I am slightly fascinated by zines. They were discussed briefly in one of my MLS courses, but it wasn't until I went to a science fiction convention last summer that I actually came into contact with one. Because of that, my experience with zines (which is hardly noteworthy as I have never read one) is mainly of the fanfiction variety. I have friends who write for fan-zines of their favorite television shows, and I have a lot of friends who buy, read, and trade them. It wasn't until I was doing a bit of research after being asked about zines by a co-worker, that I realized how broad and varied zine topics can be.
1) I think making a zine would be brilliant. I love to write (I blog on a regular basis) about anything and everything and could surely come up with something worth zine-ing about. If I made one, it would probably explore various formats, with some pages full of lists, some pages cluttered with words, some pages stark and minimalist, and some pages crammed with useful (or useless) information. I suppose it would need to have a general topic to attract readers - probably something to do with TV (which I watch a lot of) or books (which I read a lot of). Perhaps a bonus baking or crafting section for good measure.
Unfortunately, I am not artistic (as I have mentioned before on this blog), so if any simple illustrations were to be included, they would either be of the stick figure variety, or I would need to recruit a friend's help.
If I were to ever produce a zine, I would most likely do it on a small scale and just send it to friends. It would really just be for me because, frankly, I am not interesting enough to develop a huge internet following. (And I am totally okay with that!)
2) Do zines have a place in the library? Sure. Libraries are all about sharing information, and that includes off-beat, independent works by amateurs. However, zines are much, much harder to collect. Publication isn't pinned down by a big publishing company, content isn't analyzed and cataloged by age, distribution isn't hard and fast. I think there is a place for zines in the library, but building that collection would require dedicated librarians who really knew their stuff. It would take a lot of effort and time and would certainly not be the job of one lone librarian (if a large collection is the goal).
It would also work best if libraries just starting their zine collection contacted those libraries (like Salt Lake City Public Library) with well-established collections to discuss tricks and hints of the zine trade. Why struggle along unaided when there are librarians out there who are probably more than willing to discuss their collection?
(Bonus Slightly Embarrassing Fact: For the longest time, until just last year, actually, I was convinced the word was pronounced 'zInes' instead of 'zeenes'. I have no idea why. Just another quirky personality trait shining through, I guess.)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
crafts and hobbies #65: coin collecting
Ah, coin collecting. Some people love it, I suppose. I am not one of those people.
(I do, however, love saying the word numismatist. Give it a go. Nu-mis-ma-tist. So fun! Am I right? Of course I am.)
As part of this training, I visualized the coins in my wallet. Frankly, I rarely have any cash, so hardly ever receive coins when paying for things. (I really love my debit card. I fully admit it.) At the moment, I believe the change compartment in my wallet contains a few pennies, a Canadian nickel (which I have tried to use before - accidentally, possibly), some Euros of different denominations, a random Asian coin of some sort, and the red heart out of a Build-A-Bear. (That red heart is sure to be worth something!) As far as being able to use my coinage, the most valuable coins I currently own are pennies. What a depressing thought.
No one I know personally has an avid interest in coin collecting. My brothers made the effort to collect all fifty state quarters (they succeeded!), but that is about as far as we go. When I turned 8, my grandma gave me eight Susan B. Anthony coins, which I'm pretty sure I still have in a box in my parents' guest room closet, but I was never spurred into a coin collecting hobby of my own.
In the end, I view coin collecting much as I view stamp collecting: It is a fascinating hobby for people with a lot of patience, dedication, time and money. I'll stick to my keychain collection.
(If I did suddenly gain an interest in coins, I discovered via the Professional Numismatist's Guild website that there are number of dealers right here in Houston. None seem to be near me, but when has that ever stopped anyone looking for something specific in Houston?)
(I do, however, love saying the word numismatist. Give it a go. Nu-mis-ma-tist. So fun! Am I right? Of course I am.)
As part of this training, I visualized the coins in my wallet. Frankly, I rarely have any cash, so hardly ever receive coins when paying for things. (I really love my debit card. I fully admit it.) At the moment, I believe the change compartment in my wallet contains a few pennies, a Canadian nickel (which I have tried to use before - accidentally, possibly), some Euros of different denominations, a random Asian coin of some sort, and the red heart out of a Build-A-Bear. (That red heart is sure to be worth something!) As far as being able to use my coinage, the most valuable coins I currently own are pennies. What a depressing thought.
No one I know personally has an avid interest in coin collecting. My brothers made the effort to collect all fifty state quarters (they succeeded!), but that is about as far as we go. When I turned 8, my grandma gave me eight Susan B. Anthony coins, which I'm pretty sure I still have in a box in my parents' guest room closet, but I was never spurred into a coin collecting hobby of my own.
In the end, I view coin collecting much as I view stamp collecting: It is a fascinating hobby for people with a lot of patience, dedication, time and money. I'll stick to my keychain collection.
(If I did suddenly gain an interest in coins, I discovered via the Professional Numismatist's Guild website that there are number of dealers right here in Houston. None seem to be near me, but when has that ever stopped anyone looking for something specific in Houston?)
crafts and hobbies #66: knitting and crocheting
1) I love knitting. I always thought I would be far too uncoordinated for knitting (two needles, you know), but it is actually not all that difficult. It may have taken me a few years to give knitting a try, but I got there eventually!
When I was in grad school I had some friends who crocheted, so I asked them to teach me. I got the hang of that fairly quickly, but I always thought it was too inhibiting. There is only so much you can do with a crochet hook and, in my opinion, a lot of it just isn't all that attractive. Shortly after graduating, while working for a different library system, one of the library assistants started a teen knitting club. She repeatedly offered to teach me how to knit, but I kept refusing. (The whole two needles thing, again.)
Then I started working at my current branch, which has a firmly established stitching group that meets twice a week, and finally decided to give knitting a try. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that knitting is actually easier than crocheting! Sure, my knitting style is kind of off-beat, but the finished products look great, so I guess it really doesn't matter.
I have a very short attention span, so I usually stick to knitting smaller projects. I've knitted hats of various styles (one of my own design!), an ice cream cozy, and scarves galore. Anything more than a scarf and I would probably lose interest halfway through, and it would be months and months before I picked the project up again. (If I'm being honest, I have a couple of scarves that have fallen victim to that very fate.) I would love to eventually knit a throw, but I'm positive it would end up taking me several years of stopping and starting to finish.
2) As mentioned previously, the branch I work at already has an established stitching group. It was in place well before I started working here, and has been going strong ever since. In my experience starting other groups (ex: book clubs), it is always easiest to have one person in charge and a core group of at least a few people to get things off the ground. It is possible to start a group without any people previously committed to it, but it is much more difficult. If I were at a branch with no stitching group, I would try to scout interest among patrons (perhaps through signage in the stitching section), staff, friends and family members before actually setting up a meeting. It would probably still be a slow build, but starting with some attendees would at least carry the group for the time it takes for other people to find out about and become interested in the group.
Finally, to prove that I actually do knit and didn't just make all of this up, a picture of a hat I designed and made earlier this year:
When I was in grad school I had some friends who crocheted, so I asked them to teach me. I got the hang of that fairly quickly, but I always thought it was too inhibiting. There is only so much you can do with a crochet hook and, in my opinion, a lot of it just isn't all that attractive. Shortly after graduating, while working for a different library system, one of the library assistants started a teen knitting club. She repeatedly offered to teach me how to knit, but I kept refusing. (The whole two needles thing, again.)
Then I started working at my current branch, which has a firmly established stitching group that meets twice a week, and finally decided to give knitting a try. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that knitting is actually easier than crocheting! Sure, my knitting style is kind of off-beat, but the finished products look great, so I guess it really doesn't matter.
I have a very short attention span, so I usually stick to knitting smaller projects. I've knitted hats of various styles (one of my own design!), an ice cream cozy, and scarves galore. Anything more than a scarf and I would probably lose interest halfway through, and it would be months and months before I picked the project up again. (If I'm being honest, I have a couple of scarves that have fallen victim to that very fate.) I would love to eventually knit a throw, but I'm positive it would end up taking me several years of stopping and starting to finish.
2) As mentioned previously, the branch I work at already has an established stitching group. It was in place well before I started working here, and has been going strong ever since. In my experience starting other groups (ex: book clubs), it is always easiest to have one person in charge and a core group of at least a few people to get things off the ground. It is possible to start a group without any people previously committed to it, but it is much more difficult. If I were at a branch with no stitching group, I would try to scout interest among patrons (perhaps through signage in the stitching section), staff, friends and family members before actually setting up a meeting. It would probably still be a slow build, but starting with some attendees would at least carry the group for the time it takes for other people to find out about and become interested in the group.
Finally, to prove that I actually do knit and didn't just make all of this up, a picture of a hat I designed and made earlier this year:
Thursday, July 23, 2009
crafts and hobbies #63: digital scrapbooking
When I was in high school, I used to scrapbook. Scrapbook in the traditional paper sense. I have one scrapbook that is sort of complete, but I was never very good or very dedicated. If I'm being honest, I mainly scrapbooked because all my friends were scrapbooking. It was the cool thing to do. I've long since given up the hobby after realizing that I lacked the talent, time and money to really pursue it.
Digital scrapbooking, like regular scrapbooking, is just not for me. I have always felt that scrapbooking was more for the artsy people than the crafty people. You need to have a good eye for design and a creativity to experiment with new things. I am just not an artsy sort of person. I have friends who make gorgeous graphic images and co-workers who can turn out fantastic signs for events. I can do neither. (Can't you tell from my glorious sample scrapbooking page up there?)
But, I spent some time playing around with scrapblog and managed to turn out something resembling a scrapbook page. It's not amazing, but it works, right?
My biggest complaint about scrapblog is that a lot of the features aren't free. I had to do a lot of browsing to find the free backgrounds and stickers, which seriously limited what my finished product would look like. Had all of the features been free (like with some other sites), my page probably would have been prettier.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
crafts and hobbies #62: decoupage
I have massive amounts of dislike for decoupaging.
There. I said it.
When I was a teenager, we had youth activities at church every Wednesday night. One night during my high school years, there was decoupaging. We were all given a hand mirror (it was an all girls activity, obviously) which we were supposed to decoupage. I did mine, but it was pretty much a hideous mess of epic proportions. The finished product was so awful looking that my mom, when she came to pick me up, said, "Wow. What went wrong here?" Talk about motherly love, eh?
Unfortunately, she was speaking the truth. I am fairly certain I ended up throwing the poor mirror out that night. I didn't even let it finish drying! What was the point?
That was the first and last time I attempted the art of decoupage. I hope never to do it again.
So this post doesn't seem too dreary, let me add this: Decoupage may not be for me, but when it's done well, it can be quite stunning. Those suitcases linked from the main post, for example, are fantastic. I would love to own one. (Some of the other stuff... maybe not.)
There. I said it.
When I was a teenager, we had youth activities at church every Wednesday night. One night during my high school years, there was decoupaging. We were all given a hand mirror (it was an all girls activity, obviously) which we were supposed to decoupage. I did mine, but it was pretty much a hideous mess of epic proportions. The finished product was so awful looking that my mom, when she came to pick me up, said, "Wow. What went wrong here?" Talk about motherly love, eh?
Unfortunately, she was speaking the truth. I am fairly certain I ended up throwing the poor mirror out that night. I didn't even let it finish drying! What was the point?
That was the first and last time I attempted the art of decoupage. I hope never to do it again.
So this post doesn't seem too dreary, let me add this: Decoupage may not be for me, but when it's done well, it can be quite stunning. Those suitcases linked from the main post, for example, are fantastic. I would love to own one. (Some of the other stuff... maybe not.)
crafts and hobbies #61: craftspiration!
Crafting time! Now that the hardest part of my summer is over, I thought I'd tackle these crafting posts. Here goes!
1) I like crafts, but I am not always all that crafty. Does that make sense? I spend a lot of time looking at crafting blogs and wishing I could sew or knit or decoupage as well as that person, but I'm just not all that crafty. (I do knit, and I'm actually fairly good, but that's the extent of it.) I have previously spent a lot of time on Craftster and Instructables, but have yet to make anything I've found there.
For this post, I spent some time browsing through a few of the tags on One Hour Craft. I hate to admit it, but I am unimpressed with that site. For many of the crafts under the teen crafting tag, the picture link is broken. Why would I make a craft if I have no idea what the finished product is going to look like? That is poor craft blog design. The blogger clearly needs to host the pictures herself instead of just borrowing them from outside sources. I am also unimpressed with the quality of the crafts on that site, so didn't find anything I wanted to make.
I tried to find something on Repurposeful but, while I did find some handy hints, I didn't find anything worth crafting. BUT! I did find this little pincushion on a blog I check frequently. I would like to make this.
2) As far as crafting tutorials go, I like a combination of written (with pictures, always!) and video. It really depends on what it is that I'm trying to learn how to do. With knitting, for example, if the stitch doesn't make sense as described in words, I usually search YouTube for a tutorial. (You can find anything and everything on YouTube. I swear it is so.) Sometimes a good video is the only thing, short of an actual person teaching me, that makes the stitch work in my mind.
the end
1) I like crafts, but I am not always all that crafty. Does that make sense? I spend a lot of time looking at crafting blogs and wishing I could sew or knit or decoupage as well as that person, but I'm just not all that crafty. (I do knit, and I'm actually fairly good, but that's the extent of it.) I have previously spent a lot of time on Craftster and Instructables, but have yet to make anything I've found there.
For this post, I spent some time browsing through a few of the tags on One Hour Craft. I hate to admit it, but I am unimpressed with that site. For many of the crafts under the teen crafting tag, the picture link is broken. Why would I make a craft if I have no idea what the finished product is going to look like? That is poor craft blog design. The blogger clearly needs to host the pictures herself instead of just borrowing them from outside sources. I am also unimpressed with the quality of the crafts on that site, so didn't find anything I wanted to make.
I tried to find something on Repurposeful but, while I did find some handy hints, I didn't find anything worth crafting. BUT! I did find this little pincushion on a blog I check frequently. I would like to make this.
2) As far as crafting tutorials go, I like a combination of written (with pictures, always!) and video. It really depends on what it is that I'm trying to learn how to do. With knitting, for example, if the stitch doesn't make sense as described in words, I usually search YouTube for a tutorial. (You can find anything and everything on YouTube. I swear it is so.) Sometimes a good video is the only thing, short of an actual person teaching me, that makes the stitch work in my mind.
the end
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