Magazines in nature.
Making zines is fun
I love making magazines; putting the content together, laying it out on the page, the feel of the paper in your hands once it’s printed, the permanence of ink and how it can tell you so much. I took a step back from a full time role in publishing magazines in 2019, and this year I’ve rediscovered my love of the process in a smaller way.
In August I joined the annual national Outdoor and Woodland Learning meet up at Pillars of Hercules where a bunch of teachers, forest school people and outdoor leaders gather to talk, do some workshops and generally catch up with news across the country. This year I attended two workshops; Deborah’s Musical Instruments and Dani MacDonald’s Nature Zines.
The foldy, pocket-size zines that Dani introduced us to captured my imagination and hooked me back into that satisfyingly papery world of autonomous creation and freedom of expression.
Over the last few months I’ve made a few zines for projects I work on, and I would encourage you to think about bringing them into your own world. Your zines can be about anything, all you need to do is start.
Check out the zine I made for Langside Primary School Garden.
I made a few of my zines at Glasgow Zine Library drop-ins this year. It’s an awesome place. You can find out all about zines, drop-in to a zine-making session and browse others’ creations.
Here I used square crayons to make leaf rubbings, very simple and effective.
Some of the ink drawings I’ve made for a tree ID zine.
Dani set up two tables during the zine workshop, one for colour and textures and one for marks and lines.
National networking events for Forest School Leaders and outdoor learning practitioners are organised and held by OWL Scotland.
