5 new (to me) amazing zines to read

More than three years have gone from my last post about zines! 

Can you believe it?

I was addicted to zines reading in the past and, though I still love this kind of self-expression form, I haven't bought (and reviewed) one in years.

I was surfing Etsy some days ago and I had the idea to look for some zines that appeal to me (you know, I need something to read this summer, expecially because I've recently discovered that I love to read near the sea).

I found a lot of new (to me) zines I like. 

Five of them are amazing, in my opinion, for their topic, or the style, or the quality of the illustrations.

I haven't bought them yet, because I'm still doing some researches, but I decided to tell you something about them, just to spread the zine love :)

These zines are about some of my favourite topics:

• plants
• cats
• being a woman
• being an introvert

Want to know something more? I'm introducing them to you!

1. Winter wild, a zine about plants life in winter, by Kriski

I love the topic, but most of all, the style of drawing and lettering. So tidy and organized, but funny and modern.

The colours too are lovely, among my favourites!

And it's a big zine: 20 pages to look and read!

Kristyna Baczynsky, the author, says in the description: this book is a blend of writing, research, drawings and comics about ten different plant specimens; all drawn in detail for identification. An illustrated selection of historical, scientific and mythological facts.

It sounds good!

2. Self love zine, by LollieWorley

First of all, you can download it in .pdf, if you like!

Very good! Expecially for people who don't like to waste paper and like eco-friendly solutions like these.

The topic is amazing: self-love, a thing a lot of people need to work on.

Inside it has a cut&paste style I really like: it gives to the zine a handmade look, very well arranged here.

3. Illustrated women in history, by Apalelandscape

The one with the most professional look in this selection.

It looks so well organized and rich in text! It's more similar to a printed book than to a zine, but I appreciate it the same, because I like to read other women's stories and to be inspired by them!

21 biographies of talented women inside!

And (shame on me!) I know only a few of them.

4. Cat state of mind, by Nathalie Moore

I love cats! Not only mine, all cats!

And I also do my best, here and then, to draw their lovely faces and tails and paws, but I'm not so good in cats' drawing! -___- 

(I go on and go on filling my Moleskine with flowers!)

So it's very interesting for me that in this zine there are 20 pages of doodles about cats' world to be inspired by. And the title is quite funny for all people who know cats and do their best to read into their mysterious minds.

The author is Nathalie Moore (click to go on her blog).

5. Creativity for introverts, by BusyWeekends

This one is part of a serie of zines dedicated to creativity into the life of introvert people (like me). You can start from here or from other zines of the serie.

Great idea + cut&paste style I love + very interesting topic.

Don't you think they are lovely?

All these zines have english text.

I'd really like to found interesting zines in italian, too, but I haven't found nothing remarkable yet. Zine making is not common in Italy, probably because we have been too busy in making different kinds of art for centuries, ahaha :)

Let me know in the comments if you know italian good zines

AND/OR

if you have zines to suggest me (you know what I like to read: crafts, books, nature, art, eco-friendly life, travelling, growing as a woman).

A photo book ("my creative family" serie)

Happy new year!!! :)

I hope you have spent this magic night in good company.

I did!

My sweet friends were with me and S. :)

And we saw together amazing fireworks!

I'm opening the year of my blog with a post about "my creative family". I want to show you what my brother gave me as a Christmas gift: a handmade photographic book about handmade clothes into a handmade case :)

A 100% handmade gift, ah ah (and I love it!).

He realized it together with her girlfriend and some other creative friends: among them a girl who designs and sews the clothes worn in the photos (her name in the last photo - back cover of the book).

On the photo they wrote by hands funny things in english (so you can read it, you're lucky! :P). A lovely project!

Every kind of self-publishing really excites me!

This is my favourite page:

I really like the message in the back cover ("because a handmade thing is definitely handsome"):

Yes, It's true!

This little book (printed at home in ten copies) is saved into a fabric case closed by a zipper: Costanza made it and my sister-in-law decorated it with that heart with a cross.

This is probably one of the best gifts I received this year!

Happy mail recently!

Nothing warms up a day like happy things in the mailbox! :)

Expecially when you're very far from home, like me, and an envelope is from your beloved aunt!

And when you have a special passion for indie-publishing and in the second envelope there is one of your favourite art zines!

 

 

AuntFran's envelope

Guess what AuntFran sent me?

Some crafty things, of course! You probably know that she is my partner-in-crime in my crafty adventures and she is a super talented knitter and crocheter (uhm... does this word exist? Not sure at all).

She surprized me with an envelope filled with 20 crocheted bracelets and 8 pairs of crocheted earrings *____*

 

She made them for my shop, but I can keep my favourite for me, of course.

So this one is my new lilac bracelet:

 

 

Lovely!

I also like the navy blue bracelet, the dark blue earrings and the lilac earrings; probably I'll add them to my (little) collection of handmade jewellery:

 

 

After some problems with the photos (bad light!!!), I listed three bracelets in my shop: one is pale pink, one is dark blue, one is canary yellow.

 

 

 

My aunt is a special woman. I'm so happy to have her in my life :)

 

The zine

In the second envelope I found a zine I ordered some days ago from Sprouthead shop: 'Minutiae n. 3 - Cicada song'.

This isn't the first time I buy Aijung Kim's zines, but I have all the issues of 'Minutiae' and other zines (here what I ordered last december).

I like her style in drawing and the simple content (about daily life and finding joy in small things).

In this zine there's something different from the past issues: she started to use a typewriter for some pages, and the fonts make a beautiful mix with the handwritten parts.

There's also something new in her images, like the use of tiny line drawing not only to make shadows or filling the shapes, but also to define the contours (a thing that really impressed me):

 

 

I found in the envelope also two little gifts: another sheet of faux postage stamps and a card of Aijung Kim's big project "The golden moth illumination deck".

Very good shopping experience and nice reading moments for me! :)

 

 

 

 

Embroidery update

My vintage-recycled embroidery project is almost finished!

I work on it during those moments of spare time when I can do nothing else; 5 minutes of stitching a day.

Have you ever considered how can you reach working only 5 minutes a day? :)

It's surprising!

This is my towel at the moment, with finished and unfinished parts:

I haven't started any rabbit yet.

I'm a bit afraid to make them ugly and I'm not sure about the colors... beige, dark brown, black, grey? uhm uhm...

Though my stiches aren't firm and precise, I'm quite happy about those mushroooms and all the butterflies (I realized them with different kinds of stitches):

I've have to be honest: this is not my first experience with embroidery. When I was a child I learned the basilar stitches and finished some little projects, but it didn't capture me (I was too busy in drawing and exploring nature and reading).

I learned how to embroider thanks to... a group of nuns who gave lessons to young girls (a thing probably very odd for my not-italian readers, I suppose!).

Now this new (to me) crafty activity is fascinating me, so I bought issue 3 of AndStitches, a lovely e-zine written by Carina and Nicole.

Well, it's time to go on studying on my books. These hot temperatures (35°C now) will not help, but I'm strong enough :)

"The power of craft compels you"... a zine by Jen Williams

I'm writing from my parents' pc; I'm at home for the holidays!

Though I feel like my home is in the south now, near S., I still consider this one in the north my home. I have two places in the world I consider "home"... isn't it great? :)

Well, I arrived yesterday and I found here a lot of lovely things I want to show you soon. The first one is a zine I ordered some weeks ago. It has a great title "The power of craft compels you!".

This zine has been made by Jen in 24 hours, an interesting creative action and challenge, I think! It is about her passion for all kind of craft activities. If you are a passionate crafter, you will sure see yourself in Jen's words!

Read for example this passage: "It's not secret that I am completely craft obsessed. It's pretty much all I do in my free time. DIY anything is my most favorite thing and what makes me happy and keeps me sane".

Uhm, oh, I understand :)

I love this page about sewing (with a probably vintage illustration), of course:

And the following page, too, when Jen writes about how her mother taught her to sew.

This zine is lovely, as the other three zines by Jen I've purchased and read in the past (Handmaiden n.1 and 2 and Simple Pleasures).

Buy it!

In Jen's shop you can find also lovely crocheted creatures like this funny octopus.

And if you're thinking I'm a bit obsessed by reading zines (two consecutive posts about zines, I know!)... consider that I've ordered also three zines I hope to receive for the holidays! :)

There is a lovely rabbit stickers on the envelope, saying "Hi!" :)

Two new (to me) zines by Aijung Kim

Last week I received a lovely envelope from USA; inside I found two zines I've ordered from Sprouthead, a lovely Etsy shop managed by Aijung Kim.

They are "Minutiae n. 1" and "We carry each other".

Both lovely, well printed on strong paper, full of author's poetic style.

My favourite is "We carry each other", an illustrated poem about love and reciprocity. Though I'm not an ardent reader of poetry (I like best novels) and reading it in a language different from italian is difficult for me, I really appreciated the message of the poem.

But most of all I felt in love with drawings... so sensitiv, connected with the words, strong in their deep black, rich in their meaning!

This is my favourite page:

I also like Aijung Kim's attention for little details, as you can see (to make only one example) here:

"Minutiae n. 1" is a bit different, being a sort of visual diary of some summer days in Portland. I've read "Minutiae n. 2" last november and they are similar.

Reading them, you can take a peek into another life, another sensibility and a different way of watching life. Nothing too much serious or important, but inspiring :)

Look at this page, isn't it lovely?

Together with the zines I received a little gift, a card with some drawings of... faux postage stamps!!! *__*

You know how I love to draw little stamps (and how I've become a bit obsessed). This card made me jump for a happy surprise, it's a great gift for me! :)

And I'm so lucky that the real stamps on the envelope aren't stamped, so I can remove them to collect them somewhere, probably in my moleskine.

A zine about collage by Tattered Edge

It's time to talk again about zines' world!
I love this form of self-expression!

Recently I've purchased two mini-zines written by a canadian girl (Lelainia) who runs an Etsy shop called "Tattered edge".
One of them, "Collage and composition", was in my birthday wish-list. I started to be interested in collage this spring, but I was a bit confused about how to start and what to consider when working on collages, so this little book seemed very interesting to me.
The second one I've purchased, "Tipography: art by the letters", captured my attention because I like fonts and everything is typography-related. So I added it to my cart and paid.

I quickly received them in a beautiful recycled envelope, made of a folded magazine page (probably a magazine about art). On the back I found amazing canadian stamps with two of my favourite animals, butterfly and dragonfly (do you remember my recent love for stamps?).

Both the zines were packed in a plastic envelope. Lelainia sent me also a little gift I'll try to use in my future collages for sure!

"Collage and composition" is my favourite. It is a small work of 8 pages, but it has also a cover with inner pockets with two samples of collage to watch carefully. It's a simple and clear text, parted in five chapters ("Scale", "Color value", "Texture and depth", "Creating the layout", "Finishing touches"); the chapter about colors is my favourite.

If you are interested in Lelainia's work you can also read her blog.

And now, please, help me: can you explain me why I'm so scared by making a collage?
Have you links of tutorials or ispirations about this art to share with me?
Probably I already know the solution: I have only to try and follow what my creativity suggests me. I know, I know.

Poppies Shirley

Nine rainy and cold days: this is what we had here in the north of Italy in early June (and weather forecastings say that we're going to have rain till sunday).

All is wet and sky is grey.

So tonight I decided to light and warm up the day with two photos of my poppies Shirley I took in May, when weather was still sunny, hot and full of light.

They have a story.

Last year, in July, I purchased the zine "A bit of earth": it is about one of my favourite books, "The secret garden".

Together with the zine I received a little envelope with poppies shirley's seeds. Lovely idea!

But July wasn't the right month to plant poppies in Italy, because temperature is too high (we usually have poppies in May and June).

So I saved the seeds and I planted them last march in a small pot. And now... they are blooming!!!

The first I saw was light pink, the second was deep red. They are so delicate and small, different from wild poppies I'm used to see in wheat fields near home.

I know that poppies Shirley can be also white; I hope to find some white flowers in my pot one of these days!

But, hey, rain, go away! My poppies need light to bloom!

Simple pleasures

"I get so excited when I open up my little mailbox and it's full of zines and such.

Good mail always cheers me up"

Jen William in Simple pleasures

"Simple pleasures" is a lovely little zine written and illustrated by Jen Williams, known in the web as "Squidhead".

I received it in the mail  some days ago and I felt as descripted in the quote above: so excited!
It was an incredible hot afternoon here in Italy and reading it, after job, it was so relaxing! I bought it with her mini-comic "The gentleman octopus" (funny!).

This is not the first zine I purchase from Jen: last february I received her "Handmaiden's voyage" n.1 and n.2 and they both were really cute! :)

"Simple pleasures" is about everyday happiness.
Jen wites (and draws) about some things she is happy for in her daily life (craft, animals, favourite recipes, music, readings and so on).
Her style is so spontaneus and fresh! I love it! And her ability in cut&paste tecnique, too.

The page in the photo is my favourite. It really speaks to my soul of crafty girl always looking for something new to learn and experiment.

I received the zine in an envelope with a funny and full-of-love sticker. Jen also sent me a card with a warm message to me: it is in my moleskine now.

Thank you, Jen, for sending me, together with your zine, kindness, inspirations and good cheer :)

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY

Needing some good books

I decided to abandon "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" (in italian "Una ragazza da Tiffany"). Yes, I haven't finished it yet and I have to confess that I'm not interested in knowing the end of this novel and what happened in Clara's life. It's a boring reading. I don't like Clara. I'm sorry.

I tried to force me to finish it before pick up other books, because I've read 420 pages and I feel "obliged" to read the other 80 pages. But the only result was that... I haven't read nothing, not this one and not other books, nothing!

Strange thing for me!

Ok, I need some good books: absorbing novels (a biography? another Tracy Chevalier's one?), good craft or ispirational books, pubblications about happyness and good life, even children books (I have to re-read Astrid Lindgren).

Suggestions? 

I think I will go to the city library next wednesday and I'll probably submit an order to amazon.

I'm really interested in craft books, expecially in those who speak about sewing and in my new passion: patchwork.

My problem is that there are tons of these books out there and I'm a bit confused. What book is for me?

"Patchwork style" by Suzuko Koseki? "Patchwork for beginners"? Or "The practical guide to patchwork"?

I don't know.

I also like "Design it yourself clothes" by Cal Patch, "Make Your Own Clothes: 20 Custom Fit Patterns to Sew", by Marie Clayton and "Simple Sewing with a French Twist".

And books about softies making?

Too much, I know!

But I'm sure to order two italian books about a personal problem I want to solve and "Watcha mean, what's a zine", in my wish list from last summer.

Planning my weekend

I usually work from tuesday to saturday morning, so my weekend goes from now (saturday afternoon, after a deep snap I took on the sofa, eh eh) to monday.

I always have big projects for my free days, but not always I succeed in make them active and gratifying. Probably a list will help me! :)

I'm a bit obsessed by making lists; I think that they are really useful!

I write them on my weekly planner, when they are about work, and on my moleskine notebook, if they concern all other activities of my life (craft, etsy, love and friends, projects for my new home, gardenind, cosmetics to try, book to get out of the library...).

Lists are useful not only because they help you to remember, but mainly because they "force" you to be mindful about your life.

So... let's go: THINGS I WANT TO DO THIS WEEKEND!

1. See two special guys (my friends P. and M.) for a beer.

2. Write a page or two of my new zine.

I decided to write it in italian in the first place and then traslate it in english. I've already written four pages about plants' symbolism. These are two black and white illustrations I realized for it.

3. Sewing something with the beautiful sheets of italian damask I received from a friend who works as upholsterer. They were part of an old pattern book and he was going to throw them away, but I arrived and saved them! Recycling girl stroke again!

I washed them and ironed: they revealed bright colors under the dust!
I will sew bag and pouches with theme! I love second-hand craft materials!!!

I also have some recycled brown leather to match with them.

4. Reading!

I'm finishing "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" by Susan Vreeland. Uhm, it disappointed me a bit. I don't like the carachter of Clara and the plot is boring. I like the descriptions of the creative process in glass art, instead, but this is not enough for me to appreciate this book.

5. Drawing!

And you? Have you great plans for your weekend?

Feel free to share them with me!

Six zines in the mail, this week! Yes, six!!!

There is a special thing to do to restore your brain and body when you come home from work and you feel tired: reading something that can inspire new ideas and fresh energy!

This is what I did during this hard week, particularly because I received six zines, four from Katie and two from Jen!

Yes, six!!! Can you believe it? Six zines in a week. Oh, I love them all!

Tonigh I want to write a tiny rewiev about them.

The green bean - issues 1, 3, 4, 7

Last January I won a 20 $ voucher to spend in Katie's shop.

She writes and illustrates a beautiful zine that I bookmarked in my favourites some months ago. So you can imagine my joy when I realized to have 20 $ to spend for purchasing them! I'm a lucky girl, I know!

Well, I ordered four issues (1, 3, 4, 7) of "The green bean" and I received them a week later my purchase (Katie is really a kind girl and fast in shipping).

These are photos of my favourite pages of issue 1.

I really like her style: the thin lines, the attention for details, the interesting sense for black and white.

In this zines Katie speaks about her world and shares with us some tutorials and recipes. I've particularly enjoyed all the books' reviews, the "what I wore" sections, and the shopping guide of Bristol (mainly in drawings, of course).

Handmaiden - issues 1 and 2

I discovered Jen's zines surfing through Etsy pages in January and I purchased both issues she has in her shop.

Jen's zines are different from Katie's.

There is less space for drawings and more for text (and I like to have words to read!) and they are made with the traditional cut&paste tecnique.

I love the way she uses this tecnique, particularly when she paste the text on decorated backgrounds, as you can see in the following photos.



She inspired me to try some cut&paste pages; I've always snubbed this possibility, because I had no idea of the beautiful effects you can reach with it. But now... I have to try!

Jen's zines inspired me also to "take it easy" in this kind of activities, and I needed it.

I like in particularly that she speaks about recycle, thrift, ways to be greener in our daily life and simple crafts. These are subjects so ... "MadameRenard style"!

And now...

Now I'm waiting for another zine: the famous "Christmas digest" by Diane Gilleland. I hope it will be soon in my home.

If you are interested in zines like me...

... here you can find a post about the zines I've read (and wrote) in 2010

... have you any zine to suggest me?

Crafty 2010 - part 5: Drawing and painting

When, in July, I read "The happiness project" I found particularly true an advice on having more fun; in her book Gretchen Rubin suggests to remember what made us happy when we were child and... do it now!

I've immediatly noticed that this was an excellent suggestion; I was experimenting it with drawing just in those days!

In july, in fact, I re-started to draw, because I wanted original illustrations for my zine about animals ('Forests of symbols', n. 1).

I made some works with a nib and black ink and I liked all of this activity: the whole process, the good smell of ink and paper, the sensation of give life to creatures that were in my mind... all!

And when I read Gretchen Rubin's words I remembered that, when I was a child, my favourite hobby (together with reading books) was drawing.

Probably the best gift I received in my childhood was a little "artist's suitecase": it was full of felt tip-pens, crayons, watercolors and temperas with brushes, charcoals, paper... I liked it so much!!! I spent a lot of afternoons with it.

Well, in 2010 I re-started to make this really happy (for me) activity.

After the black&white illustrations for my zine, I experimented with watercolor pencil on a moleskine watercolor notebook.

I made also a lot of drawings in my moleskine journal, changing radically my way to journal, that became more visual and less "wordy".

Probably the book "The creative license" by Danny Gregory helped me in this transition. It's really a good reading.

(This is the last post about my creative 2010. You can read the othe posts here: knitting, carvin stamps, sewing, making a zine)

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!