Urban Forestry and Paper!

Well, that sort of goes together but we're actually talking about two very different classes. The first class is from our excellent teacher Dorothy who is teaching us yet again how to do great things with paper. Think that folding paper might be dull? Check out this great picture Dorothy sent with her class description!



Here's the full class description:
Paper Power—Folding, Cutting, and Rolling
Time: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Location: Crown Hill United Methodist Church
Here is your chance to get an early start on the holidays. This workshop consists of nine paper projects. Each project will be set up at a different station and you will move from station to station working on your favorites. Step-by-step instructions will be located at each station, and the facilitator will provide demonstrations as needed. All supplies and tools will be provided. You just need to come and have fun creating any one or all of the following projects (left to right on the photo): German stars, kirigami snowflakes, teabag folding, tree ornaments, iris folding, 3D snowflakes, pillow boxes, paper beads, and origami boxes. The workshop will start at 1:00 p.m. and you can stay until you are done (up to 4 hours). All ages are welcome—entire families are encouraged.

Date and Time:
Sunday, November 14, 1:00 to 5:00

Location:
Crown Hill United Methodist Church
8500 – 14th Avenue NW
Bus Routes #48 or #15

Facilitator:
Dorothy Skans is a life-long crafter and a Seattle native. She decided to join Seattle Free School in order to pass along her love of paper art as well as to pass along her over abundance of paper.


The next class is on Beginning Urban Forest Restoration and is actually a series of classes complete with Field Trips!

Beginning Urban Forest Restoration
Time: 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Location: various
Enjoy being in a forest? Want to know more about what you can do to keep Seattle forests thriving? Learn some basic concepts & simple skills, and get connected with Seattle\'s network of volunteers taking care of our forests. 2 class days and 3 field days covering:

-Forest features
-Special issues for urban forests
-Plant structure
-Native plant identification
-Invasive plant identification
-Tool usage
-Invasive removal techniques
-Planting techniques
-Mulching
-Forest Management Plans
-Community connections
For the classes please bring: Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar & Mackinnon
Optional: Wild Plants of Greater Seattle by Jacobson

For the field days please dress for the weather, with sturdy clothes & work boots Be prepared to get dirty. Gloves and tools will be provided.

Meeting Times and Locations:

To plan your trip by bus (expect some walking to get to Golden Gardens and Carkeek work parties). http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/

Class - Sunday December 5, 9:00 - 12:00. 9543 Greenwood Avenue North. Enter through the alley to the building\'s fenced patio door.

Field Day - Saturday December 11, 9:00 - 12:00 Monthly work party at Golden Gardens Park. 8498 Seaview Place. Gather south of the Dog Off Leash Area in the upper forest region.



Field Day - Sunday December 12, 9:00 - 12:00 Monthly work party at Landover Park 145th St. & 3rd Ave. NW. Meet at the park\'s entranceway.

Field Day - Saturday December 18, 9:00 - 12:00 Monthly work party at Carkeek Park 950 NW Carkeek Park Road. Follow the STARS signs to the meeting place. If you\'re not driving, you may want to consider taking the long, safer walk through the entrance on NW 100th Place & McAbee. Nice walk. When you get to the meadow past the water treatment facility, take the upper sidewalk to the meeting location.

Class - Sunday December 19, 9:00 - 12:00 9543 Greenwood Avenue North. Enter through the alley to the building\'s fenced patio door.

Feel free to call the facilitator with any questions 206/898-1006.

Rhonda Goebel
Golden Gardens Forest Steward



As always you can register for our classes by going to the Seattle Free School website: www.seattlefreeschool.org

Another Great Sew-Up Seattle Event!

Here's something from Sew Up Seattle!


Sew Fun Bags 2010 – The Challenge

Hi All you Community Sewing Enthusiasts!

We are having another sewing recycling adventure this time with a twist. We are creating cloth bags at the Ballard Library Community Room (it is becoming a fall time habit – 3 years now) in conjunction with Sustainable Ballard and 350.org’s World Day of Service in order to call attention to climate change on Sunday 10-10-10. The twist is the challenge aspect. We will have only 10 machines and 3 hours to create as many bags as possible in that time. (I don’t think it is mathematically possible to do much more than 90 bags with experienced sewers who have had prep time.) Sew Up Seattle has procured plenty of fabrics, and Ballard Quality Sewing and Machine is loaning the machines. By providing an opportunity for people to come sew their own bags we will reduce the number of disposable bags generated. By teaching folks to sew, we increase the likelihood that even more reusable bags will be made, and used and reused.



We need people to volunteer for all shifts to guide work party participants through the process as well as brainstorming and gathering minimal material donations pre-event. If you have helped out before you know how much fun this is. We also need help getting the word out.



The volunteer roles that need to be filled are: Pre-event; -challenge brainstorming and notions gathering, Day of event; guides, coaches and machine monitors and clean-up reallocating of resources (We believe that no scrap is too small, we just don’t have room to store it all.) The work party day shifts are 12:30-2:30, 2:00-4:00 and 4:00-5:00. The Challenge will run from 1-4 but we will need time to set up and clear out.



Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering, what time you are available your preferred role (challenge brainstorm, gatherer, guide, coach or machine monitor. If you have questions or need more information let us know. sewupseattle@yahoo.com

Let the Challenge Begin!

Brand New Class- Discover Decoupage!

Discover Decoupage




Always wanted to be an artist but thought you did not have the talent? Well, you do!

Decoupage is one of the most forgiving of the arts. In fact, you have probably been doing it since kindergarten or
before. After all, the basic materials are just paper, scissors, and glue.

We will start out discussing color, texture, pattern, design—and how to bring them all together. We will go over
where to find the “paper”—from junk mail to high-end coffee table books and everything in between. We will talk
about the five steps of the design process—picking the surface, theme, colors, background, and pictures. And then
we will start putting it all together.

The instructor has taken care of step 1 by providing basic, well-used, less-than-attractive, cardboard magazine
holders. She is also bringing along her collection of literally thousands of pictures, wallpaper samples, patterned
papers, and 3-D embellishments. She will have lots of decoupage medium (just white glue and water), brushes,
scissors—everything you will need to complete your art piece. You just need to promise to wear clothes that can get
dirty—it will get messy—and to help clean up at the end.

The session will start at 1:00 p.m. and you can stay until you are done (up to 4 hours). All ages are welcome—entire
families are encouraged.

Location:
Crown Hill United Methodist Church
8500 – 14th Avenue NW
Bus Routes #48 or #15
Enter through the north parking lot door or the east handicap door and follow the signs to the Fellowship Hall.

Facilitator:
Dorothy Skans is a grandmother, life-long crafter, sometimes frustrated artist, writer, editor, and document designer
as well as a Seattle native. Nearing retirement, she and her husband are planning to move to the Washington coast
and take up their hobbies full time. In the meantime, she has decided to join Seattle Free School in order to pass
along her love of paper art as well as to pass along her over abundance of paper.

Travel Info, FREE!

Did you know that Hostelling International hosts free classes here in Seattle about different parts of the world and travelling? While I'm not going to this one (my travel bug is too strong to resist going and I don't need this temptation!) this would definitely be a great class to attend if you wish to go off the beaten tourist track. See a different world or stoke your travel fires with this great free event!



Travelling the Trans Siberian Railroad

Web Design Class

Check out this great report from Jon, our Web Design class teacher!

For a short while, I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. I'm a web designer and developer. I'd done this for many years, and I was eager to teach it to other eager minds. But web design is not a small, nor easily defined, topic. The sheer volume of acronyms and buzzwords can induce uncomfortable head spinning.

On the other hand, coordinating with Seattle Free School was a breeze. Jessica was a perfect balance of professional and approachable. She gave me great insights on planning, and what to cover. What's more, she knew folks at Seattle Public Library were interested in very generously lending us some space in their computer labs. It was a perfect match.

So, I decided to put it out there. One class, an hour and a half long. We'll see who signs up, and what we can get done in that time. Both the Free School and the Public Library listed the event on their calendar, and the class seats filled up in a hurry!

I put together a loose outline of what I wanted to cover, authored a few Powerpoint slides, and decided on a good approach for teaching such a large topic. I designed a basic layout, that we could tackle in class and code ourselves.

Teaching day came. I showed up early to get the room setup. The facilities were perfect, replete with dry erase boards, nice computers, a projector screen, the whole nine yards. Library staff were super helpful, and went out of their way to help get the computers setup for the class. Folks started filing in early, taking seats and eager to learn.

The class was nearly a full house, and a lot of fun. We talked about HTML and how to structure good semantic markup. We had a good side talk about how Google works, and how to make your site easy to find. Then, we moved on to start building the design I'd laid out for them, and styling it with CSS. I'd walk through brief explanations of what different pieces of code do, then we'd all write them in our code editor (Notepad!). Along the way, I could see eyes light up across the room when small bits of code they'd written turned into something they were proud of, piece by piece. Not unlike giving someone a robot making kit, and watching their machines come alive.

We couldn't get through every piece of the design I was hoping we'd finish -- my time constraints proved to be a bit too optimistic. But, I promised that we would have more classes like these in the future, and allot more time to the subject at hand. Once time expired, they all filed out with warm smiles and a sincere thanks. It felt really awesome to teach folks a new skill, and I hope to do many more of these in the future.

I want to extend a huge thanks to Seattle Free School, all of the nice folks at Seattle Public Library, and everyone who came out to learn a little web design! I look forward to doing it again in the future. :)

First Official Partnership!

Check this out! We now have our first class where we are officially partnering with the Seattle Public Library. Very exciting and hopefully more great computer classes to come. Thanks a ton to our instructor Jon for helping us get this scheduled!

Free Homesteading Classes

Our friend Leslie at Fresh Picked Seattle has written this great post about free classes all over the city to get your homestead going. Lots of great resources so check it out here.