zilliah

Hi, I'm zilliah!

PLEASE NOTE! I'm shipping from CANADA so things will take longer to arrive: I'd appreciate it if you would wait a month before asking me to resend - it can take this long or longer for some mail to arrive. I will, of course, resend if it doesn't arrive, so please message me if you never get anything!

I love to draw, especially with markers! I'm been colouring in with watercolours more recently as well, since bringing a travelling watercolour box is a lot more portable than bringing all my markers everywhere. (Working with a small marker palette is great sometimes, but very frustrating when I just need that one colour I don't have with me!) I'm also trying to work on giving drawings a bit more depth and making forms more solid and 3D, which I'm finding watercolour works out a bit better for.

I really like text in art, particularly if it's hand lettered and integrated thoughtfully. It doesn't need to be English text - Islamic calligraphy is gorgeous, for example! However, I'm not fond art that's just an unadorned random quote, or a quote next to unrelated imagery. I'd much rather have text that expresses something you feel than a generically "inspirational" quote.

Most of my art I do in my sketchbooks - there's just something really satisfying about sketchbooks. I love looking back through old sketchbooks and seeing how my drawing has changed.

I'm very into making collages in my sketchbooks (particularly collages about my feelings), gluing things into them, and using stickers! I don't usually send collages for swaps because I find it's difficult to make collages that have meaning for other people. I like collages that include drawings or textiles! I'm not at all into scrapbooking or "scrapbook-y" collages.

ATCs are one of my favourite things to swap, and I love making them! There's something very satisfying about working at a tiny scale - it definitely forces me to think about composition in a way I wouldn't otherwise. I've done a lot of mixed media ATCs in the past, but at the moment I'm mostly interested in drawn ATCs (making and receiving them).

I love to knit! I actually teach knitting at a local yarn shop, and I generally have at least two knitting projects on the go at any time (one sock project, and something else). I'm currently trying to work down my yarn stash a bit...

I like embroidery, but tend to get into it rather sporadically. At the moment I'm working on some blackwork. I really like embroidery combined with ink or watercolours!

I really like speculative fiction, especially if it has believably written female characters. Short stories are great. Good retellings of fairy tales are awesome. I like comics, but only some kinds (I hate superheros).

This story is excellent.

I generally love anything by Diana Wynne Jones, N.K. Jemisin, Kelly Link, Ellen Klages, Tamora Pierce, Patricia C. Wrede.

I really like fiction with lesbian characters (I like feeling like I exist), and at the moment I'm hunting down all the lesbian comics I can find!

Some of my favourite books are:

• Life Mask, by Emma Donoghue

• The Three Body trilogy, by Liu Cixin

• Deathless, by Catherine Valente

• Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson

• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, by Susanna Clarke

• Beautiful Darkness, by Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët (comic)

• Susceptible, by Geneviève Castrée (comic)

• Potential, by Ariel Schrag (comic, also the 2nd book in a trilogy, but it's my favourite)

• Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist, by Sophie Crumb (a collection of drawings she's done from age 2 - 28. I love this book because you can see how her drawing and outlook change as she grows up.)

• Robots, cyborgs, floating cities in the sky, biohazard logos (plus other warning logos and airplane emergency cards), circuit boards/diagrams

• Mermaids and other fantasy ladies, dinosaurs, interesting underwater creatures, birds, mushrooms, wlw (I'm a lesbian - if you want to earn my love forever, just send me lesbian mermaids!), rainbows, flowers, fashion, historical fashion, embroidery, maps, skeletons (anatomically correct ones, not creepy or sugar skulls; I really like bird skeletons)

• Interesting textures, interesting light, underwater, text in art, character design

• My favourite shape is a semicircle on top of a rectangle (think mushrooms, jellyfish, umbrellas, etc) but I also really like hexagons and circles

• Blues, greens, purples, pinks, reds, greys

(Any of these are great for ATC themes.)

• Sketchbooks/sketchbook pages. I don't know why anyone would want to get rid of a sketchbook they'd finished, but if for some reason you do I'd be thrilled to take it off your hands! Seeing sketchbooks is like seeing how people think, it's so cool.

• Self-portraits, particularly abstract ones or making yourself into a character.

• Well-made ATCs. I generally prefer hand-drawn/hand-painted: I do like collage, but I find it's really hard to do well. Collages that include hand-drawn/painted elements and/or unusual materials I tend to like. I also really like fabric ATCs.

• Stim toys/fidget toys.

• Interesting magazines to cut up, or cool images you've cut out of magazines (especially National Geographic type magazines or art magazines).

• Art on any of the themes I like!

• Art markers (I mostly use Prismacolour chisel tips, but I'd love to get some copics).

• Liner pens - preferably ones that are water and alcohol marker resistant. The copic liners are great.

• Coloured pencil lead - I'm currently using Pilot colour Eno lead, which I really like, but I'd be interested to try other leads too.

• Midsize notebooks - I have too many notebooks already, but I love them so much. I'd prefer to receive notebooks that are about 8" x 10" - anything much larger, and I have a specific kind I like; anything much smaller I tend not to use much.

• Stickers! I'm very into stickers at the moment. (No holiday/event, reward, 3D/puffy/raised, planner, freebie/ad, plain shape stickers, or branded kid's stickers (eg dora the explorer, spider man, etc) please! I'd also prefer not to get stickers for any of the themes I dislike, which are listed below. I really like people, animal, and plant stickers.)

• Washi tape samples! (Same guidelines as stickers.)

• Nice letter paper (and matching envelopes). I write a lot of letters and always run out of this. Handmade is great too!

• Notecards, particularly on themes I like.

• Printed address labels (I have plenty of blank ones, but no printer).

• If you're Canadian, I'd love to get letters with the Star Trek postage stamps (particularly the Janeway one, and the Borg cube one - the Borg cube is a $5 stamp so idk what people would send me that would cost that much, but it's so cool)

• I'm currently looking for a regular penpal! I'd love to swap regular letters (plus small goodies and/or occasional crafty challenges). Preferably looking for someone LGBT who shares some interests with me. Message me if you're interested!

If you'd like to swap with me, don't be shy, just message me! I'm usually up for private swaps, even if you're a newbie.

• ATCs or drawings/paintings! I'm up for making ATCs for themes you like.

• Fancy paper - I have a bunch of scrapbooking paper and fancy printed paper.

• Small handmade notebooks (with pretty paper covers). I love making these but I already have a million notebooks.

• Yarn (have a look at my trade stash on ravelry if you're interested!)

• Beads - the only beads I use now are seed beads for knitting, but I have a bunch left over when from I made (bad) jewellery. I may have some wire too?

I'm happy to swap these for different things - eg, send me some stickers and I'll send you some fancy paper.

• Anything to do with food/eating/cooking, including recipe cards and tea. (If I'm in a swap which includes tea that's ok, but feel free to send something else instead!)

• Dogs, insects, pets, babies, religious things, sports, tv shows/fandoms/celebrities (except for Steven Universe and Moomins), holidays (including sugar skulls), violence or gore, nude men (I'm a lesbian)

• Rubber stamps, scrapbooking supplies (especially 3D embellishments - I never, ever use 3D embellishments).

• Please nothing scented - I'm ridiculously sensitive to scents, scents other people don't notice dive me bananas! Scented things are likely to go directly into the garbage, please don't send them to me.

• No body products (lotions, body wash, etc etc) - I can't tolerate most of these.

• I'm allergic to cats/dogs/pollen/dust/etc.

• Inchies, matchbooks, or FBs.

About my 1 and 3: These were both for swaps where I sent cards which never arrived, and then I got hit my major health problems so I couldn't deal with them. I've since made up for one (that's the 3), and sent additional cards twice to make up the 2nd one, but never heard back. I take swaps very seriously, but at this point the swap happened about five years ago and I have a hard time believing all three cards didn't arrive.

If I haven't rated you, it's because I haven't received it yet. I check the mail and am online most days.

If something's come up and you're late with a swap, just let me know - life does happen.

For the swaps I host, I will ban people who don't fit the requirements, but please don't take it personally and it doesn't mean you can't sign up for other swaps I'm hosting. It's your responsibility to read the swap requirements carefully!

If you've flaked or failed to rate, either in a swap I'm hosting or as my swap partner, you will be banned from my swaps until it gets resolved. And I host great swaps, so trust me it's not worth it :P Here's the list:

@Jesshens1125 @pygmydoyenne @Tulips75 @Crispycritter @Gema2015

Please let me know if it's been more than a month and you haven't received anything. I will resend! Be aware that I am shipping from Canada, and I can't afford to ship faster than standard - mail takes time to arrive! I've had flat mail from the states take more than a month to arrive, and I usually wait at least that long to contact people if I haven't received anything.