I spent today decorating a shoebox in shiny paper, Blue Peter style, but with less finesse. The box is being filled with any free or duplicate zines that get amassed. The idea is that it will travel about on various occasions and anyone interested can have a read of the permanent stock, and/or to help themselves to anything from the free zine collection. Could be a bit of swapping going on too. Hurray for glorious, glorious zines! And if you wish to be included in the (ad)venture, by donating your zine(s) to us, please do get in touch!
Behold my new idea to have a mini zine library for the group!
I spent today decorating a shoebox in shiny paper, Blue Peter style, but with less finesse. The box is being filled with any free or duplicate zines that get amassed. The idea is that it will travel about on various occasions and anyone interested can have a read of the permanent stock, and/or to help themselves to anything from the free zine collection. Could be a bit of swapping going on too. Hurray for glorious, glorious zines! And if you wish to be included in the (ad)venture, by donating your zine(s) to us, please do get in touch!
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SW Zines are keen on zine events. We travel across London for anything DIY related, but daydream of xerox-related adventures further afield: Canada, Australia, Japan, Chile, what a zine tour that would make...! One day on Twitter we heard about the Bradford zine collective Loosely Bound – the group were opening up a temporary 'pop up' shop for a week: Bradford Baked Zines. We jumped at the chance to send our zines over to be stocked in the shop. Enjoying a rare sunny day in London's Hoxton square, after printing zines in the nearby art library, a couple of members of SW Zines considered taking a trip up north to check out the shop, unsure if the logistics of fares and work shifts would allow it. As we contemplated the idea, Loosely Bound’s Jean McEwan invited us up to do a talk about our Zine collective in the south. On the spot, we knew we had to commit to this, and make it work. With a shuffle of shifts, we were on our way to setting out on our first zine adventure outside of London. People kept saying: ‘Why do you want to go to Bradford?’ It was not a place I had considered visiting, sadly reputations are far stronger than the reality of a place. We said: ‘Why not?’ and early on Friday morning caught the first of three trains to the west Yorkshire city. Walking through Bradford's streets, getting a feel for the place, we felt completely open and free of expectations other than lots of lovely zines. Within five minutes, we were standing in front of a spacious, bright, main street, 'pop-up' shop, resplendent with home-made lettering in the window: 'WHAT IS A ZINE?' From the moment we arrived we were greeted with warmth, and the creative air helped my nerves about the talk fade. Zines lined every shelf, by the time the talks began we each had a pile stacked up to take home (and a month later are still reading!). Next door, the craft shop Handmade in Bradford offered even more treats and browsing. We were left wishing we could buy even more, and it almost made us late for the first talk of the evening at the zine shop! There was a zine library, and I smiled to spot zines by people I respect who make zines I enjoy. Hedgehog in the Fog, + Here in My Head perzines! Jean McEwan of Loosely Bound's amazing Mark E Smith zine! We swapped Fall fanzines :) Legendary indie pop zine, Ablaze, from the 1990s. SWZines' wares, on sale, below..... Glad to be up last for our very first zine talk together, since it gave us time to build up our confidence, and be inspired by the other speakers, the informal atmosphere made the circle of faces less daunting. Hearing the hard work behind How Do? Magazine was heartening and fascinating, and learning about the poetry and unique publishing methods of Longbarrow Press (including their evolution from photocopying, after-hours, at work till the early morning light!) made us smile. Though it felt like our voices were shaking and stumbling, as our zines were passed around and the collective and our history of zine-making and ambitions were explained (one of us completely new to zines; one of us quite the old hand), the thirty minutes and heart hammering was over... and the closing party began! There was a zine tombola, music - and bingo led by bus conductors, with quirky photographs of them as prizes! Our day in
Bradford reached its end far too quickly. With only the next morning left, we got up early, breakfasted in a local pub, then went over and bought many more zines and beautiful handmade crafts in both Handmade Bradford and Bradford Baked Zines shop. We had time to stop and chat at the zine shop, and make more new acquaintances, then said our sad goodbyes. We found it very difficult to leave and we both agreed that we certainly must to go back to this city, with its array of active artists and wonderfully invented, creative, activities and outlets. We wish to thank Jean McEwan and the Loosely Bound Collective of Bradford for warmly welcoming us, and for affording us the opportunity to go to Bradford and meet an amazing bunch of zine-makers, in a brilliant, lively setting. May councils everywhere take note that endeavours like this really make for attractive assets to any town or city. A whole other blog post is warranted to do Handmade Bradford justice for its incredible beautiful wares - coming soon! Apologies for the tardiness of this blog, but once we returned to London from our travels up north, we were literally caught up in a whirlwind of further zine events and creative activity which simply took over! Here's to more zine travels for SW Zines! Loosely Bound Handmade Bradford |
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