Junk Drawer

This pile of wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, and gift bags looked like the remnants of a birthday party, or Christmas day. It was actually a little of both strewn together, including a Santa bag, and ribbons in bright birthday type colors. All this seemed to be a collection of discarded gift wrapping supplies, a little scruffed up, but possibly never used. Somehow it was all open, and just lying in the alley next to an apartment building. Perhaps someone was just cleaning out their things. Or they decided not to give gifts anymore. Whatever the story was, it sure was a colorful mess.

Gift wrap is not something people usually just throw away, since there are always gift giving occasions around the corner. Some items are easy to save and reuse, such as gift bags. One time I gave my brother a gift in the same bag he’d given me for my gift the year before. It’s nice to recycle gift wrap like that, since so much of it is kind of a waste of paper. I know that many cats love holidays simply for the opportunity to dive into wrapping paper to play in. I imagine that some alley cats may have gotten into this pile.

Odds and ends form the basis of any good junk drawer. This zine is about a drawer and the various miscellaneous objects stowed away within.  It is full of musings on what these random items are, where they come from, and maybe why they’ve been saved, some for many years.  It is a mini excavation into stuff that doesn’t really have a place to belong, except for inside that space called the “junk drawer.”
Quarter size, black and white photocopied, 50 pages, about half text and half original photos and drawings.

This zine is about the nature of getting things second hand. Whether you’re going to thrift stores, garage sales, or just finding stuff any old place, the experience gives you “indirectness.” That is, it’s apart from the direct marketing and advertising driving everyone toward typical big box retail stores. It ponders the whole interest in used stuff. Quarter size, black and white photocopied, 50 pages, half text and half original photos.