ten fingers issue #2

back in may last year, helen entwisle (aka memo aka screen-printer extraordinaire) compiled ten fingers issue #1, a collection of illustrations based on contributer's hometowns. now she's gone & done it again; ten fingers issue #2, again hand-bound & hand-printed, contains a series of prints/postcards depicting childhood memories.

alongside jay cover, will bryant, mia chrisopher, anthony zinonos, lesley barnes, gemma correll & helen, you'll find a drawing by me illustrating my three childhood imaginary dogs. their names escape me now but i do remember their breeds: an australian shepard dog, an italian greyhound & a chihuahua (dog breeds are my secret skill).

i have a few copies up for sale over in my etsy shop. this is definitely a good 'un to add to your zine collection.

life is good

mondays are my favourite days. today i had a good driving lesson & got back into the print studio to make the above. you can buy it over on etsy.

yesterday i went through to welcome home in glasgow to help out at the zine workshop marceline was holding. it was a fun little afternoon, & lots of people came & made zines which was excellent. it was good to visit welcome home again, & i met some nice creative types. you can read marceline's account of the day here, & learn how to take part in a zine challenge (go on, sign up).

well, alan & i are about to make mince & tatties. i haven't had it for over twelve years, but we bought some quorn mince so we're going to give it a shot.

anything you can do

hurrah! at long last, i've started screen printing again. as much as i love my gocco, it felt so good to produce a print that is larger than A6 in size. a simple two colours, i got an edition of eight prints out of this session, with a few extra prints that weren't registered well enough to make the cut, but will be available at craft fairs where people can see the print for themselves. i can't wait to get back into the print studio & print some more. the above print is available on etsy for just over £20. since it was a test as well as a finished print, i feel okay with letting it go at a lower price.

been busy the past couple of weeks. spent the weekend in edinburgh/fife. went to view the new analogue books show, turn up the colour, & also visited edinburgh printmakers and the lovely new hannah zakari shop. had my first ever coffee (yes) at peter's yard, & after wandering around edinburgh with alan for a while, we made a stop on the way to visit my sister to walk along the coast, so nice to be outside by the sea. an ace weekend.

creatively, i've been trying to squeeze in doing work. i'd love to be able to tell you that i managed to prepare a brand new zine for the zine workshop at welcome home on sunday, but alas, my schedule has worked against me. never mind. you can still come & hang out & make stuff with marceline & i. she's been much more organised than me & is unleashing a new zine at the workshop. stop by & say hi if you can.

zine workshop

hey all. just to let you know that marceline of asking for trouble & i are holding a zine workshop at the wonderful welcome home in three weeks, on sunday 8 august. marceline is a pro & i can do some scribbles & staple them together pretty well, so together we shall show you the wonders of zine making, for free. how about that?

heads up, my 25% off sale on folksy ends tomorrow, there's a few things left so snap up a card or print, all orders receive extra freebies & i ship worldwide. no sale on etsy at the moment, but if you'd prefer a little more choice i'm adding a couple of extras in with all orders from there until tomorrow too.

ten fingers issue #1

you might know it, but i like zines. i'm sure you like zines too. hell, i'm pretty sure most people like zines, some just don't know it yet. so when helen of memo asked me a little while back if i'd be interested in taking part in a new zine venture she was embarking on, of course i said yes.

after a lot of amazing organising & screen-printing on helen's part, & with a little help from a bunch of ace artists (& me), ten fingers issue #1 was born. hand-bound & screen-printed in three colours with contributions from eight people, each page can be used as a print or postcard, or you can do what i'm doing & keep it all in one piece. there's only 100 copies in total, & i have four of them up for sale.

before i list them over on etsy, i'm giving readers a chance to snap one up. if you'd like to purchase one, shoot an e-mail over to mail-at-hellojenuine-dot-com, & we can sort out paypal payment (£6.95 + £1.55 (worldwide) or £1.05 (uk) p&p) from there. if you're too late to claim, then don't worry - i'll let you know how you can get yours hands on a copy. as an added little incentive, i'm going to throw in a little something extra that i'll be adding to my etsy shop in the next couple of weeks. hooray for free things!

UPDATE: my four copies have been claimed! will keep you updated as to where else you can get them.

johan

drawn for little brother zine.

i've not had as much time as i'd like for drawing lately, so it's nice to be able to post something finished.

beach in april

coming back to 7˚c weather after blue skies in new york wasn't great, but scotland hasn't let me down this weekend. it was so nice out today that my boyfriend & i went to the beach, thus getting me one step further in my list of things to do this year: #5 is 'visit three beaches', so that's one down, two to go.

it's been a pretty good week. the organisers of jumpers & jamboree (that's lauren, nikki & me) have announced the date of the next event: big top jamboree is going to take place on may 17, & we're looking for submissions! have a peek at the blog to find out more.

i also scored off #20 from my to-do list by opening a folksy shop earlier in the week. i'm giving it a trial period to decide whether i want to keep it or not. if you missed out on getting a free copy of climbing out of a canyon in my etsy shop a few weeks back, here's another chance; the first five orders from my folksy shop get a free mini-zine!

couple of other things: i took part in now now's zine showcase a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't attend thanks to being away. also, one of my older pieces (bottom left hand corner) was in design week last week, which was my submission to 'how many ways can you draw an apple?' by something to do zine. would have been better if they'd actually credited all the artists properly, of course. sigh.

i think i should probably try to update more often to save having so many catch-up posts!

long weekend in london

i'm feeling pretty sleepy as i got back late last night after a long weekend in london. i had a brilliant time though, & it was so nice to escape my usual routine. myself & my co-workers got the train down on saturday, & i spent the evening with some old friends, eating fish chips & hanging out. on sunday we went to spitalfields market - i'm kind of glad it was impossible to find a cash machine there, otherwise i'd be the owner of a gorgeous new leather satchel, a beautiful chiffon dress & a much smaller bank balance.

i then went to check in at my hotel before heading off to leicester square to meet the lovely thereza rowe, an illustrator based in london who has a wonderful imagination & makes beautiful work. we spent a couple of hours chatting over hot beverages & exploring bookshops. just a short visit but it was great to meet her, i've borrowed the above image from our meeting (where you can see the prettiest little zine that she kindly gave me, plus my new fox friend) & you can see some more images over on her blog.

monday was spent with work friends, mostly on our feet exploring some galleries. my favourite show was one i'd been looking forward to for a few weeks, céleste boursier-mougenot's commision for the curve at the barbican, which you can see above (not my image). in layman's terms, it was a huge room full of sweet & fearless little zebra finches inadvertently playing guitar! you can see a clip here.

back to reality now, but not for long; this time next week i'll be in canada! hooray for adventures.

climbing out of a canyon

remember those mini-zine i mentioned last week? they're now complete! entitled climbing out of a canyon, it's a collection of images & visual metaphors to do with getting out of a rut, something i'm sure you've all experienced at some point. it's sixteen pages long with a murano paper cover, & each little zine contains a unique piece of advice or good idea for it's owner to act upon if they so wish.

the next ten orders in my etsy shop will receive a free copy of climbing out of a canyon with their purchase. if you miss out, don't worry, as there will be one or two other opportunities to get one in future, & i'll give you a heads up. for now though, head on over to etsy!

mini zines

it's not so much 'something i made yesterday', more 'something i worked on'. i would have finished these mini zines had my printer decided to cooperate. alas, i'll have to wait until i have time at the weekend to clean the ink heads (again) before i can deem this little collection of drawings to be complete.

once they're finished, i'll be sure to share how you can get yourself one of them.

happenings

on saturday 6 february, central station are holding a pop-up tour in dundee. the day's full listings are available on their site; if you're in the area, i'd definitely check out some of the options available. i'm taking part in the superfly pop-up exhibition at 5pm, so come & say hello.

i also have some work in the current issue of the coveted mag, an independant magazine that supports the scottish fashion industry (& artists!). some of my what i wore today drawings are inside, as well as a little interview (that i apologise for, i was sleepy when i was answering it!), plus one of my images appears on the cover. you can flick through the issue here.

last but not least, i've sent some of my we were a kaleidoscope zines down to one of my favourite shops in the world, analogue books. so if you're in edinburgh, you can have a peek.

letterbox goodness

i think most people will agree when i say getting post is one of life's simple pleasures. getting a letter from someone through the door, finally receiving the package you've been expecting, or the surprise of one you didn't know about. i've been lucky enough to have something from all three categories this week. above are three zines that have been added to my collection: good to know issue #6 from amy (which came along with some other great little treats), if drawings were photographs, by rob & tom & published by it's nice that, plus nature zine by various people & published by hand of man.

a package that i picked up today was a result of an international art exchange currently making the rounds. started by the lovely flora douville, it's basically a really excellent chain letter where, if all goes as planned, you receive thirty six little works of art from all over. above are a zine & print by erin mcphee, which she sent along with two other prints, so it was a great package to receive! her drawings are really quite lovely, & the zine concept was hilarious: once people find out that erin is an illustrator, they assume her boyfriend is one too. as a result, the zine is a collaboration of her drawings as an illustration student, & his as a history student.

this final package is kind of a mystery! which is pretty cool. all i know is that my letter is from canada, that the person may have taken three of these photos & found the rest, & that they associate where i live with a certain film starring paul hogan. i think it's an international art exchange offering, but i've yet to find out for sure.

along with all this great stuff, i've taken part in susie ghahremani's (of boygirlparty fame) pen pal party. mail is the best. i hope you're all getting equally awesome things arriving on your doormat.

complete

tonight has involved a lot of printing, a lot of folding, & a lot of stapling. amazingly, i'm a week ahead of my self-imposed schedule. i should take tomorrow off, but after getting into the habit of using my time so well, i'm wondering how easy it'll be to stop!

proof

i've not posted much work online of late. don't let that fool you. here is some evidence of said busy-ness. the piles of paper are a zine of drawings i've been working on, on & off, for longer that i'd like to admit (since march, argh!), but it's coming together, along with a couple of other things. it's exciting to have psychical products in your hands after working on them for hours! the above image is a kaleidoscope-esque thing that is a repeated pattern of the word 'we'. you can't see the word anymore, the pattern swallowed it whole. the result ties in with the zine. all will be revealed once it's complete.

totem

i did the above totem for the scribble project's last team effort, where scribblers were asked to draw a totem to create a giant virtual totem pole. you can see everyone's totems here, including mine uncoloured. such a fun idea.

in other news, i have a drawing in the latest 88mph zine. i'm waiting to find a copy of it, but you can view it online here.

88mph

you probably guessed already, but i love illustration. so whenever i hear of any illustrative escapades happening around where i live, it's pretty exciting. some illustration students at the art college i went to are putting together some zines, & a batch of the second issue was hand-delivered to my workplace today (i was left a copy of the first on my desk a few weeks back, as someone knew i'd like it). titled 88mph, it's a collection of their work, & they're nicely designed & made. i hope to see more in future.