Too many ideas, too little time…but I can’t just pass up this one. OK, let me explain.I made the huge mistake of buying Indie Publishing at the Tate Gallery last week. That book is dangerous. Honestly, it should be banned.

Written by the students and faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art, it is all about designing and publishing your own book. I had initially bought it because I thought it could be useful for my altered books—my latest fixation being that I want to bind my own, rather than alter existing ones—and it did give me some great ideas.

But it also did much more than that—it opened up the whole world of self-publishing. It made me want to create, design and publish my own craft books and zines—now. I got so excited I could think of little else, and kept pestering my husband (who would have much rather watched football on TV) about it.

Sooo, I decided I need to give it a go. I’ll start with a small zine, because I think it is all I can manage with my time constraints, non-existing budget and limited expertise. But I really want to have the satisfaction of seeing a book (of sorts) through from start to finish.

My first idea for the zine was to publish pictures of some of my own artwork, with details of the techniques used to make it. Then I thought it would be much more interesting to publish pictures of a selection of artists’ favourite pieces, with a brief explanation of what makes them special and the techniques used to make them. I’ll collect the pictures and quotes, design the book and publish it both as an ebook and in print (probably through a POD service such as Lulu.com).

Does anyone fancy being a part of the experiment? If so, all it takes is for you to email me high resolution images of the work you’d like me to feature in the zine with some brief information on how you made it and why you love it at carlapassino AT gmail.com by the end of the month.

Couple of provisos if you do decide to participate:

1.    this is very much an experiment—while I have edited magazines before, I have never self-published a book so I will learn on the job

2.    the artwork’s copyright is obviously yours, the book’s copyright is mine

3.    I’ll send a copy of the ebook to each participating artist but I can’t send a printed copy, as I do not have the budget for many POD prints—sorry!

4.    I’ll make my best effort to promote the zine both online and in print, thus ensuring the artwork and artists featured in it get exposure. However, I cannot at this stage know how many eyeballs it will actually reach.

5.   there’s no money to be made from this—but, by the same token, all it will cost you is to take a snap and email it over.

Also a couple of practical details:

1.    if you do decide to send your artwork for the zine, please ensure it is high resolution or it may not be suitable for print. High resolution means it should be at least 300 dpi.

2.    include a few lines on why the project is special—it may be because it was made using a new technique or because it has emotional significance, or you are just pretty darn pleased about the way it turned out—and brief but thorough information on how you made it

3.    also don’t forget to include your name, blog or website address, and etsy or other shop details.

Talking of books, here is another page of my latest altered book project. It is part of my family history altered book, and portrays two of my great uncles, whom I never met because they both died young, before I was born. But there is a difference. The oldest (on the left) left a wife, four daughters and many memories. The youngest (on the right) simply vanished from our family’s collective history. Since I first stumbled upon his pictures and his existence, I discovered he passed away just after the war, probably of what at the time was known as consumption. His death must have been extremely painful for his brothers and sister because they never ever spoke of him. But he did live and I want to remember his life.

Altered book page: Siblings