Visiting the Guislain museum + nearby graveyard

At the end of February I visited the Dr Guislain museum in Ghent (Belgium). It was the last weekend of their Mirror Mirror exhibition about fashion and the psyche and because I was doing lots of stitchcraft projects in February I didn’t want to miss that. I also visited the permanent exhibition Unhinged / Op Losse Schroeven and the temporary exhibition Connective Material in the same museum, and had a walk through the nearby graveyard Westerbegraafplaats. Let me show you some of the things I saw:

Go Local art/craft market in Ghent (December 4th)

If you’re in or around Ghent (BE) on Sunday December 4th be sure to visit the winter edition of the Go Local art/craft market. I’m excited to announce I’ll be sharing a table with Wayfaring Moon Apothecaries and her delicious soaps. I’ll bring my zines, postcards, buttons, and more. We’ll also bring some Lavender Witch CDs. Don’t miss it!

Facebook event

 

Witchy places in my city – part 2 (botanical garden)

I like exploring the green areas in my city, Ghent (in Belgium). A lot of them have mysterious spots to discover. In part 1 of this series I covered parts of the Citadelpark which has human-made caves and ponds and the secret park/garden hidden in between two shopping streets which offers a space for rest from the city crowds. This blogpost focuses on the Plantentuin, the botanical garden of the University of Ghent.

Zine/witch events and plans in Autumn

Tis the season of the witch and as you know, every month is zine month! So I’m excited to announce that this Autumn I’ll be participating in a witch market, a craft fair, an art exhibition, and a feminist zine workshop. Come and say hi if you’re around! You can also read about some of my other plans for this season if you scroll down:

Zine events in Ghent in September

Come and make or buy some zines in September! If you are in Ghent this month, check out these zine events:

• This Sunday September 11th I’ll be participating in the Go Local market at Meubelfabriek. I’ll bring my postcards, buttons, (mini)zines and maybe some other things! Sister Ray Zines will share a table with me with her witchy creations.
• On Saturday September 17th I’m organising another zine-making gathering! All welcome to make zines, do crafts, or just hang out. It take place from 3 pm at the Bijloke park on the picnic benches in between the STAM museum and the Kunstenbibliotheek. Cancelled due to rainy weather!
• On Saturday September 24th the feminist collective Girls Go BOOM hosts a workshop to make your own mini-zine. This happens at the Meubelfabriek too.

Also, there’s an online zine symposium and zine jam this Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th with super interesting talks and workshops! Make sure to sign up in advance.

Witchy places in my city – part I

Something I’ve learned and appreciated since the March 2020 lockdown is exploring my own city, Ghent (in belgium). I’ve walked in so many parks, streets, and neighbourhoods, took so many photos, discovered hidden spots, and enjoyed being a tourist close to home. And I intend to continue doing so. On my walks I’ve noticed and embraced the magick of these green spaces: from witchy trees to portals and from deserted gardens to cat friends. Here, I’ll show you some of that magick, follow my lead…

Upcoming zine events (and a bit of music news)

It will be a busy late Summer and Autumn! I’ve got some zine workshops, a craft fair, another zine-making afternoon, and an exhibition planned as well as a concert with Lavender Witch!

Visiting the Huis van Alijn museum in Ghent

This blog post is a bit late but I still wanted to write a bit and show some photos of my visit to the Huis Van Alijn museum (“House of Alijn”) in Ghent a month ago because I really enjoyed it. Huis Van Alijn is the museum of daily life. It’s a fun museum to explore at any time because the permanent exhibition (which is regularly updated/changed) is well worth a visit and I think it’s a fun activity in these weird times. But I especially wanted to see their current exhibition about protests and parades…

Visiting the Industry Museum in Ghent

Last month I visited the Industry Museum in Ghent (Belgium), formerly known at MIAT. I was especially excited and impressed by their exhibition about the graphic industry and all the machines that were on display: a great variety of printing presses (some of which are still being used by the staff to print museum merch as well as posters for other organisations and projects), typewriters, stencil machines, and the oldest computers.  It was an extra fun and entertaining visit for zinesters because throughout the exhibition you could make your own mini-zine! The exhibition about textiles was intriguing too. I’m a typewriter / printing press geek AND sewing machine geek so it was the best place for me to spend the day. 🙂 (Now someone should only create a guitar pedal exhibition or museum 🙂 ).

Visit the website of the museum for more info.

Take a look at some of the photos I took:

Opening of the new Girls Go BOOM Clubhouse

Last Saturday I visited the new Girls Go BOOM Clubhouse in Ghent (Belgium). Girls Go BOOM is a DIY collective who put up shows for female(fronted) bands and organise other feminist activities as well. They were offered a space at the Meubelfabriek, a huge building with lots of rooms that are going to be used by different organisations and projects including a bike repair shop, a community garden, and an anarchist boxing club! Saturday was the official opening of the Meubelfabriek during which all the residents could introduce themselves. Girls Go BOOM built a rehearsal space there and has a living room-like space with a library and distro. It looked really cool!

What struck me most was that there were zines EVERYWHERE in the Girls Go BOOM Clubhouse! So I had to take lots of pictures. 🙂 In the library you can read zines like Vinyldyke, Artificial Womb, and Ladyfuzz, and even zines by yours truly as well as books about feminism and women in rock. For the opening of the space, Girls Go BOOM organised a “zine jam”, meaning you could just come by and make a zine. I used this opportunity to draw for upcoming issues of Same Heartbeats (yeah, I’m working on two issues at the same time…).

I’m already curious for what kind of activities Girls Go BOOM will organise in their clubhouse in the future! For sure it’s amazing to have such a space for your own project and I’m sure they’ll make good use of it!

More photos…