Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Making of a zine
A zine? What's that? That was what I first thought when I read an article in Somerset Studio a few months ago about The Gleaner Zine. Eventually, I found my way to the Yahoo Group called (surprise surprise) TheGleanerZine. I joined, and now take part in their zine swaps, which are a ton of fun. I have just finished my second zine. When I was creating my very first zine, I had never seen one before outside of a few internet images and a couple of articles in Somerset. I couldn't really find a lot of info online about them. So, I decided for my second zine, to take pictures of it and post the process that I went through to create the zine. Maybe this will help someone else out who is just getting started in the zine world. And if not, it's a new post on this quiet blog, LOL.
This zine was a bit of an experimentation. I've been wanting to try out paste papers for awhile now, and when I finally did, I ended up with several sheets, so I decided to cut those up and use those for my pages in my zine. I used 2 different recipes to make my paste papers. I used a flour recipe and a cornstarch recipe. I found that I preferred the cornstarch. It was a lot creamier and easy to spread, and it dried a lot more flexible and with a slightly shiny look to it. The flour pages are more dull, and they they also crack a lot - but despite the cracking, they stay attached to the paper, so the cracks just give it more personality. Here is a website where I found the recipes I used: Paste Paper I used orange RIT dye and Pink poster paint for the coloring. They dried incredibly bright, although the pink flour paper dried a lot paler. I used combs and my kid's textured bath toys to make designs in the paper. I did this on a variety of paper - regular cardstock, watercolor paper, and thin drawing paper. It took about 24-48 hours for the paper to dry, and then I did the other side of all the paper, and then it also took a couple of additional days of pressing the paper under heavy books to flatten them. So it was about a week long process just to make the pages for the zine.
Gathering my supplies....
the end results
When they were all dried and flattened, I cut them up into individual pages - they are about 4x3 (which I would not recommend. It's just a little too small, I think.)
I had also experimented with some
simple paint collages, that I decided
to cut up and include as well.
This zine was a bit of an experimentation. I've been wanting to try out paste papers for awhile now, and when I finally did, I ended up with several sheets, so I decided to cut those up and use those for my pages in my zine. I used 2 different recipes to make my paste papers. I used a flour recipe and a cornstarch recipe. I found that I preferred the cornstarch. It was a lot creamier and easy to spread, and it dried a lot more flexible and with a slightly shiny look to it. The flour pages are more dull, and they they also crack a lot - but despite the cracking, they stay attached to the paper, so the cracks just give it more personality. Here is a website where I found the recipes I used: Paste Paper I used orange RIT dye and Pink poster paint for the coloring. They dried incredibly bright, although the pink flour paper dried a lot paler. I used combs and my kid's textured bath toys to make designs in the paper. I did this on a variety of paper - regular cardstock, watercolor paper, and thin drawing paper. It took about 24-48 hours for the paper to dry, and then I did the other side of all the paper, and then it also took a couple of additional days of pressing the paper under heavy books to flatten them. So it was about a week long process just to make the pages for the zine.
Gathering my supplies....
the end results
When they were all dried and flattened, I cut them up into individual pages - they are about 4x3 (which I would not recommend. It's just a little too small, I think.)
I had also experimented with some
simple paint collages, that I decided
to cut up and include as well.
