On Saturday I went Zine-making at Tate Modern! It was a free workshop in collaboration with It’s Nice That Magazine. Some of my friends basically badgered me to go, because I’m generally not into Zine’s that much. I love the having fun with collage and making things with my hands, but sometimes I just look at these people work and am I like… what the hell was the point of making that? I don’t know, perhaps I’m too harsh in my views sometimes :) I have realised, with all my experimentation work, that sometimes you can just make stuff with the goal of making it look good.  Because you can then use that piece, or that method in creating something for a project that does actually have a meaning.

So basically if you want to make a simple little zine of your own all you need it lots of magazines and papers that you don’t mind cutting up – or you can always photocopy the pages you want and cut them up! Basically cut out letters to form the words for your zine, cut out people or designs for backgrounds or images for each page. You can even have markers if you’re skilled with a pen to decorate or write on your zine!

I realise this “how to” paper is hard to understand as it should be presented in the zine format … but if you see the diagrams at the top, you begin on the right (sorry about this confusion!) and basically fold your paper up so that when it is open you’ll have 8 rectangles. Then look at the top middle diagram with the scissors to know where you need to cut the page. Only cut it to that crease line, don’t go further!
Once that is done, you need to fold the paper along the longest crease, so you can see the cut area open up into a square/diamond shape. Bring the paper on either side together so that it closes the diamond in the opposite way it opened. Once you’ve done that can be closed into a little booklet shape with a cover going around! If this was too complicated to understand and you’re still not getting it right, let me know and I’ll make a video or find better instructions! :)

All you need to do is paste all your pictures and letters, make your drawings and place them on the pages you want them to be on the piece of paper you just folded into zine shape. Unfold it afterwards and make a photocopy! Then fold that photocopy and voila

You’ll have a zine! You can make these in any size you want, and obviously you can skip the arts & crafts and just make it on your computer if you’d prefer. Either way, they do come out really nicely and it is great to make even if it’s just for fun!