#zinester

This is my ✨shiny ✨ new blog that I am going to use to publish and share my art with the world. Try to get it out there and make a name for myself.

I do quite a few different types of art but I have found that I need to work with my body instead of forcing my body into doing something it doesn’t want to. Because of my chronic conditions I have done a lot of different media testing to find my “home.”

I did try to go to school for art but because of my grandmother dying I dropped out and never finished, besides I was going for photography back when film was still big. I was one or two classes away from graduating and yes I know that I could technically go back but I don’t see the point where I know the techniques anyway. I’m self taught at this point in my life. I don’t have anything else I can really see that makes me want to get up in the morning. Besides my cats and son of course ^.^

I really like working on collages. Using pictures of already real life images and mixing them up, using words and phrases to invoke an emotion or idea, sometimes I like just using over used meme formats. It just depends on what inspired me that moment.

I like making art journal spreads. I tend to buy my journals because my hands can’t handle bookbinding anymore. I also will use different pieces of garbage in my journals and what ever I find if I think it’s neat. Anything nature related like pretty flowers or leaves or neat plants. 🤷 Tea tags and chocolate wrappers are a favorite too.

Other art mediums I love are embroidery.

I see something I like color of the layout, the symbology, the show, or I think it’s clever or I feel passionate about this thing enough that I just want to be aggressively cute about it? I just want to stab some fabric 1000s of times until an image comes out and my shoulders relax. Ya know just like ya mom did and ya grandma. That’s chill tho because everyone has been picking new things because phones have been taken over by AI.

I also have a battle jacket that I have been working on for the better part of 20 years. It’s been a rotating piece of art for decades. I’m shocked it’s still together but that’s saying something for hemp canvas from I think the 70-80s Germany army jacket. She’s a beast. She’s got more on her now and I need to get an update because this is in April. Friends have gifted the Frig! And this was before I started Testosterone as well, so that will be interesting for later on won’t it? I’m still in the process of getting two things done on it so I am kinda at a standstill on her.

I also do a thing called piece work where you sew small bits of fabric together, some punks make entire clothing out of piece work. Patch pants are the most well known of the sort. I just make little bags mostly.

The main projects I tend to focus on at the time are my zines though. I have an on going zine called Cuppa Frig for which this blog is named. It will have day to day bits of my life and my past as well. Eventually I plan on self publishing my autobiography after editing the zines up. My first zines is an instructional piece on my art journals and my process.

The following is the type of things to expect when following this blog

art process

portfolio of projects

History of embroidery

Portfolio of zines

Access to different sources for making your own zines

Piece work projects

Neat junk I have found that might possibly make it to my art someday somehow.

As always be what you want to see more of in the world. If all else fails be kind. Rest when you can. Take as many pictures as possible. Above all. It’s NEVER too late to start over.

I'm getting into making my own zines and yours are a big inspirations (pretty much the first zines I've ever seen and they look awesome), so thank you so much for that! Do you happen to have tips for beginners by any chance?

hi i have not checked my asks in a while so i am so sorry i missed this nearer the time. first of all though this has genuinely made my day so thank you so so much.

my first and most important piece of advice is don't be afraid to make a "bad" zine, zines aren't meant to be perfect and sometimes what you think is going to be a bad zine ends up coming together into something you're really happy with (for me this sometimes doesn't come until i scan it) and even if the zine doesn't turn out how you wanted you have still made something and gotten closer to figuring out what you do/don't like both in terms of look and techniques to use. you by no means have to share the zines you're not happy with but you might also find that some of your least favourite zines are really loved by someone else.

my second piece of advice would be to practice giving yourself restrictions. once you get started it is very easy to end up with a lot of materials to work with and there's nothing wrong with that but sometimes that many options can be overwhelming and hold you back from creating because you want to find the 'perfect' image or background. by limiting yourself to maybe just a couple magazines it forces you to get creative with how you use what you have and also can stave off some perfectionism because your options are limited so you're never going to make a 'perfect' zine.

thirdly, when it comes to finding materials there are so many options for so cheap. it can be tempting when getting into a new hobby to go out and buy a lot of things that you might use but with zines especially you can find so much for free or incredibly cheap. some of my favourite free sources of zine supplies are leaflets/magazines/catalogues whoch you can often find in supermarkets and train/bus stations, diy shops such as b&q and wickes if you're in the uk that sell paint will often have swatches of all the paint colours that are free to take home and these are fun ways to add background colours and you can also find inspiration in the paint names, another type of free samples you can get are wallpaper samples, if you're in the uk dunelm lets you order five wallpaper samples at a time for completely free including postage, if you want to order more justbwait until the previous one has shipped so they don't get cancelled.

if you make a zine which you don't like because of the colours see how it looks in greyscale or black and white, if there's enough texture/contrast this can make the zine look really cool and gets rid of any colour combinations you feel are ruining it

if you want to share your zines but don't have the ability to do that irl you can out them all in a google drive and set them sk they're accessible to anyone with the google drive link and let people print them for themselves. there are also zine libraries and things that might print your zines to have in their library, the london zine box offers free printing and distribution of your zines both in their bixes and at events and you don't need to be based anywhere near london (or even in the uk as far as i know).

my final piece of advice would be to enjoy the process and make zines about whatever you want, don't get caught up in thinking what other people will want to see or wether your zine is too specific/niche. the joy of zines is that they let you make and share art about your own experiences/interests with anyone and there will be people that are interested because they want to learn about other people and what they experience and think and enjoy.

A zine reading kind of morning

Nobody's Diary (Pink Slip Press)

Hello everyone.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I should introduce myself on my website and tell a little bit about myself on the About page.

Then I realized the most obvious answer was right in front of me: I should make a zine about it.

In this zine, I talk about what zine culture means to me, why I’m creating this space, and why I wanted to bring together all these weird, creative people who love paper and handmade stories.

The full zine will be uploaded a little later. It’s already finished, but I’m still working on the website functionality so I can properly add it.

This is the first page — and also the cover.

Made another quick zine during international zine month (though I didn't get around to posting about it now). Yes, I am a writer complaining about writing.

Anyone else struggle with writing? I definitely sure do!

Now, on to scan this in.

My name is Kai. I'm a 17yo queer zinester from the U.S. who makes a lot of minizines about fiction podcasts, music, disability, and queerness, I also make the occasional folio zine.

If you have questions on zinemaking or fiction podcast recommendations or anything of that sort, please do send an ask.

You can support my zines via Ko-Fi @praxiszines

Please DNI if you fw genocide, ICE, Trump, or any forms of transphobia, homophobia, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, ableism, etc.