshops to gain hands on experience in the preparation and delivery.

For further questions regarding the Student-led Creative Workshop Series, please contact Marta Chudolinska at mchudolinska@ocadu.ca.

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 last installment of the Zine Library Workshop Series was the Embroidery on Paper Workshop, held February 28 and March 1. Like bookbinding, embroidery on paper has a long history in the arts and crafts. Embroidery on paper is a technique that involves weaving fine threads through pin pricked holes on card or paper.

Marta Chudolinska, the Learning Zone Librarian stitched her way through the workshop, providing step-by-step instructions including an intro to a library of embroidery stitches that would dazzle any D.I.Y. project.

Students learned 11 handy stitches—running stitch, back stitch, cross stitch, French knot stitch, satin stitch, split stitch, blanket stitch, fly stitch, cable knot stitch, double feather stitch and the whip stitch in order to create outlines, borders, decorations and fillings with their designs.

To get you started, here are two great embroidery titles from Marta’s thumbs up list: Reader’s Digest Complete Book of Embroidery by Melinda Cross and Artfully embroidered: motifs and patterns for bags and more by Naoko Shimoda.

The Zine Library Workshop Series: Hardcover Bookbinding, Linocut Printing and Embroidery on Paper, was a fun hands-on experience—discovering new techniques, tools and materials that can be applied to your next zine or D.I.Y. project.

Embroidery on Paper gallery:

Hi, I’m Marta Chudolinska, the Learning Zone Librarian. For the linocut workshop I will be demonstrating the basic techniques, tools and materials and best practices for linocut printing. Before we get started, I have an important safety tip: carve away from your hands!

The second installment of the Zine Library Workshop Series was Linocut Printmaking. Marta discussed the many surface materials that can be used for linocut printing and the range of tools to cut away the design.

For this workshop, students used linoleum and lino cutting tools, a brayer, ink and paper.

Marta’s favourite resources are The Woodcut Artist’s Handbook: Techniques and Tools for Relief Printmaking by George A. Walker and Block Printing: Techniques for Linoleum and Wood— both titles can be found at the OCAD U Library. To learn more about the different types of carving surfaces, carve and print, exercises for developing your carving skills and how to carve and register a two colour print, visit Hanprinted.co.uk or Drawcutinkpress.com .

Thanks to everyone who attended the Linocut printmaking workshop!

Please, have a look at the gallery, it’s full of wonderful prints created at the linocut printmaking workshop: