mirgraphy

The last 10 weeks of enforced waiting in Sydney reminded me of how much I love Sydney. I love the way the sun is always out, its beautiful harbour, its amazing food, the unholy mess of urban planning and best of all for the friends and family that will always make it home for me. The crazy thing is, I needed to be away from it to appreciate it fully, it took this ridicilous sin bin for the city to enchant me with its siren song.

This week will mark the end of Creative Sydney, which as they put it:

Creative Sydney is part of Vivid Sydney, a unique new public festival featuring Luminous music festival at Sydney Opera House, Smart Light Sydney and Fire Water. Vivid Sydney is one of five anchor events in the first ever NSW Master Events Calendar created by Events NSW on behalf of the NSW Government. For the full Vivid Sydney program visit www.vividsydney.com.au

It ran just after the writer’s festival which included the MCA Zine Fair, concurrent with the Sydney Film Festival and to think that I used to moan that the middle of the year was the start of the hibernation period for Sydney!

So where to begin…I wandered down to the Roxy to catch the Telling Stories and Telling It Like It Is pannel at the Roxy with Pirochan early last week to catch a panel of writers and directors present their movies, the motivation behind each story. The panelist included  Peter Gawler (co-creator and writer Underbelly), Paula Abood (Race and the City), Michaela Perske (Red Ithaka), Alicia Talbot (Urban Theatre Projects), Bill Kokkaris (Take Away Theatre), Antoinette Chiha (The Combination, Triple J, Serhat Caradee (Cedar Boys) and  Shortcuts Filmmakers Maria Tran, Vinh Nguyen, Sally Struhters, Ali Kadhim and Tresa Ponnor.

I was a little disappointed that there was very little discussion amongst the speakers, with such a diverse group it seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Going back in time, the MCA Zine Fair was a lot of fun. I met up with Y for an enjoyable Sunday out. I was told that it was even bigger last year, but it was definitely big enough for me. A few brave souls from the National Library approached a number of us asking for zines to be donated and archived. It tickled me to think that I might be noted down as an author of a knitting zine. Still a little surprised to note that copies of Sharp and Pointy sold out pretty quickly, I need to print out more and get ready for issue 4 for TINA later on in the year. Oh the pressure! Other notable zines/zinesters I saw were Vanessa Berry , Mix Tape and the ever so crafty Talk To The Sun.

I have been a little slack when it comes to posting about my knitting project. A few are on the go, most undergoing some kind of frogging so I ended up having less to show than the beginning! I did managed to finish this Frock Camisole last winter, but with it being winter there was very little motivation to wear it out. It was actually a very quick knit, took me about 6 weeks done very very slowly, but I am quite happy with the overall result. The Rowan RYC Silk Cotton I used was a little stiffer than expected, it did give the garment a more structured feel, but I am hoping it will be softer after a few washes.

On other news, my little zine Craft and Pointy was reviewed by the craft cartel’s podcast. Rather thrilled and feeling a little guilty for not pushing it as hard as I should. There are copies on sale at etsy, but I haven’t pushed it that hard as I need to print a new batch as my original run was only meant for TINA last year. I am working on issue 3 now, hopefully it will be ready for the MCA zine fair on the 25th of May. Send me an email if you are interested in contributing/ would like a copy / yell at me for making only an issue each year.

To Sydney siders living in or around Newcastle, TINA is on again this year. Thanks to pirochan, Sharp and Pointy issue 2 should be for sale for $1 each. Buy and get all your bite size crafty update!

Overdue with plenty of crafty project as usual, but featured here are some yarn I purchased from Knit Shop during the Thames festival. The dark pink Chinese silk is quite lovely, but not quite sure what to do with them yet, but we’ll see.

Hi guys

I might be getting a table for the Manchester Zine Fair, still needs more details but they have let me know that it is available.

If you would like me to flog your stuff, let me know by the 16th and start sending material by then as well. The fair is on at the end of this month!

Thanks to pirochan for pointing this out to me, but if you were at the MCA Zines fair on Sunday, and you happen to come across the shared desk with stikman you might have seen some of my zines!

Construct A Mate issue zero point five made the cut in Two Thousand (a street magazine) too!

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Kinokunuya is organising a zine day/fair towards the end of June as well, so need to get cracking to finish stuff. It’s ridicilous the number of zine events that popped up this year when I am away.

Something I’ve been putting off for way too long, but it looks like I might not have the means to print it soon!

Accepting anything and everything in colour or otherwise. Let me know if you are thinking of submitting something since it’ll give me an idea on how much content I’ll have to make up.

Due: 21st of April

Submission Details:

Guidelines for accepting submissions to Construct-a-mate
– must tie in with the spirit of Construct-a-mate zine theme of relationship or lack of in various forms
– can include an array of creative expressions including, but not limited to drawings, photography, poems, fiction and non-fiction short stories, statements, notes, letters or collages.
– If submitting artwork, please provide at 300 dpi
– cannot come from a commercial source.
– All work submitted must be original; please include the following statement with each piece of work submitted: “This confirms that this work is entirely original and my own” followed by your full name.

It’s all building up and I think I have enough content to play with, BUT can always do with more and would love the collab.

Please send your submissions (300 dpi grayscale or colour images or text) to mirvettium at gmail dot com by the 25th May. Contributors will receive a free copy and the zine will be for sale at the Sydney Writers’ Festival Zine Fair. Any profits will go towards the Hayase’s running and promotional costs.

Size – A5 (colour for the most part)

Please send any crafy related thing you can think of, accepting photos, instructions, patterns, recipes and other domestic and non domestic whatnot.