Report "Choose your granny!"

I am EVS volunteer for Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže, and also an illustrator from France. In march, I had the opportunity to print one of my project, “Choose your Granny”, which is a little game for children, and I wanted to  introduce some of them in Slovene, and create new ones for the occasion. Once the grannies where all done, I could print them as post cards in CGU, a graphic center in Maribor, with the process and skill of serigraph. I discovered more concretely this technique (that I already knew only in theory), thanks to Tiki, a professional of handmade prints. We spent three weeks in trying to find the most effective way of printing, in splitting channels or colors, and concrete print. The first granny we made was Babica Pogumna.
And indeed we needed courage to finish this one, it was about not less than 9 layers, and 4 days of work!

Here is the process: first, I had an illustration on the computer. Then we needed to separate the colors in photoshop, including black. We transformed each layer in plain black, and then we printed it on a tracing paper. Then, we put this paper on a screen of mesh, which has a thin layer of special product on its surface made to close entirely the mesh. Then we switch on a light to warm it up, then the screen is open only in the shapes we need, because its loosing the product under the black areas. Then, we need to remove entirely the product that remains in the shapes with water. We make it dry, and the screen is ready for printing. It has holes in the shapes of the colors, so the paint is leaded by those shapes to go through.

We fix it, we search for the good color and we just have to print , until the next layer, where we need to clean the screen of the previous color, and so on until the last layer. The problem with this process is that I had to mix all the colors by eye. For the other grannies, we splitted the channels on photoshop to have some CMYK layers (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black), then we transformed each color into bitmap to have some dots instead of plain color. The colors will mix together easily through the 4 layers and recreate the original colors thanks to the various density of those dots. Like those old comic strips of the 50′s!

I had 14 grannies, but at the end we’ve printed only 4, but it was so much work than we were glad with it, and it was enough for the day of change ! So we had Babica Pogumna, Babica Čudaška, Babica Čebulica, and Babica Dvojna.
And so, for the day of change (Dan za spremembe), the 28 of march, I put one granny per table, then people (real grandmas and also grandpas) could choose the table according to the granny. In the same time, they were choosing their team for the quiz of Infopeka ! After this event, each of them had one post card granny. Thanks a lot again to Infopeka and the team, and the CGU, and to all the people who helped me in this adventure.

Cécile Bondon

From cheap workforce to highly creativite activities

Who is that weird stranger? He is not a student. He is not a employee but he is not unemployed person at the same time. So, what is he? EVS Volunteer? Yeah, volunteering is suspicious activity a little bit. Therefore, it si not surprise that sentence „Ok, you are volunteer. So, what are you doing there?“ is one of the most frequent questions.

Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže is quite a big organization. More tahn sixy local young people do some less or more frequent volunteering here. Some of them organize activities for children with special needs once a week (Pekarna DOBIŠ DAŠ). Other organize alternative tourist guide tours across Maribor (Stopinje mesta). And next group publish critically focus magazine (Pizda), etc.
But what does mean to be EVS volunteer? What does mean to be „full­time volunteer“?
What is supposed to be my activity? „Everything“ is probably the most proper question.
Is needed help with preparing food for some lecture (maybe interesting one, I don't know. I don't understand slovene langueage so well yet)? Or is needed help with preparing room? For every of these activities would be my help very appreciated. Does it mean that EVS volunteer is only some „cheap workforce“ here? Oh, no, it is total opposite. Or better to say – it could be total opposite. „Deadline of next issue of our magazine is coming. Do you want make some illustration?“ „Big event about volunteering is next month. Would like to make some presentation?“ „Do you have any idea for making your own workshop“ Just say „Yes, I have idea“ and fun can start!

Therefore, being EVS volunteer in Pekarna magdalenske Mreže is mainly about creativity. It is common folklore that every NGO complains about lack of money all the time. Of course, it's same in Pekarna Magdalenske Mreže. In spite of this fact this place is really great for new and interesting ideas (and yeah, lack of money is maybe the best stimulant for creativity).

Photographing without camera? No problem. Workshop about photographing with shoe boxes? No problem. Publish controversial illustration of Obama and Merkel as love couple. No problem ...

Marek