Crafty 2010 - Part 4: Making a zine

Well, writing a zine probably is not strictly a crafty activity, but it's surely one of my different ways to express myself "making tangible actions".

The process doesn't involve only writing, but also drawing, photographing, folding paper, sewing (to bind the finished product).

It was an hard work and time consuming, but - oh! - so exciting!

I wrote (=made) it during my long summer holidays.

It is about something I know very well: iconography and symbolism in art.

I studied history of art at university here in Italy and I loved this subjects. I'm really interested in nature, too, so I decided to write a zine about how natural elements (animals for issue n. 1) are used by artists in their art works and why we have these symbolic meanings.

I decided to focus my work on forests, because, well, I'm a fox! :)

For the title I took ispiration from the poem "Correspondences" by Charles Baudelaire, who wrote about "Forests of symbols".
I added some fun with a tutorial, vintage illustrations, a few pages about italian art, suggestions for readings about animals and forests...
I printed the zine on white A4 paper, photocopied in black and white, binded whit my sewing machine.
All the photos and the drawings in the zine has been made by me.

I sold some of them in my etsy shop and I gave two as a present.

Now I have some leftover copies, but I'm not sure about listing in the shop again. I noticed some errors in the text (my english is not perfect, as my blog often shows!). Probably I'm going to offer them for a swap (something interested? Leave a comment!). Or I'll edit it, correct all errors I found and sell it again.

What do you think about this question?

These are photos of some illustrations I made for this pubblication.

All of them are collected together in a mini-zine (really tiny!): I gave it for free to anyone made an order in my shop for months.

And now?

Passion for zines is not finished. I love this indie form of self-expression: no rules, a lot of possibilities, will to share what you know!

So I'm writing the issue n.2, about symbolism of plants.

I also read some zines I ordered from some Etsy shops.

These are my favourites, if you need suggestions:

- Craft leftovers, rich in ideas for crafters

- Sprout Head, lovely illustrations and poetry in daily life

- Spoonful, sooo beautiful!

- TangleCraft, original with a vintage look.

Have you any other zines to suggest? Please, share with me some titles!