Make your own... A Borrowers zine

Description

This is a zine within a zine with some extra bits! 'Make your own...Borrowers Zine' has 20 A5 (half-sized) pages, plus a micro-zine & rescued page inserts (see below), a magnifying lens, an embroidery chart, not to mention a pair of miniature knitting needles modelled on Homily's own! There are illustrations throughout, borrowed from the many different editions of 'The Borrowers' that have been published, over the years.

Based on the premise that Borrowers do, in fact, exist (there is yet to be a satisfactory alternative suggestion proposed for the consistent disappearance of small, everyday items), this zine traces the history of Borrowers from Lilliputian times onward in a comprehensive chronology. It also examines their representation in the literature of Mary Norton & others, and consideration is given to the most likely habitats for contemporary Borrowers.

Borrower culture has been 'borrowed' in the contemporary trend for recycling, re-purposing and upcycling, and thus five projects are also included, taking elements from Mary Norton's classic depictions of Borrower life, such as postage stamp art, re-purposed junkmail, a retro rug to put red blotting paper to shame, Homily's knitting needles, and - of course! - the classic matchbox chest of drawers!

Which brings me to part 2 of the 'Make your own...Borrowers Zine', which includes a miniature-scale version of the full text described above, ready to be cut and folded to fit a matchbox, and printed on the reverse of a piece of Lilliputian-themed sheet music. Also included are scale templates to make your own matchbox, a page from a rescued copy of the Borrowers to decorate your matchbox, and a miniature magnifying glass, so that the miniature text is readable! (N.B. The first zines came with a re-purposed eyeglass lens for magnification [as shown in photo]. However, my source for these has dried up, so the current edition includes an addendum & the miniature magnifying glass mentioned above.)

The zine then continues with a bibliography of resources for Borrower-esque miniature and/or re-purposed crafts, web-links for some cool projects, and brainstorming spaces for you to fill in with your own Borrower-themed sketches, pictures, notes and ideas.

If you are a fan of the Borrowers, this zine will tell you all you ever wanted or needed to know about them, and more! And although you can just read the zine as it comes, I highly recommend putting together the matchbox version, too, because it's VERY cool :-).

Added on Nov 22, 2009