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.
Yorkshire city.
(including their evolution from photocopying, after-hours, at work till the early morning light!) made us smile.
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