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@lesateliers-blog
Ravenswing is finally here! And we'll be running two workshops in the morning: massage therapy with Sage Wellness at 10 AM and sweet little terrariums using upcycled water bottles at 11:30. Visit ravenswingottawa.tumblr.com/workshops for all the details.
It's going to be a beautiful Sunday morning.
photo via blomsterverkstad
Les Ateliers presents Hearts and Crafts: A Ravenswing 2013 Craft + Karaoke Fundraiser Friday, February 8th Shanghai Restaurant / 651 Somerset St. W. 9 pm / $10 It's almost Valentine's day! Show your love for Ottawa's Independent DIY scene. Ottawa's Queen of Karaoke, China Doll, will be hosting us for an amazing night of "love" themed karaoke and crafts.
Les Ateliers will be presenting two mini-workshops. Make a Valentine for your sweetie or a beautiful gift for someone you love. Play Ravenswing's Love Bingo for a chance to win some of our amazing prizes.
Make stuff! Sing your heart out! Win prizes!
Les Ats is super excited to be collaborating with Idle Hands this year to help put on their 2012 Holiday Edition sale! The craft fair takes place tomorrow at St. Anthony's off of Preston from 10 AM - 5 PM and is $3 to get in.
On top of all of the incredibly talented vendors who will be there, The Girlfriends will be DJing, Spins and Needles will have a Holi-DIY print station, and we're putting on 2 mini paper ornament workshops - one at 12 pm, one at 2 pm. Come visit us! We'll be in a little craft and music annex by the entrance. Event details here.
Check out the super pretty clove oranges Lauren made in preparation for Handmade Holidays! A whimsical way to make your home smell delicious over the holidays.
Make these guys and more with us at The Daily Grind this coming Wednesday!
'Tis the season... for crafting! And for community, too.
On Wednesday, November 14, Les Ats is proud to present Handmade Holidays: an evening of festive crafting in support of Ravenswing DIY Fair. We'll be holding 4 mini workshops from 7 pm to 10 pm at The Daily Grind (601 Somerset St W). Come learn how to make scented fizzy bath bombs (essential oils provided by Purple Urchin!), whimsical paper ornaments, clove oranges and faux-quilted ornaments, and how to design the sweetest holiday greeting cards you ever did see.
Each workshop is $5. Join in at any time and take as many workshops as you like!
All proceeds go toward Ravenswing 2013Â - we're raising money to better say thanks to the incredibly talented musicians that contribute to making Ravenswing such a special event for Ottawa.
This is some serious Girlfriends related business.
The Girlfriends will be at Victoire playing some of our fave jams tomorrow from 2 - 6 pm in order to demonstrate how excited we are about the inaugural ARBORETUM fest.
Our friends behind ARBORETUM are highlighting Ottawa's creative side: this city is home to incredibly talented musicians and criminally delicious eats. ARB is going to bring it all together in one amazing outdoor festival on September 15th - check their website for the full run-down.
This is where ALL IN GOOD TASTE comes in. In support of ARBORETUM, this weekend, Victoire and Town are showing their love by donating 15% of their sales to the festival. There'll be jams (courtesy of us at Victoire's Dalhousie boutique on Saturday), a silent auction the likes of which you've never seen before, and ticket giveaways. You should come.
For further (/official) deets, check out the facebook event here.
Reeeeeeecap: We loved making teacup candles on Saturday at Purple Urchin!
We brought a salmagundi of what we thought would be way too many teacups (and other compelling vessels - owl creamer anyone?) but there was such a great turnout that every last one was turned into a candle.
Thanks to Sarah and Rebecca of Purple Urchin for hosting us, and to FestivAsia for inviting Les Ats to host craft dates in some of our favourite spots in Chinatown.
And a reminder that although we won't be hosting any more workshops for FestivAsia this year, they've still got lots going on! You can check out their schedule in this post. We're especially looking forward to our friend DJ Chris International spinning at Raw Sugar, Django Libre's gypsy jazz stylings, crocheting with Justy Dennis, and more of Julie Cruickshank's amazing sidewalk chalk art.
Today!
We're making soy candles in china teacups as our second and last free workshop for FestivAsia this afternoon at 3 pm on Purple Urchin's patio. Bring your own teacup or use one of ours, but do be sure to drop by!
As if this isn't lovely enough already, we're bringing lemonade. Dream patio craft date.
Here is but a smattering of the delectable sushi our master chefs crafted with felt yesterday on Sushi 88's lovely little patio! Making felt sushi while eating real sushi in the sunshine = pretty much the best way to while away a Saturday afternoon.
The next free patio workshop Les Ats is doing for FestivAsia will be making candles in china teacups! We'll have a few teacups on hand for you to choose from, but you can bring your own if you have a specific one you'd like to convert! August 4th at Purple Urchin, 3 pm. (And if you haven't checked out Purple Urchin's luscious line of handmade soaps, body products and more, you should!)
Sneak preview of some of the felt sushi we'll be making as part of Chinatown's Festivasia tomorrow! Hope to see you there! We'll be maki-ng maki (and more)! The workshop starts at 1pm on Sushi 88's patio - 690B Somerset St W. The workshop is free, but space and supplies are limited, so come earlier rather than later!
While this isn't strictly Les Ats business, The Girlfriends are DJing again this Thursday!
Our pals over at CHUO are having a mixtape swap at Antique from 8 to midnight. Myself, Tara Dwivedi and special guest girlfriend Nadia Kharyati of Raw Sugar fame will be pumping summer jams all night long in celebration of community radio and summer glory.
Make a mix, take a mix, have a beer and support CHUO! There's no cover but they'll be taking donations at the door, and there will be prizes for the best mixtape cover art! Bring a mix in any format: CD, cassette, memory key. If you want to belt out your favourite summer tunes for us, that's okay too.
Les Ateliers is putting on two free summer sidewalk workshops as part of Chinatown's FestivAsia!
We'll be making felt sushi on July 21st at 1pm on Sushi 88's patio (690 Somerset W by the Chinatown Arch, beside Raw Sugar) and candles in china teacups on Purple Urchin's patio, August 4th at 3pm (882 Somerset W). Summer fun in Chinatown!
Making Zines at Ravenswing 2012, with Chris Landry
Chris Landry, who ran the zine-making workshop at Ravenswing 2012, shared some thoughts on his workshop at the fair. We will let you know the minute we get our hands on the zine you all made at his workshop! From Chris: âIt felt good to be back in Ottawa to do a zine workshop. To be in my old neighbourhood and seeing familiar places still unchanged was sweet. Places like the Mayflower, Mags & Fags, the Manx, and Minto Park, site of the 2012 Ravenswing with its music, workshops, and the awesome Clothesline Project.
When my workshop was set to begin I didnât know if folks were nervous or what, but I realized they were not coming to the table at first. Its surface had been extensively supplied which typewriters, vinyl labellers, rub-on letters, old books and magazines, posters, and flyers. I stood there next to this pile of supplies fretting until I saw my pals Megan and Alex whom I waved over and roped into the workshop.
âMake collages and look like youâre having fun, ok?â I joked. But as they started it worked: soon the table was surrounded by a dozen folks ages 5 to 50, all just dying to make a mess.
The focus was on text â on letters, specifically. Each person was assigned a letter and with that letter they were to come up with a theme that it brings to mind. We got as far as to the letter âtâ. The pages created were varied, though largely collage based, rather than prose-based. Some were humorous, others were thoughtful, and some were basically odd. The participantsâ energy was contagious. I saw graphic designers, accustomed to slicing things up on a Mac, inspired with paper, glue, and scissors. I saw art students more used to more precise materials working with a ball-point pen and sliced up newsprint. I saw children enjoying typewriters. I saw the heavy metal magazines of my youth being sliced up into zine art.
This entertaining afternoon would not be possible without Sean Zio and the excellent folks at Les Ateliers.
The zine resulting form this workshop will be available at the end of June.â
The Toronto Zine Library is run by a collective of zine readers, zine makers and librarians who are looking to make zines more accessible in Toronto. We believe that zines are still an important medium of communication, and that they should be cherished, protected, and promoted. Our aim to do this through our public collection of zines, conducting related workshops at our physical library and abroad, and by holding events that promote zines as a method of open communication and free expression.
The library has staffed hours on Sundays from 1-3, Tuesdays from 6-8, and Wednesdays from 6-8.
It is located on the second floor of the Tranzac Club at 292 Brunswick Avenue. You can access our blog here: http://www.torontozinelibrary.org/Â and we can be reached via email at [email protected] or via Twitter @TZLcollective. - Photos by Sarah Lendore and Ming Wu, 2012
We took June off as a mini summer vacation, but we're back now with exciting things to share.
About a month ago our good friend Sean Zio, who maintains Ravenswing's tumblr, asked Chris Landry to share his thoughts on running the zine making workshop we were proud to host at Ravvie back in May. Chris wrote up a lovely little reflection on his experiences. Can't wait to see the zine we collectively created!
Ravenswing DIY Fair 2012 was the best one yet!
All of the bands were incredible, The Clothesline Project was a powerful and moving display as always, and we were so impressed with all of the goods, zines and eats that the vendors brought.
And we are happy to state that the Les Ats workshops we put on for Ravenswing were amazing! We owe a huge thank you to our facilitators Edith and Chris, and to everyone who came out and helped make our day as special as it was. Also, thanks to Bridgehead for donating coffee to our cause! We raised some much-needed funds for Les Ats (and kept well-caffeinated throughout the day).
Edith broke down a couple different Sun Salutations during her yoga workshop and she's posted them on her blog for everyone to try at home.
zine workshop!!!
Chris Landry will be giving a workshop on zine culture and zine-making at Ravenswing DIY Fair in Minto Park, on Elgin St. in Ottawa, on Sunday, May 27th. Learn more at the Les Ateliers tumblr.
Kiss Off, Issue #14, Fall 2011
by Chris Landry
28Â pg. at 1/4 letter size.
$2 from Parcell Press
Granted, this review serves a sinister double purpose: I do wanna encourage any Ottawa folks who may be reading this to come out to the DIY fair this Sunday. Chris Landry will be there giving a workshop on zines, I will be there with a table-o-zines, and lots of other people will be doing, selling, or performing neat stuff. However, this zine is also really great, and I am happy to be here, today, on the Internet, telling you so.
Kiss Offâ or at least this issueâ is a little, quarter-letter, bite-size zine. Those can be a profoundly dissatisfying ten minutes of entertainment if done poorly, or a just-right little mouthful of prose if well-executed. Iâm glad to report that Kiss Off is the latter.
Landryâs writing is crisp and economical, he succinctly evokes places and states of mind with a minimum of description.Â
In this case, the places are Toronto, where Landry lives, and the Ottawa area, where heâs from. Completed in the fall of 2011, the zine describes the lead-up to, and the fall-out from, the G-20 summit, and feelings of resilience and burn-out among activists.  Rather than writing a diatribe on something his readers have probably already heard a lot about, Landry instead gestures towards situations and feelings, which is very effective.
There is also writing about Alice Munro, about what itâs like to go to a really good show, and to a mediocre show, and about getting a poor haircut from an excellent man. I really like this kind of slice-of-life writing when it is done well, as it is here, and gives a clear, affecting sense of the writerâs life.
Like its content, Kiss Offâs layout is crisp and handsome. It distills elements of zine styleâ typewritten text, images blown up to abstraction on the photocopierâ to their extremes. The result is legible and stylish but still true to the allegiances Landry states on the inside front cover of this issue: âKiss Off is a punk rock fanzineâ.Â
And itâs a very good one, so I will look forward to learning what I can from Chris Landry at his workshop this Sunday.
- Lily Pepper
Lily Pepper of ravenswing-zines has written a lovely review of the latest issue of our zine workshop facilitator Chris Landry's perzine, Kiss Off. Read on, get excited, and then come and make a zine with Chris! 2:30 pm this Sunday at Ravenswing in Minto Park.
We mentioned that this Sunday is going to be exciting, but we didn't tell you that it's going to be a double date! This year Ravenswing is partnering with Ladyfest Ottawa's Tarts n' Crafts sale to bring the city a rad craft walk! Tarts n' Crafts will be at the Montgomery Legion, only a few short blocks from Ravenswing DIY Fair in Minto Park! We hope you'll come out and stroll through both lovely events.
Also exciting is the updated Ravenswing poster! Ravenswing is only 4 sleeps away - and it just keeps getting better. We've extended our workshops at the fair, so that instead of being 30 minutes long each, yoga will run from 12:15 - 1 pm, and zine making from 2:30 - 3:30. Check out the schedule so you'll know what time you need to be in Minto Park!
RAVENSWING DIY FAIR 2012 LINEUP MUSIC MC: Matt Gilmour (Young Teach, Hamilton)
Django Libre 11:30 am gypsy jazz
Andrea Simms-Karp 1:00 pm your friendly neighborhood banjo player
Josef Pollock 1:45 pm atmospheric indie folk
Silkken Laumann 3:30 pm disco dance synth punk
+
CEREMONY DJs Adam Saikaley Eric Roberts Gary Franks
WORKSHOPS Presented by Les Ateliers Living, learning & passing it on in Ottawa: les-ateliers.ca
Yoga in the park 12:15 - 1 pm with Edith Parinas (Yoga with Edith â edithparinas.com) Zine making 2:30 - 3:30 pm with Chris Landry (Kiss Off perzine & Striking Distance zine)
Les Ateliers
LIVING, LEARNING & PASSING IT ON IN OTTAWA
In 2010, Ravenswing joined creative forces with Ottawaâs community-based workshop series, Les Ateliers. If you have never been to a Les Ateliers event, make it a resolution to attend at least one before the year ends. Each workshop is planned so that you get to meet a small group of new people while developing a skill at the same time. Even better, the skills you can learn at a Les Ateliers workshop are useful and fun. They range from learning how to make skin-care products or journals to how to run your own business or how to make your home more environmentally friendly. The two Ottawans behind Les Ateliers are Rachel and Lauren, pictured here:
They are both the sweetest, friendliest and - as my buddy would say - rock solid people you can find. Look for them at Ravenswing where they will be running two workshops, one on yoga and the other on making zines. More details on both will be posted in the coming week on our blog.
Take a look back on the great workshops organized by Les Ateliers in previous years at Ravenswing:
Ravenswing 2011: How to Make a T-Shirt Necklaces
Photo by Sarah Lendore, 2011 Ravenswing 2010: Beatboxing with Matt Gilmour
Photo by Ming Wu, 2010
- szio
Sweet little write-up from our friends over at Ravenswing. As always, we canât wait to host their workshops! Weâre only one week away from the fair already - see you guys in Minto Park on May 27th from 11 - 4 for zine-making & yoga workshops, a whole lot of handmade treasures from vendors, and some of Ottawaâs finest live bands.
