I just finished a new zine (and my first of 2014!) entitled Brown Girl.
As the title suggests it's all about being a brown girl. Featuring several stories of personal experience, family life and of course hair!
I have also re-stocked my Without you I'm Nothing zine (the one about me being a massive Placebo obsessive for a good chunk of my life)
Pick 'em up at MY ZINE SHOP HERE!
Last month I was working on a commission, recreating the front cover of Elastica's debut album in felt....
I really enjoyed doing it, trying to capture Elastica's moody and sullen looks! I also repeatedly listened to the album whilst I made it, sometimes I forget how good that album is. I also discovered a video for Car Song that I had never seen before, it's a bit crazy....
The last post I did was saying my exhibition was now up at Turnpike gallery in Leigh, this week the exhibition is coming down, it's been received really well.
But what have I been up to since then?
Mostly zine related business!!
My friend Em and I finally collected together some awesome stories from working class folk around the subject of work and put them together in Poor Lass zine. The reaction to the zine has been great and we're currently working collecting more pieces for issue two, get more info on our Facebook page.
I met with some uni students who are making a body image zine with highschool students in East Manchester and chatted to those guys about making a zine and how is nothing to be afraid of!
I got commissioned to make a zine for a brilliant pilot scheme based in Manchester called The National Ugly Mugs Scheme. A scheme that aims to make sex workers safer. More information on the scheme is on their website. I really enjoyed making this zine and I hope the scheme manages to carry on.
I had a (far too rare) trip across the Pennines for Sheffield Zine fest. It was loads of fun, gotta to see lots of my favourite trans pennine faces, sell some bits, chat to new people AND go down a helter skelter slide!!!
More fun was had when Kandy and I fulfilled a lifelong (teenage!) dream of dressing up as Cher and Dionne from Clueless! Here's how we did it!
I'm, as always, working on Sugar Paper with Kandy, we're on #11!! who would have thought! This issue has a loose circus/seaside theme. Hopefully be out late spring (you now when it's actually stopped snowing!)
Also working with Kandy and our pal Alison on something super exciting that should materialise late spring, watch this space!
This weekend was meant to be spent working on those two projects, but yesterday it was announced that one of my favourite bands (and biggest inspirations) are to be no more. If you have seen my work, you know that My Chemical Romance feature heavily in a lot of it.
I won't go on about it here, my friend Holly wrote a blog post that sums up how I feel about the whole thing.
So yesterday was mainly spent feeling a bit blergh and so I went and got a new tattoo. I will miss them, but have to remember the good times and remember this....
I recently made the cover of my all time favourite concept album* for a friends birthday. Sadly my camera broke so I didn't get chance to take a photo of it out of the frame.
*all this talk of concept albums make me sound like I'm one of the boys from Freaks & geeks, ie a concept album, prog loving stoner, but I'm not (sadly) I probably only own 5 concept albums an all were made post 90s!
In celebration of International Zine Month (and because I felt like it was long overdue) I made a Placebo zine!
It's an autobiographical affair, about how I have spent more than half of my life being a Placebo fan. It's a celebration of fandom!
Now available in my zine shop!
So the other month I went to see Placebo (a band I have spent many an hour on) and was thinking about all the love and time I invested in that band. The, past weekend I went on some weird nostalgia trip and started listening to old and 'obscure' songs like this and I realised something, in my 17 years of fandom (yes 17 long years!!) I never once thought of or even tried to write a Placebo zine. So I feel like now is the time. I bet you all can't wait!
It probably won't materialise until 2013 (if at all, I'm always making at least 3 zines at once and only 1 ever sees the light of day!).
But be prepared to find out how much of an obsessive loser I actually am!
I got commissioned to make the cover of my (2nd) favourite concept album ever made. I was really excited to make this one and hope I did it justice!
So it's my big sisters birthday today. The other week she went to see Garbage for the first time (she's liked them since the mid 90s!) and I rememer growing up she loved Shirley, so I made her this.
It's mostly felt but topped with feathers, feathers are a bit of a pain to work with!
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