trouble trouble.

oh my god. I think I made like 18 boxes (or book sleeves).
I didn't use illustration boards because it was way too thick compared to my tiny books, so what I did was use this cardstock from Neenah paper. It looked awesome until I actually folded them. As soon as I made the box shape out of the paper it just cracked revealing its inner paper colour ( I did score beforehand very intensely) also it kept curving everywhere. So after the 4th attempt, I just decided to make a soft book sleeve.

 

From the left, the first two are soft paper and the third one is thicker material.
There is string glued around the first box to make it look more parcel-like, and you can tie and untie the string just where the opening is.

The second one is a fail attempt to wax seal. Because the string was too thick, the wax just went everywhere and it was not fixable. Maybe I should've got a fake wax stickers or something. felt like crying. also the hot wax curved the paper like no tomorrow.

 I think I like the first stringy one the best and probably will hand that one in as the final, although I kind of still like the wax one despite all the negative things that happened.

process work from the past week

 

My desperate attempt to hold the hardcover boxes together. did not work out as the paper stock kept curving no matter which way I glue.

 

home made presser!

 

 Final books. I made 2 copies of each book just in case I mess up one. and thank god I did.

 

This isn't the most perfect binding but considering how much I suck at hand-crafting things in general, I am pretty proud of it. lots of glue and papercut all over my hands.

 

What it looks like in the box

different illustraiton filters

 

I wasn't happy with the illustrations because they looked too faded out so I ran through some filters to make the lines more clear, dark and loose. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the first ones the original, second and third are different filters. I like the third one so I decided to replace all the images in this style.

Binding fail

Practicing with thin thread did not work out at all, maybe because my needle was way too big.

Using the waxed embroidery thread was better. This is my mockup book to show on upcoming wednesday. One problem I had was that the thread was too thick to hide under a soft cover. I'm going to have to separate the embroidery thread into thin pieces and use a smaller needle.

epic printing and binding adventure

except I don't have pictures yet. will upload soon. 

On Thursday, I walked all the way to staples to grab some paper, and I found one I really liked but couldnt decide on the material. The choices were the cotton or linen, both 24lb and cream coloured. I asked one of the workers if I could feel the paper, and he brings me a random piece of white printing paper and tells me this is how thin 24lb paper stock is and they feel all the same. I didn't know whether to laugh at him or yell at him. Ended up getting 400 pack because it was on sale. It's really nice paper and has a random watermark that says COTTON. At first it bothered me but then later on I figured it probably works with my theme of random+vintage ish feel.

On Friday, I headed downtown to print, spent at least 4hours printing. It was very nice of my ex-boss to let me print for free, but he probably didn't expect me to print 200 pages. Figured out that the text was too light and made minor changes. The covers are not yet designed, so I have decided to make an epic mockup to show to class on wednesday, and then continue working on it so I can submit it after school's done. Visited Reg's studio with elaine and bunch, and was first amused by the Italy style elevator, and then his epic studio with really really old books. By that time my arms were pretty much falling off from carrying 200 paperstocks and a macbook.

That brings us to today(Saturday) I re-watched the video elaine took of Reg's french binding and tried several times until I got it right. Also poked a few holes in my hand while binding. However sewing the signatures together was somehow very addicting and I ended up working on it until 2 in the morning. need to sleep soon!