DIY Ideas you CAN do yourself

There is something about a wedding that can bring out the inner artist.  It is time to plan one of the biggest parties of your life, celebrate life, love and happiness with your key people, and go wild (or not) with some great artistic ideas.  Many websites exist for great inspirational ideas, but you do not have to look far for creative inspiration in this city.

What I really really like about Vancouver in the past few years is the great crafting movement that is blossoming.  The past Christmas season was spectacular with multiple markets filled with amazing artisans.

One of those market places and hubs of artistic inspiration is Blim, a community based arts resource centre.  They not only put on markets, but have classes that encourage diverse expressions of art at all levels.  Check out their schedule and add a unique flair to your wedding.

So, a little word about Blim!

BLIM is a Community Based Art Resource Center which facilitates screen-printing, button making, drawing, knitting, local underground audio, film screenings, animation, video, dance, spoken word, visual art, creative workshops, and crafts in the independent field.

BLIM is conveniently located in the heart of Vancouver’s DIY art spaces on Main Street.

BLIM believes in presenting work that is still deemed as art, yet not quite embraced by the music world or gallery context, but deserves a platform for expression. As well as to facilitate the general public towards creative projects.

BLIM is a non-funded arts facility run by and for artists and community? This requires the hard work of Yuriko Iga, Noel Macul, and the many volunteers.

In order to remain autonomous to governments systems, it is our choice to act as a market-driven business without funding. We have managed to survive solely on sales, service, and the wonderful support of the people of Vancouver for the past 5 years.

BLIM also raises funds by collaborating with various organizations both in the arts, media, and community field such as Powell Street Festival, Public Dreams, Langara Institute, Emily Carr, New Music Vancouver, and VIVO.

BLIM has received coverage in the local entertainment arts guide and was voted best “Low profile event space” in Vancouver Magazine, as well as “Best Innovative Arts Space” in the Terminal City.

We just recently got voted “Best Place to Whip up some Art” in the Georgia Straight.

BLIM COLLAGE BUTTON MAKING

Monday, January 11/February 8 | 7 – 10 PM | $20
Featuring: Yuriko Iga

Group Rate (6–8 people or more): 10% OFF/person

Mini art, collage, graphics, drawings, or text in a 1″, 1.25″, 1.5″, 2″ or 3″ button. Bring images in 1″, 1.25″, 1.5″, 2″, or 3″ round format, or the materials you wish to work with. We provide other materials such as magazines, reference books, photocopier, markers. 25 buttons of any size included. There will be a snack bar, good music, and fun to be had!

PLEASE PAY 48 HRS BEFORE WORKSHOP.

GOCCO PRINTING

Saturday, January 9/February 13 | 2 – 5 PM | $60 (includes all materials)
Featuring: Kaytee Kilgour

Group Rate (6–8 people or more): 10% OFF/person

Learn to make your own beautiful hand printed greeting cards using the Japanese Print Gocco Machine. Gocco is a portable hand held screenprinting device invented by the Japanese to make mess free screenprinted cards at home.

Please bring your 4″ × 5″ image on black & white carbon photocopy. The cost of workshop is $60 for whole afternoon which includes 20 cards with envelopes. We provide other materials such as inks, screens and bulbs.
There will be a snack bar, good music, and fun to be had!

www.savegocco.com

SCREENPRINTING

Water based, oil-based, vinyl based inks.

Group Rate (6–8 people or more): 10% OFF/person

Level 1: Wednesdays, 6:30 – 10 PM Emulsion application and water-based inks

workshop-$58 (incl. tax & service charge)

$50

Vancouver Green Printer Reviews – by Something Green

From their original article, check out Something Green’s  great review of local printing companies.

Vancouver Green Printer Reviews

Our biggest challenge in starting up Something Green was finding an eco-friendly printer that was local, affordable, and had great product quality. Not only did we need a printer to produce our products, but we also wanted to print our business cards, fliers, and envelopes from an environmentally responsible company.

Green Printer
Location: Delta
Technology: Waterless printing process and vegetable inks
Customer Service: Poor
Quality: Average to Good

Green Printer was our primary printer for several months. The staff were friendly and their prices were affordable – they were the cheapest printer we dealt with. Green Printer also blogged about environmental issues and appeared to have a genuine concern about being a green company. However, because of a lack or reliability and inconsistencies in quality we had to switch Green Printer to our backup printer. Turnaround time is 1 week, but because of mis-communication and frequent technology breaks downs, our orders always came 2 to 6 weeks late. Even more disappointingly our orders would often have mistakes like trimming errors or incorrect files printed on the front or back.

Update: We no longer use Green Printer as they stopped responding to email or phone calls.

Jukebox Print Shop
Location: Downtown Vancouver
Technology: Soy inks
Customer Service: Poor
Quality: Unknown

We didn’t get very far with this printer. Based on their website their prices rivaled Green Printer. Our experience with this printer spanned 4 weeks. We emailed asking for a quote and got no reply. Called 2 weeks later and was promised a reply by 2 days. 2 days rolled around with no response, so we emailed them back. Nothing. We called one more time and was promised a reply. We are unfortunately still waiting.

Hemlock
Location: Burnaby
Technology: Multiple systems using non toxic and organic inks
Customer Service: Good
Quality: Very Good

Hemlock is an award winning FSC certified printer. From paper, inks, resource consumption and green advocacy, their efforts to be a sustainable company far exceed the efforts of every printer we contacted. Of course, they were also the biggest printer we worked with and because of this they could not accommodate our low volume printing requirements at an affordable price. Hemlock was the most expensive printer, but they also had the best quality.

Mills Basic
Location: Vancouver
Technology: Vegetable inks
Customer Service: Poor
Quality: Unknown

A family operated printing company. Our contact was very knowledgeable about the different types of environmentally friendly paper. They were expensive, being beaten out only by Hemlock. As for customer service, they sometimes took weeks to get back to us, and when we were in the process of ordering samples from them, the whole staff went on vacation without any warning. We decided against going for a printer that was family operated and sometimes difficult to get a hold of.

Linxprint
Location: Vancouver
Technology: Wax based organic ink
Customer Service: Very Good
Quality: Good

Linxprint is our current primary printer. Like Hemlock, they are FSC certified and exceed regulatory standards with reduced paper consumption and client education of environment impact. Linxprint’s customer service is the best, with our rep responding to our emails often in the same hour. Also they are fast! Our orders are always ready within 48 hours.

That’s the whole list of green printers we worked with. How do they stack up compared to traditional printers? As a graphic designer I have dealt with dozens of traditional printers in my career (My printer of choice being TPH for the longest time). In print quality, Hemlock and Linxprint products are indistinguishable from traditional printers. As for cost, organic printers are generally more expensive. Green Printer was the only Printer that was less expensive than traditional printers.

We’ve only been with Linxprint for a month, and so far we love them. Our fingers are crossed that our long search for a Vancouver local green printer has come to an end.

- note from organizer, Shona Dion

We have done the majority of our printing with Hemlock Printers and received great service.