Historically, zines have often been glued together and photocopied. Nowadays, zines can be colourful and even more expressive.

Scribble and Bloom's zine-making workshops help your community group to express themselves and their thoughts and opinions in a unique, alternative, creative way. Guided by an experienced zine maker, they can enable your group to create something they can hold in their hands that shares their thoughts, experiences or opinions. 

How the workshops work

Established community groups or groups of friends or colleagues can hire Philippa, who has made more zines than she can count, for workshops where the end product is a group zine. 

The zine can tell the story of your group. Some themes might be:

• What we want people to know about [being disabled / being a carer / being queer / being friends for 40 years, etc.]

• The story of [our workplace / our friendship / our community group / our charity / our campaign, etc.]

• What we believe about [running an ethical business / why Sheffield is so excellent / why our campaign is important, etc.]

• The best thing about [Sheffield / being trans / being Sheffield alumni / being charity workers / Meersbrook / Taylor Swift / our group]

• What we are campaigning for

Workshops are tailored to the group but tend to follow a similar structure, where: 

• Philippa is booked for two half-day sessions (or one full day)

• Philippa talks with the group about the zine they want to create and what the theme should be

• Philippa leads the group in exercises that encourage participants to express themselves. These will be focused around the theme the group has agreed and encourage confidence in self-expression, even when people don't consider themselves to be "creative"

• Members of the group decide what should go into the final zine, based on what they have created in the workshops. This might be writing, drawing, or collage

• Philippa goes away and turns it all into a zine, gets copies printed, and provides the group with two copies of the zine per attendee and a PDF they can either share or use to get other copies printed themselves

Zine-making workshops from Scribble and Bloom end up with participants having a finished product, created by the group, that they can feel proud of and that helps them to express their thoughts and feelings on an issue, a situation, or describe their lives. This is a tangible item they can keep to remind them of the group, and they can take pride in their (sometimes unexpected) ability to make something and express themselves. 

The communal aspect of the zine-making process takes the pressure off any one individual and becomes a collective exercise, building bonds and meaningful relationships. 

If you are interested in a zine-making workshop, contact philippa@scribbleandbloom.org.uk to find out more. The group will usually provide the venue (e.g. the place you work or normally meet) but Philippa can look at venues if needed. The workshops can be tailored and adapted according to the needs of the group (e.g. additional copies of the zine provided, more time allocated), so if you have any questions or particular requirements, get in touch and we will do what we can.