Month: July 2016

Happy zine month!

I feel so unprepared for July. Like I’m running around trying to put on my socks and pants while trying to do ALL THE THINGS all at once. Is anyone else feeling like that?

I went back and forth a bit but decided that I wasn’t going to post IZM stuff on review days because I like the reviews to have the whole day to be the one post of that day. But thinking about that now and actually typing it out… I think I might be thinking about this all too much.

We’ll see how next week goes.

Anyway, because I am still trying to metaphorically pull on those metaphorical socks, I am going to switch things up here just a smiggle. But I will list what is actually listed for each day.

Day 7: Make some envelopes or postcards for postal week.

I mentioned in this post why I don’t do a lot of mail/envelope art, and that still holds true, unfortunately. So I saw this task and wondered if I really wanted to sit and make envelopes that I

Of course, it was only later that my mind registered the ‘or postcards’ part of the day’s task. Oopsie. Still, I want to go with my original plan and give a hat tip to the current king of mail art: Fishspit. Here’s some of his work:

Day 8: Make a flier for your zine to send with trades.

I have one of those!

However, it’s only just occurred to me as I am typing this post that I might want to make a ‘Don’t Call Me Cupcake’ flier. I’ve only ever created fliers for zines that have calls for submissions. I’d never considered to announce or otherwise advertise (in flier form, anyway) DCMC. Hm. I want to get a new cupcake, if I decide to do it, but I’ll post here with any new fliers.

Day 9: Write a letter to a zine maker you don’t know.

One I don’t know? Huh. Well that’s an interesting pickle. Who do I write to…

I could get silly and pedantic, asking the definition of ‘know’, but I’m going to go with ‘someone you haven’t communicated with before’. I’ve only ever written to two zinesters before (keeping along that definition of ‘know’, that is): Sage of Fat-tastic and Ken of Ken Chronicles. I definitely need to write more responses in general.

It’s about 8.20pm right now, and I’m not going to write a letter tonight (I have a date with a novel I’ve been avoiding writing), so I’m going to defer this so I can have a think about who I want to write to.

Until tomorrow…

Another day, another way to get your zine on in International Zine Month!

Add your zine to or update your ZineWiki.org

If you’re not familiar with Zine Wiki, it’s pretty straightforward – a wiki for zines! It’s a massive directory of zines, zine makers, some events and articles.

I’d already put up pages for my zines a while back, but I updated them insofar as getting up to the latest issues of things.

You can find Dear Anonymous here and Don’t Call Me Cupcake here.

I still need to go back with exact dates, and the descriptions are a bit lackluster, but I’m counting today’s task as sorted. Phew!

Last post today – I promise.

I decided to give today’s International Zine Month task its own post because pictures! Also because I have a confession to make…

My zine life is very unorganised. Today’s task?

Organise Your Zine Collection

I saw today’s task and wondered what I’d gotten myself into. My ‘for keeps’ zines have always gone into a drawer. I haven’t ever stopped to count how many are in there, to organise them in any way or even to put them in orderly piles.

Alas, I saw the task, braved the drawer, and took them all out.

Okay, so my collection might not look impressive, but it is a pile of them. There are plenty hidden underneath the top layer. I put them on my desk and then just kept piling.

At the moment, I am trying to organise everything. My life, my businesses, my desk, my office… I’m a bit burned out for ideas, though.

A basket isn’t the worst idea in the world, but I feel like it’s not exactly the best solution. Or maybe I’m not impressed with myself.

Then again, maybe it’s all wrapped up in the fact that this is only part of the zine organisation situation.

There’s also my zines that I’ve photographed that are ready to be reviewed. (Along with the blue material I use for photo backgrounds, the envelope art/letters I want to save, and a plastic envelope for the extras like postcards and pins that people send along with their zines.)

Then there are the two display stands I used at Festival of the Photocopier and have now started using for the zines that still need to be photographed before being put in the ‘To Be Reviewed’ stacks.

Have I mentioned *my* stock? This box has sewn zines that are ready to ship, folded zines ready to be sewn, covers ready to be folded, envelopes, and the tin where I keep my sewing needles and thread.

And I forgot to photograph my folders where I store my labels, cupcake stickers, so on and so forth.

I’m not at reality show kind of desperate at the moment, but I would welcome any advice, links, links to pictures. I can keep on top of it all, but I don’t like feeling like everything is all over the office in different places.

So… Thoughts?

Catching up! I am embracing my lateness and posting up three zine things at once. Mostly because my life is unexciting in a way that makes combining these things make sense.

Side note: Happy 4th of July to US people.

On to the things!

I was on the road on day two, but I did bring zines with me. Some favourites-to-be (at the time of reading them). (Switching back and forth in time tense is haaard.) Had I been home to read some favourites, you know they would have been on the 100th Zine Review Celebration Awards: All You Need is Zine Love list.

Diiiiistro.

To know Sticky Institute is to love Sticky Institute. <3 I appreciate the big fuzzy love hearts out of that place. Especially since this woman (I apologise if you I identify otherwise) with highlighter blue hair was totally cool and supportive when I started going into panic mode during one visit.

You can definitely order from Sticky by clicking this link or go onto Etsy to find heaps of zines there. This day is a tiny smiggle of a cop out because AusPost shipping stinks, and I’ve been saving my dollars for an in-person visit soon.

That’s really not hard to do. While I am able to get more zines locally now, I’d say a good 75% – 85% of my entire zine collection is not from Australia.

Because I read so many international zines, and because it’s been a very rough time emotionally (nothing wrong – I’m a SAD bipolar bear is all), I’m not going to stress myself by making myself read a zine on top of the other things I’d like to accomplish today. I always want zines to be what I want to read and engage with rather than ever being something I *have* to do.

In the end, it probably doesn’t matter either way to anyone but me, but there it is anyway. 🙂

More to come!