Calendar Zine and Zine Making Reflections
One of my 101 things in 1001 days goals was to take a picture of the same place every month for a year then make a calendar out of it.
I went back and forth on how to make the calendar. I even got a ton of prints thinking I'd handmake 10 calendars for holiday gifts (I discarded that idea fast due to level of effort involved). I knew I wanted it to be something I made, not something I printed from a print service. Aside from the fact that you can't customize those much, the expense would be astounding.
At some point earlier this week I was taking a nap. This is not unusual especially in the summer. Also not unusual: I woke up from the nap with an idea unrelated to the dream or my thoughts before falling asleep: calendar zine. Duh!
it would be easy enough to make although it would take a while, and then I could print enough to send all my end-of-year-mail recipients a copy, plus list a few for strangers to buy if they're interested.
I settled on a mashup of scrapbooking, collaging, and zine style. I selected colors for emphasis for each month depending on how the picture stood out against it. I got the mushroom postage stickers as a gift and there will be one on every page. I have a handful of rubber stamps I'll use sparingly throughout the calendar and to put dates in. The rest will be doodled/drawn.
it's year agonistic though styled for 2027. you could use it any non leap year where Jan 1 falls on a Friday.
I have some time to finish this but I'm excited to see the results. I love how an idea can evolve like this!
I am also working on my seasonal zines for spring. This time of year there are a lot of things I do "in review" to document myself and my progress.
It is nice to be in a flow of reflection and creation, and it's nice to be comfortable enough to talk about and share it!
For my seasonal zines, I make one that's a general review of the season and another about my therapy progress. I try to share photos and things I created throughout the season too. Those are delivered together with copies of any other zines I made that season (usually a bunch of minizines). I send to my friends and zine pen pals and then list a few on my kofi if anyone is interested to purchase. Once they are gone they don't get reprinted, but I do sometimes list them in my zine library to download and print at home for free.
I love that printed zines are static and document a moment in time, in this case a season of my life. What I love more about this project is that it ends each season. Here's a glimpse of Max in [spring] that only 25 or so people get to see, and then it's gone again.