▶️ The world of publishing is heavily gate-kept to keep mainstream ideas the norm, which in turn makes it very hard for new writers to get their work out there. That is why I set out to make this video about how I publish my writing in the most Do It Yourself of ways. When I first began making zines I used collaged images and newspaper clippings which I cut & pasted them together, later copying the pages one by one at the public library. Since then I have improved my process though kept the collage elements. Now all the images and words are my own and I’ve even acquired a printer!The benefits of zines for artists or content creators is that a zine can like a mini, portable collection of your workBeyond showing a bit of my process of creating zines, I also shared a few of my favorite zines that have inspired me lately. Many of them are available online to buy but, there is also a very active community of zine makers all over the world that are happy to trade zines with other creators.I hope this inspires you are to create a zine of your own if you haven't already!▶️

The In short, elixirs are basically tinctures with honey. The honey adds a sweetness to otherwise bitter herbs and make the medicine much more palatable. Even the most reluctant may be inclined to use herbal medicine if it has a nice flavor. Besides the sweetness, honey adds a lot of healing properties to the elixir too. I think for this reason a humble tincture gets the fantastic name of elixir. More on the medicine of honey below.The ingredients are quite simple, vodka, honey, herbs + a clean glass jar. Just like any herbal recipe, there are tons of variations in the recipe. Some people use brandy instead of vodka and the amount of honey varies with each herbalist. Yesterday I disinfected my jars and lids by boiling them for 10 minutes then letting them dry out in the oven before capping them until I was ready to make elixirs. I chose to make a small amount of a lot of different herbs that I have dried that I want to use up before spring. I made elixirs with dried roses, hawthorn blossoms, and linden flowers.These three herbs are all flowers and a bit sweet in their own way. To be honest in this case I was looking to make delightful medicine to keep warm and cheery during winter. To make a tincture of elixirs I use fresh or dried herbs, or a combination of both fresh and dried plant material. Right now there isn't much by way of fresh herbs to harvest though I may use fresh orange peel in a couple of weeks when I harvest citrus for making jam. To make a tincture using the "folk medicine method" it really is as simple as filling the jar about halfway with the herbs. The herbs should be lightly filling the jar rath

Throughout my journey I have often wondered if formal training was necessary in order to call myself a "real herbalist". Today I want to further explore the idea of becoming an herbalist and how that journey has looked for me.First, starting with books. Going to school was never my thing. Paying attention to what the teachers wanted me to learn was close to impossible. I was one of those kids who had a fantasy book hidden inside the math text book which I read secretly all class. My inner nerd loved to learn and my inner rebel didn't want to be told what to learn. And, as an adult, not much has changed.My inner rebel is no doubt one of the reasons why formal schooling has never worked for me once I realized that I wanted to dedicate my life work to herbalism. That isn't to say that formal or informal training by a trained herbalist is a bad thing. It just has never worked out for me. When I was a bit younger I was persuaded to be a sort-of apprentice for a local herbalist. She required that I do a certain number of hours of work in her house in exchange for one on one classes. In the end, the classes consisted of me taking notes while she read off her "knowledge" in the form of lectures from her notebooks. And, what is more, whenever I interjected my own herbalism knowledge into the one sides conversation she seemed offended and was quick to point out that she was the teacher and I, the lowly student. I returned to my path of self study. Instead of paying for classes or spending hours working for someone else as their apprentice I have instead bought a couple of herbalism books a year on a variety of subjects and, more than anything, focused on my herbal garden. The study of clinical herbalism involves a lot of time sitting and listening to lectures about herbs. The study from books,

Rather than spending my mornings collecting herbs I am stuck inside wishing that the world would defrost. Winter can be a bit boring as an herbalist with very few herbs around to harvest. It is not all bad (I remind myself) as winter is optimal time for tea drinking. With the months of cold weather and lots of tea to drink I felt the motivation to check on my stores of herbs and put everything in order.As usual I took my little table outside to do my work. The sun has a disinfecting quality and the weak sunshine of winter is perfect for getting a good look at the herbs I have without causing them to deteriorate. The majority of my herbs have been stored in these big jars which are hermetically sealed. They keep out any sort of humidity, dust, or insects that are detrimental to the longevity of the plant material. In these jars I keep the stores of herbs that are meant for others. At the moment, however, I am taking a break from selling to the public and instead am working on sharing information about homemade herbal remedies rather than focusing on local/commercial herbalism as I have in years past.Any herbs that don't fit into those large jars are stored into extra jars such as these. This year I have a lot more herbs than usual and stored a great quantity in tall jars covered with a clean cloth. This method may work well in dry climates but has proved to be a failure as some amount of humidity can pass through the fabric barrier. So I shook all the herbs in the tall jars out into baskets to get a good look at them. Anything moldy or insect ridden went into the compost while all the herbs that were in perfect condition I placed in the sealed jars large and small.I am quite strict about keeping a clean work space. All the jars are thoroughly cleaned as are the tools I work with. For the most part I don't touch the herbs directly and use a wooden spoon instead. Sometimes a human touch is needed tho

I grew up in California, in the land of wooden homes and yearly wildfires. Somehow, I never questioned the practice of building homes that are as flammable as the wood they were made of. As I entered my twenties, I began to contemplate just about everything I had grown up believing. And I began to wonder if there was another way to build.And of course, there is! Sometimes the most simple solution is best. Humans have made homes out of clay, sand, and straw since pre-history. Now we are living in a renaissance of earthen homes. It is an exciting time when modern building is molding with the most primordial supplies.Years ago I participated in my first natural build. I was 23 years old, backpacking across Mexico and volunteering on farms of all kinds. I don’t have the original photos anymore though I do have the pages from the zine I created to document the life changing experience.A group of about a dozen people from all over the world and myself joined forces to build a dome made with recycled bags filled with sand and soil from the site itself. This sort of building, called super adobe, is pretty common in the drier areas of Mexico where seismic activity and limited access to hardwoods make the wood frame buildings I had grown up seeing very impractical. In fact, all throughout Mexico I saw many more homes built of adobe or some other earthen technique than of wood or even cement.(The building blocks of a material commonly called cob: mud, sand, and straw in a workaway site in Peru)I learned a great deal participating in this project and dozens of others throughout my journey from North America, through Central America, and south to where I now reside in Argentina. A couple of weeks spent helping out in a dozens of building projects taught me a great deal.I learned the basic terminology of building in both English and Spanish. I learned that adobe bricks preceded red bricks and are made from clay, sand, and straw. But before bricks of any kind, most buildings were built with cob whic

Why are humans so entranced by tales of mythical creatures and monsters? Are they aggrandized versions of animals that once walked the Earth? Or are these stories a link to another realm just beyond the mundane? Recently I heard that the rise in fairytales sprouted from the industrialization of the world. That, as wild grasslands and forests were being taken over by factories and warehouses people began to miss their spiritual connection with the natural world. Old stories took on a new importance and, as time goes on, we have have not gotten enough of them! Just look at the recent popularity of romantic literature featuring faeries and dragons. I will admit, I am currently listening to one such book as an audiobook (the Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros) but, in general I tend to stick to my physical books of new and old folklore when searching for comfort. This book in particular is one of my favorites. I love how it features creatures of myth from all over the world. There is something so comforting about forgetting my every day worries and delving deeply into the realm where mermaids rule the rocky shores ... .... or stroll through a mystical forest where you may find a faun playing a flute ...I don't know where these creatures came from or if they exist outside of our imaginations. I do feel that keeping these fairy tales alive is as important now as much as ever. With the rise of digital technology, worries about the state of the world are ever present. That isn't to say that humans had it easy before the internet existed. Us humans have always been riddled with anxiety. I believe fantastical tales exist to let us escape from the mundane world into one of magic & myth is one tactic to maintaining mental well being.![](