DIY Chia Pets

DIY Chia Pets is happening at the Austin Public Library Windsor Park Branch on Tuesday, July 21, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. It's a hands-on workshop where you sculpt your own critter planters and then watch them grow a coat of "living fur."

The project is two parts. First, you sculpt a small animal planter out of clay. Once that's set, you plant seeds that grow into a green, fuzzy layer of foliage—the "living fur" that gives these things their name. While you're working, the session covers the basics of plant germination, so you'll walk away knowing how a seed actually turns into a plant, not just that it happens. It's the kind of thing that works as a solo project or as something to do with kids.

The venue is the Windsor Park Branch, located at 5833 Westminster Drive. The branch opened in July 2000, though library services have been reaching the area since the late 1950s, when bookmobiles delivered to the Windsor Village Shopping Center on Berkman Drive. A permanent building came after a 1992 bond issue authorized six new branches. If you've never been, Paul Bond's bronze sculpture Reading Between the Lions greets you at the front door as part of the Austin Art in Public Places program.

It's a Tuesday afternoon session, so it fits right into a weekday gap. The workshop runs from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM at the Windsor Park Branch, 5833 Westminster Drive.