2022 was tough, as was the previous year… But creating stuff, reading zines, and witchery helped a lot so in this blogpost I’d like to focus on these fun and arty things. I want to share with you what I’m proud of and some nice memories from the past year:
[Scroll down to see what I accomplished from my 2022 goals & plans list! 🙂 ]
READING
Books I’ve read in 2022
In the past year I’ve read mostly graphic novels, comics, and witchy books as well as a feminist book, children’s books and cook & craft books. My goals was to read at least 22 books and I ended up reading exactly that amount (I read the Audre Lorde book in English but have a Dutch edition from feminist publishing house Sara too). I’m proud to say that I’ve managed to read books in 3 languages: English, Dutch, and French! 🙂 In my zines Witches’ Brew #3 and Witches’ Brew #7 you can find reviews of some of the witchcraft books.
Zines I’ve read in 2022
I read AND reviewed a lot of zines so I didn’t count them! 🙂 Find all separate blogposts of the zines I’ve read every month here.
MAKING
Self-portrait
Oops I forgot all about my yearly self-portrait until January had already arrived… So I quickly drew one on a large envelope and will count that for 2022:
Zines
In the photo above right you can see all the ECHO zines that were born in 2022.
In January 2022 I released these mini-zines which were mostly made during 2021:
- Witches’ Brew #2 (about amulets)
- Queer Quest #1 (a choose your own adventure)
- Bunny Magick (Chainsaw Bunny’s Guide to Witchcraft)
- Do it Yourself Care #4 (about joy) + #5 (about Autumn)
- Echotopia #2 (to celebrate my 20th zineversary in 2021)
Later I wrote more issues of Witches’ Brew:
#3 (about mundane magick),
#4 (about self-love potions)
#5 (about the queer crone witch),
#6 (about moon phases)
#7 (about time and space)
#8 (about sigils)
as well as a special “hallowzine” called Bunnies and Other Monsters.
I started working on a mini-zine called Eat This Zine during a feminist zine workshop I gave in November and I intend to finish and publish it this year.
You can email me to order my zines, find zine bundles in my webshop, or check this list of libraries and shops that have some of them in stock.
I’ll soon post a list of zines by other people that I’ve contributed to recently as well!
Music
“Wish Upon a Star“, the second album of my solo project Lost Luna was released on March 8th, not only digital this time but also on tape thanks to Kitchen Leg Records! At one point it was the best-selling grunge tape on Bandcamp. 😮
Give it a listen and let me know what you think! You can download the album(s) for free but donations are appreciated.
More Lost Luna news soon!
In the meantime, Lavender Witch, my band, has been working on new songs!
Postcards
I designed 3 new postcards in 2022. Find them all here or check my postcard bundles.
Poster
I made a poster with lots of advantages of wearing face masks (thanks to everyone who contributed ideas!) to highlight their importance in the ongoing pandemic. I’ve since noticed more advantages like wearing one after returning from the dentist… 🙂 Download the full poster here.
Other things
I created buttons, stickers, bookmarks, spell bags: find them in my webshop.
I also designed an illustration for a T-shirt for the band Passionless Pointless. ❤
Creative challenges + classes
In invented a creative challenge to encourage myself to finally get to carving some witch-themed lino stamps that I can use in zines and journals: “Februwitchery“. Take a look at all the witchy lino stamps.
Of course I participated in International Zine Month (July) and ZineWriMo (November). Even though I didn’t do a lot for these challenges, I didn’t want to miss out!
Last year I took a few of Molly Roberts‘ amazing classes including Rock Your Grimoire. I’ll post more photos soon of the end result of my “Space Rock Grimoire”… In July I also took part in the #witchyjournalchallenge by La Greenwitch which was equally fun!
Journals
I made a bunch of journals and notebooks last year including the above mentioned Space Rock Grimoire. Here’s a list of all the witchy journals and notebooks I’ve made or am working on, including a small artjournal about the seasons and sabbats.
HOW TOS
I like to encourage others to make stuff too and share what I’ve learned in my own creative process. So here are a few tips, ideas, recipes, and manuals:
- How to make your own spell bags
- New spell bag recipe
- How I record songs at home
- Ideas for creative magick
- Easy idea for displaying zines at zine fairs
EVENTS
There were a bunch of craft fairs and zine events I participated in in 2022, as well as a zine workshop I taught. I organised a few afternoon zine gatherings in a park in Ghent which I definitely want to do again as soon as the weather allows it.
I also participated as a vendor and speaker at the virtual CritWitchCon and I exhibited 3 drawings in the exhibition of Baby Fire’s amazing album release weekend:
VISITS
I’ve enjoyed visiting a few exhibitions and museums last year that I shared on this blog:
- Witches exhibition in Brussels
- Huis Van Alijn museum in Ghent
- Exhibition and homage to Mawy (rest in power) in Lille (FR)
as well as witchy markets in Auvelais, Philippeville, and Lille (FR).
And I travelled to witch town Vielsalm again…
WALKS
Walks can be adventures and you never know what you might stumble upon. For example I found a tarot deck on the street on January 1st 2022! 🙂
I enjoyed exploring witchy places in my city (part 1 and part 2), and have been collecting herbs and flowers on herbal walks. I also found magickal moments while travelling to the sea.
MAGICK
- Recommendations for witchy videos on YouTube
- Blogposts about the Wheel of the Year and my altars, activities, and ideas for these holidays
- Visionboard for Spring and Summer
- Ideas for creative magick
- Queer witchery for IDAHOT
- My magickal notebooks
- My travel altar
- My spooky read + watch list
- Witchy places in my city part 1 and part 2, and in Vielsalm
REVIEWS + MENTIONS
I should keep better track of reviews, interviews, and other mentions… But some examples of publications, podcasts, and other projects that reviewed or mentioned my zines include the I Wanna Be Yr Grrrl instagram, Lights Go Out zine, New Cult YouTube channel, Sea Green Zines blog, Superbeast podcast, and Twenty Two Zines YouTube channel. Thank you all (and sorry if I forgot anyone)! ❤
OTHER
My new webshop at Ko-Fi! Check it out!
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2022 NEW YEAR’S TO DO LIST
Let’s take a look at what I managed to do from my list of goals and plans:
- ZINES: print and publish the 6 mini-zines I’ve been working on for a while (check this blog tomorrow!), and make a new bigger issue of Witches’ Brew about witchcraft, the 19th issue of Same Heartbeats, and the 5th issue of Confined.
I managed to make lots of witchy zines… see above! - MUSIC: release more music by my solo project Lost Luna (coming soon!) as well as write and record new songs with my band Lavender Witch.
Lost Luna second album: check! And for Lavender Witch, we did write new songs but we still have to record them. - MERCH: create witchy merch (stickers, postcards, buttons, spell bags…), start designing the “Oracle of Echo”, and maybe open a webshop on Red Bubble.
Witchy merch: check! The rest maybe in 2023? - CREATIVE CHALLENGES: draw my yearly self-portrait, do a creative challenge (such as carve lino stamps or embroider every day for 1 month), and participate in ZineWriMo and International Zine Month.
Check! - OTHER CREATIVE PLANS: brainstorm about doing a podcast, expand my (witchy) art/illustration portfolio, experiment more with field recordings.
Check! - READING: try and read at least 22 books and 222 zines.
Check! (Well, I didn’t count the zines but probably 🙂 ) - COMMUNITY: connect with the zine/DIY/queer-feminist community online and offline, participate in online zine events, send snail mail, organise picnics…
Check! - EXPLORE: travel to and visit places nearby or further away, depending on what’s possible.
Check! - LEARN: I’d like to learn more about witchcraft, sound-recording/editing, guitar pedals, printing techniques, gardening and herbs…
I’ve been learning about witchcraft especially and also a bit about herbs.
Thank you for making it through this giant blogpost! 😮
Echo Zines 