Echoes in Objects: Zine
In my last article I shared some of the amazing photos and ephemera I collected from my grandma’s house that I wanted to use as materials for artmaking. I knew I wanted to make a collage or incorporate this into some sort of book binding project. So to warm up I did a little of both. The first project I made was a zine.
What is a Zine?
Loosely defined, zines are small DIY books (or mini mags) that are self published for small circulation. The process of making and publishing a zine is meant to be highly accessible. They are usually designed on a single sheet of paper that can be photo copied, folded, and distributed.
…this appealed to me….
I like having book projects I can complete relatively fast. This project gave me the huge satisfaction of having a complete book cover, intentional interior design, and some go-with-the-flow freeform experimentation using materials that meant something to me.
My Process
I made an original mock up, folded it, then got to work on collaging. For materials, I used photo copies of a few photos, vintage novel pages I marked up with black and gold ink,. I knew I wanted to make an illegible book so I added some asemic writing to the collage on the spot. The design is loosely based on mid-century editorial fashion and lifestyle magazines. I also wanted to leave some white space as if to suggest “there’s something missing to this story” but also not feel incomplete as a design.
I experimented with copying the unfolded mock up on papers I’d started decorating with calligraphy and mark making but never really did anything with. I really love the variety of results when I layered this on something I already inked.
It was also on very nice creamy linen paper with a lovely texture to it. This made it feel elevated and I can see myself adding more inks on top. Or printing these as foundations for further collage and just framing them.
I got a million ideas from this exercise to follow through on…
