To register for a workshop, please call the store: 604-873-2825

The wonder and beauty of using image transfers in your art projects is achieving the effect of layering and the way the transfers easily integrate into any composition.  Spend a day with Shary Bartlett learning easy techniques to transfer images, foils and photocopies onto paper, canvas, fabric, transparencies, wood, glass and ceramics.  What more could you ask for??!!??
SUNDAY, MAY 1     11:00 to 5:00     $88.00  (includes most supplies)

Here, in Vancouver, we're blessed with foods from around the world, the joy of friends from myriad countries and easy access to exotic products.  Like all those gorgeous papers from China!  Inexpensive, colourful and versatile, they're a joy to use in collage.   Birute Macijauskas showed me some amazing pieces she created from Asian papers and I immediately asked her if she would teach a class for RubyDog's.  Check out the samples at the store, then sign up for a wonderful evening.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 4     7:00 to 9:00     $38.00  (includes all supplies except scissors and glue)

Spend 4 evenings learning new mixed media techniques then, on the 5th, take all that new knowledge and create your masterpiece!
Experiment with exposing dampened collage materials to candle smoke; paint and texture papers to create Hundertwasser inspired collages; learn the art of decollage which involves subtracting material rather than adding it; and much more.  Along the way you'll play with steel wool, charcoal, wax crayons, oil pastels, floral patterns, white and black gesso, rubber stamps and magazine images.
5 THURSDAYS, MAY 5 to JUNE 2     6:3- to 9:00     $195.00

MORE PICTURES IN THE WORKSHOP PHOTO GALLERY

Okay, here's your chance to learn the basics of altering a book.   You've perused them at RubyDog's, on numerous websites and in countless magazines.  It's time for you to make your own.  And, teachers and parents can easily adapt the processes learnt here to any age group and subject matter.

Experiment with everything from making and attaching pockets, creating doors and windows, weaving paper through pages, overlaying packing tape transfers, adding and taking away pages, creating pop-ups, decorative folding and more. You'll leave with a tactile technique book to which you can refer over and over.

11:30 to 5:30            $84.00  (includes most  materials) SATURDAY, May 7     

ATCs/Artist Trading Cards are small (2.5" x 3.5"), one-a-kind artworks made by and traded amongst artists.

Join Rosanne Lambert in a creative exploration of techniques for combining household materials with art papers and ephemeral items.  You'll learn to create and assemble backgrounds, elements and details for your own unique cards; such as how to fuse tissue paper to your art, anti-warping glue methods and utilising a regular, laundry bleach pen with gorgeous results.  Along the way, you'll incorporate nail polish, paper punches, found objects, junk mail, gel pens and much more. 

Although you'll be using the techniques learnt in this class on ATCs,  you can easily incorporate them into collages, altered books, visual journals and scrapbooks.

You can attend a monthly trading card swap at most major cities around the world.  Including Vancouver, of course!  For the past 11 years the monthly ATC swap took place at The Grind Cafe on Main Street.  As of 3 months ago, their location changed to RubyDog's.  This workshop has been scheduled to coincide the with May swap, which takes place on Sunday, May 15th from 2:30 to 4:00.  Feel free to put your new found knowledge to work and join us on that day. 
TUESDAY, MAY 10     6:30 to 9:30     $48.00
MORE PICTURES IN THE PHOTO GALLERY.

Got a thing for the Our Lady of Guadeloupe, Ceridwin, Kuan Yin or the Virgin Mary?   Why not create a shrine to her?  Laila Straus will guide you through the process of transforming a raw wood box into an exquisite mini-altar.  Surrounded with objects and talismans relating to the deity of your choice, the Goddess Box can serve as a focal point for meditation, as a protective talisman for your home or simply as a beautiful piece of art.  A magical gathering of precious materials, fabrics, papers and embellishments assembled to create a mysterious and intriguing artefact!
Samples at the store.
WEDNESDAYS, MAY 11 AND 18     6:30 to 9:00, both evenings     $76.00  (includes all supplies except scissors and glue

Yes, of course you can use Photoshop, but our way is so much more fun.  Breathe new life, colour and story into photographs and magazine images using bleach, paint, crayons, collage, ink grattage and text.  Yikes.  Serious fun.  The results can stand alone as art pieces or be incorporated into another project.  The processes learnt can be applied to much more than just photos.
SATURDAY, MAY 14     11:00 to 5:00     $88.00

Okay, so we all know Gesso is used for priming canvasses, don't we?  Do you have any idea, though, how many incredible surface techniques you can create with this amazingly versatile product?  Using everything from elastic bands to cheese cloth to combs to acrylic paint and much, much more, Clo Laurencelle will open your eyes to all the possibilities of Gesso.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 and JUNE 1     6:30 to 9:00     $86.00  (includes most supplies)

MORE PICTURES IN THE WORKSHOP PHOTO GALLERY