Collage is such a wonderfully meditative and accessible art form … it can be beautiful, or clever, or funny! or complex, or simple,or edgy, or a mixture of all of the above.

And it all starts with cutting and pasting and combining images.

Kristian Glynn who is running our new collage group which we are calling CLAG (because it made us laugh) is a fabulous creative artist.

He often works with collage and mixed media and was telling me that he is part of a long term collaboration with an artist friend in Queensland - they send and resend collaged postcards, building the images up over time. That sounds pretty great hey?

He’s lovely and is sure to inspire you if collage is something you are interested in finding out more about, or something you are already into.

To join CLAG, running on Tuesday nights in the shed from 7-8.30pm just click here. We’re offering it at a great community price - only $100 for 6 weeks.

Garbage Bouquet - Kristian Glynn

Five Moons Of Our Sun - Kristian Glynn

And here are some of my efforts … including ‘Reef and Beef(cake) Sandwich’. Collage is fun for everyone!

We’re delighted to welcome Katrina Forstner to the team to help us make the most of our outdoor spaces in terms 3 and 4.

She’ll be with us on Friday mornings assisting the community gardeners to develop a forward plan for our gardens and 🌱 explore propagating, planting and composting etc. in more detail.

And at 10.30am each week she’ll have arty gardening activities available in the community shed and/or garden suitable for young families and people of all ages and abilities to join in. Just $5 for some arty crafty fun … and then stay on for morning tea at 11.30am.

Interested? Here’s what’s coming up:

• 16 July - Collect/sort seeds and make and decorate seed packets to take home as a gift or for community distribution via our Seed Library

• 23 July - Smudge sticks with herbs and flowers from the garden

• 30 July - Chase the rainbows away and make a cute cloud wall hanging

• 6 August - Indoor plant propagation and upcycle a can with colour.

It should be a great morning of low key creative fun for grandparents and grandchildren, parents and kinder kids, creative adults and anyone who enjoys spending time doing creative garden based (slightly messy sometimes) activities (with the reward of morning tea afterwards).

Just pop past any Friday morning during school term to check it out and join in. We’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

This semester we are offering a range of tool-based workshops for all genders and abilities in The Shed.

Our Women in the Shed workshops will all run for 6 weeks. The options include:

• Monday - Women in the Shed Introduction. Participants will be introduced to a range of tools in the shed through working on practical projects. This will run from 10am-3pm and costs $200 or $60 with Learn Local funding.*

• Wednesday - Women in the Shed Introduction (short course). Participants will be introduced to a range of tools in the shed through working on practical projects and will also look at basic home maintenance (how to fix a leaky tap etc.). This will run from 12-3pm and costs $160.

• Thursday - Women in the Shed Projects. Participants who have already completed the Women in the Shed Introduction can bring their own projects along to work on in a supportive and friendly environment. This will run from 10am-3pm and costs $200 or $60 with Learn Local funding.*

We’re also introducing a new Woodworking Projects workshops with Dave, who has run our Men in the Shed program in the past. These 4 week workshops from 1-3pm will cost $80. Participants work on their my own projects and tap into Dave’s expertise.

Keen to book in or find our more? Click here.

Note all of these workshops begin in the week starting Monday 26 July in Term 3 and Monday 18 October in Term 4.

*contact our office to find out more about Learn Local funding.

We had a weekend of workshops last weekend, including our Home Maintenance 101 course.

We are very thankful that Phil came along to share his amazing expertise.

Our Women in the Shed program is one of the local activities you can vote for down at Grilld Fairfield for the month of June. If we win we get $300 to buy some more tools!

Look out for us if you are in there and get the chance to vote (I’m not sure how it works in lockdown?!).