Victoria Baths Fanzine Convention - Cooperative Workshop

After the success of last years event, On May 19th Natalie Bradbury of The Shrieking Violet http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.co.uk/ staged the second annual Fanzine Convention at Victoria Baths, in conjunction with the Future Everything Festivals' 'Hand Made' event in the same venue. The theme this year was Cooperatives, and I was asked to develop a workshop reflecting this. Relief printing was such a hit last year that I decided to do it again, but with quick-print foam as well as lino, to make the whole experience less daunting.

A participant preparing his foam to print..... (credit for all photographs goes to Natalie Bradbury)

Working, again, with photocopied materials from the VB (Victoria Baths) archives, we invited participants to collage, print and illustrate an A3 page which would be bound into a giant collaborative zine at the end of the day. As the pages were made we hung them around the room, like bunting, which looked nice and was also a good source of inspiration for participants.

The first few pages are are clipped around the space for inspiration (credit for all photographs goes to Natalie Bradbury)

The 'giant collaborative zine' part was a total experiment, but I'm pleased to say it all worked out well, and we were left with a hand bound book, which can be opened out and hung as bunting, too. I want to develop and hone the idea of the collaborative book, stitching all the pages on to their string spine was a little awkward and needs to be re-thought to make it easier for more people to join in. However, it still worked, and all in all it was a fun, fulfilling day.

Here's an online copy of the giant VB fanzine, thanks go to Natalie for scanning each page!