A pretty parcel containing several different issues has just arrived, from Germany! (Thank you!) I would describe Call My Name zine as being mostly about green living and dreaminess. There is a lot of love for nature and simple living with a respect for the earth. Like the best of perzines, it's also a zine about self reflection and trying to understand the world and yourself, and questioning things a lot, as well as strong personal beliefs and personal politics. It's a beautifully put together zine, with wonderful drawings and snipped out pictures, very dreamy.
One of the most endearing perzines (personal writing zines) in the world, Call My Name, will feature at our zine fair in Wimbledon Library tomorrow!
A pretty parcel containing several different issues has just arrived, from Germany! (Thank you!) I would describe Call My Name zine as being mostly about green living and dreaminess. There is a lot of love for nature and simple living with a respect for the earth. Like the best of perzines, it's also a zine about self reflection and trying to understand the world and yourself, and questioning things a lot, as well as strong personal beliefs and personal politics. It's a beautifully put together zine, with wonderful drawings and snipped out pictures, very dreamy.
0 Comments
Zine parcels have just arrived from Belgium, and Bradford! Thank you to Jean McEwan and Echo Publishing! What with many other contributions in person, and by post, there's a huge stash of zines waiting for everyone on Saturday. A free mini zine has been copied up, and posters have been made, sweets have been bought... William Morris oven gloves have been photocopied as well, which must be my oddest photocopier moment yet but all will become clear...
Zine industry is still afoot, as there is still just about time to make that last zine idea, I'm convinced! We're all really looking forward to colourful displays of zines, interesting conversations, and a general air of creative celebration. Internet stuff has been quiet for SWZines as a project, but zine reading and making has remained active, with ideas and talk continually flowing, and new connections and inspiration instilled. Between our last update, and this blog, I am sad to report that we experienced the passing of legendary editor of A Short Fanzine About Rocking: Nick Mann. Nick's long‐running, well respected fanzines went way back, as I remember his fanzines being mentioned on the radio in the early 2000s: they were stocked in the great Banquet Records in Kingston, and SW Zines regularly carried and sold Nick's zines at events around London. In Nick, zines have lost real heart and soul. There are plans to carry on celebrating Nick's zines, including through archive work, so expect blog updates here and elsewhere about this. I feel it more important than ever to be involved in zines and be active about zines. There are still so many opportunities to introduce people to zines and open up that world of freedom, expression, understanding, inspiration, of giving everyone a platform; a voice. It has long been a dream to instigate a zine fair in a public library in SW London, and now it is, at last, a reality. I'm excited to report that we have booked a cosy corner of Wimbledon public library to host our first zine fair! On Saturday 14th November, at Wimbledon Zine Fair, zine makers from all over London, as well as from Croydon, Dorset, and Brazil will be hosting tables of their zines, which you can browse and buy. There will also be zines on sale from: Bradford, Nottingham, Germany, Belgium, and Australia (so far!).
Joining us will be:
... amongst many other brilliant, creative people. We are also hoping to be joined by The Feminist Library (London). We will have a rare array of zines from the last of Marching Stars Distro's stock, as they are about to close down. We have carefully planned a wide range of ephemera, including: perzines (personal zines), music zines, travel zines, poetry zines, art zines, gardening/eco zines, and more, with library visitors in mind. We want to introduce you to zines if they are new to you, and libraries seem an ideal environment. Since it happens to be World Vegan Month, we will be giving away free vegan sweets. In addition, there will be a table of vegan and vegetarian zines and information to inspire. The setting is a Victorian public library, dating back to 1886, from the arts and crafts era, so there is also chance to enjoy the space, and appreciate the library stock. Our extremely grateful thanks to the artist Lisa Stockley, for her creation of our official zine fair poster, resplendent with merry wombling! She would love to be paid for art commissions, so do check out her website. Any questions, ideas, suggestions, or to RSVP, please just get in touch! SW Zines has been taking a necessary rest break. But we ended 2013 with a brilliant 'zine social at Housmans radical bookshop in Kings Cross. We promoted as widely as we could and contacted as many 'zine makers directly as was physically possible (!) for an evening of 'zines, chat, beer, homemade cake, discovery and inspiration. The night promoted Housmans' existing collection of 'zines for sale, and sourced a whole load of new ones. Hope to get the chance to write in depth about all the wonderful 'zines soon, but for now, behold some images. (And sorry it has taken so long, but firstly Weebly stopped functioning for us so we were unable to update, and then we just needed to rest our tired souls). Thank you to everyone who came along, brought 'zines, bought 'zines, and made the night what it was: fun! And if you couldn't make it, you can still pop to Housmans any day to browse and buy 'zines as well as their excellent stock of magazines, political books, and so on. Great big thanks goes to Housmans for having us. Many thanks also to Sabina Lucia for her excellent photography on the night. We're so grateful to all involved. http://boardoffun.wordpress.com/
http://earthlingbrains.blogspot.co.uk/ http://emmajanefalconer.blogspot.co.uk/ http://www.jackbroughamdrawing.com/ http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/starswirl http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TwoMagpiesEditorial http://www.etsy.com/people/vickyannsmith http://www.homebakedbooks.co.uk/mypimp.htm http://www.housmans.com/ We are now taking names of distros and individuals who wish to have FREE SELLING SPACE at our zine social at Housmans radical book shop, Kings Cross, on Saturday December 7th.
Please email us now to guarantee your spot at this zine event, as you will not be able to just turn up on the night! This is a zine social, so if you read zines and want to come meet their makers, eat cake, drink a beer, in this amazing book shop, please just turn up on the night from 7pm, entry free, all welcome. Alternative Press Fair 2013: No Dark Places @ The Albert, Queens Park, NW London, 1st June, 20138/17/2013 SW Zines felt so privileged to be part of the Alternative Press Fair this year! I have been attending over the years, and had previously applied for a stall, so it was wonderful to be afforded such a chance this year. No Dark Places was lovingly organised and set in The Albert community centre in Queens Park, north west London, which was a new area to head to for a zine event. These photos make it seem like it was a rainy day, but I remember sunniness. I was delighted to see vegetables growing on the site. Grow vegetables everywhere, in every possible style and space for all, I say! No Dark Places also incorporated a day of live music. I had no idea till we got to The Albert that a band I really love, Capitol K, were playing. They are electronica ace. We knew we'd be too exhausted from early rise, hauling heavy goods, and a day of talking and selling, etc, to stick around for the live music, sadly (comment about it, if you saw Capitol K, please do). Maybe if we didn't work so much so hard all week and if we lived much more local. We did catch a couple of sets, though, more on that later... SW Zines' stall, after set up. Wish you could also see the pretty woodland themed decoration (pretty paper and real pine cones) underneath the zines - my photos are never my best on these days, so caught up in nerves and fretting and such! I had brought along a bunch of woodland creature themed stuff, in aid of the badgers and against the badger cull. Had dates worked out differently (the stall application was put in months ago - but I would never cancel this anyway), I would have been at the protest in central London this day, but I did a small bit by making a special mini zine and putting word out. Here are some of the books and posters I had brought along to decorate the wall behind us: I decided to re-appropriate the sketch of a badger by Yan of the band British Sea Power for a t-shirt for the day, too - with added badges bought at the zine fair! (book and pint!). Library themed zines I had printed up especially, on request, for Holly of Cool Schmool zines. On arrival at Alternative Press Fair: We were sat in between two inspiring female artists. Here is Alex Brady's stall, her speciality is lino-cut prints. I bought a mini zine of her work (as pictured in the middle). Also next to us was http://www.etsy.com/shop/worriedeyes with her wonderful paintings, sketches, biro drawings, postcards, stickers. I'm afraid I chatted to her so much I forgot to photograph her stall! I bough a beautiful postcard, and we did an exchange of our work too. Now things get blurry, especially as so much time has passed (apologies again, this blog took such a long time to get written, so much has happened and taken over and I just am not able to blog as instantly as I once might've). So, here are lots of photos of various stalls from the day. If I don't name/identify you, please be forgiving and don't take it personally, and hopefully you'll appreciate what a whirlwind these events can be - before, during, and after! Next time I will make more notes, try to be better organised - please just email me with any web links to add, or if you'd like a mention, etc! I did go out from behind our own stall to talk to people, look at their work with care/interest, buy loads and load of stuff, though! I always make a point of doing this - if you're not interested in what else is out there, part of the point and so much community is lost. Photo overload, I hope you don't mind! So many pretty things around at this year's Alternative Press Fair! There were events going on throughout the day. I think Jimi Gherkin ran this one. The only bummer about running a zine stall is missing out on the events 'cos you can't leave your table too long! There was a letter-press machine (woah!): Plates for creating postcards: There was a notebook doing the rounds, to be compiled into an on-the-day zine - theme was things you want to learn: Swimming pool rock! (yeah!) Award for prettiest zine stall/wares this day goes to Princesa Pirata distro from Bristol! Princesa Pirate became my new spot of heaven. This distro's remit of: feminism, mental health, sexuality/relationships, anarchism/radical politics, and the most beautiful array of crafts such as the above immensely colourful postcards and patches, is all just so perfect and mood-boosting and life-affirming. Instantly spent double figures here. The distro owner had travelled from Bristol to be here, and I loved the old suitcase simply opened out to display things, pulled along on a bike trailer then by train. A distro so inspiring, makes me want to be back in Bristol again! It's such an ace place for art/artists/alternative thinking. There was also a table of free zines on this day, and there was a spot of zine swapping, and selling to distros, all very positive.
The organisers were champion in their work, and I look forward to any further things they organise/create/do! - Here's to Rose Nordin and Amneet Johal, and everyone involved in the hard work of putting it on, plus the zine makers and zine readers who made this event too. Here's to next year's! www.alternativepress.org.uk Date for your diary!
Saturday 7th December, 2013 SW Zines will be hosting a Christmas 'Zine Social', at the radical bookshop Housmans. Our poster/flyers are still in the making, but we wanted to let this date and info out into the world, as we are far too excited to keep it to ourselves! Events Page has the fine details. We will be writing more about this in the coming months, as you're all invited - and your zine work too. Getting ready for tomorrow's Alternative Press Fair! We have a stall with so many zines, from a variety of people from SW London, Surrey, and beyond. Stock-taking, pricing, and packing.... Some wildlife and badger-related literature, for the stall - since I cannot make it over to the protest march against the badger cull, that is taking place, it's nice to raise awareness: Lastly, some specially printed early editions of the perzine Athemaura, all with a library theme, made for somebody by request! Come to Alternative Press Fair tomorrow, such a variety of inspiring small press/independently produced art books, zines, pamphlets, and art on sale!
http://www.alternativepress.org.uk/index.php/events/ Limner Journal stall. The shop was decorated to the hilt with art prints, sketches, crafts, collages... Above photo includes work by organiser and musician Yo Sushi. Hand crafted CDs on sale. DIY art and stitching! Including Bleeding Heart Narrative. Alas, I was too poor to buy the lovely things this day. Leopard print! (Please contact me if wish me to edit with author details. Apologies for me going photo happy without getting proper credits for all...) SW London & Surrey Zines and OOMK, with added cake ! Drawings by Yo Sushi. SW London & Surrey Zines, when we were packed for the off, in the morning for the event.
Full blog in depth blog from us about the day....... coming soon! |
SW Zines blogRead about SW Zines activities and latest news here. Categories
All
|