The Sound of One Crow Laughing

First off, a link to a video that's been a simultaneous comfort and boot-to-the-tail for me ever since I found it.



Because anything holy help you if you are simultaneously blessed with a creative streak and perfectionist tendencies.

~0~

The Evil Gazebo proceeds apace--here's one of which I'm rather proud.


The cover fabric started out a pale dove grey. When a few washes of black dye didn't give me a look I was happy with, I wrapped it around my trusty PVC pipe and hit the peaks with a red Shiva Paintstik.

It was the first time I'd worked with the paintstiks, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They turned out to be incredibly easy to handle (so long as I didn't try to get into any fine detail) and delightfully smudgeproof (given ample time to cure and thorough heat setting.) Well. The first was taken care of with bound resist; the second could be done with patience and a household iron. Good stuff.

Also discovered that if I let the gaps between wraps of thread be ~.5", and if I wasn't too fussy about keeping things straight-and-even, unexpected beauty could turn up.



All in all, I'm pleased with the effect. Pleased enough to have a blue-on-black piece waiting to be made into bookcloth, and plans for bronze-on-brown. And for other projects, maybe doing more with the actual dye... Oh, the possibilities...

So here's to a successful mingling!



Next time, "Fun With Galvanic Etching", or "More Nail Polish and More Power"

Hail, thou patient readers. :)

I coughed a bit when I looked at the "last post on" date. It's been a month? More than a month? Where does the time go?

Well.

A fair portion of it went into the furious production of books, once I put hands on more PVA. Here's to Southerland Station art supply in Huntsville, for finding a supplier in Atlanta who carried an archival glue and could ship during a warm snap. I've got a gallon on order, now; this is a problem I shouldn't have to worry about again for a little while.

What else?
Ah!
A smaller commission, a one-off for the same gentleman who commissioned my first leather-covered book. We've been experimenting with etching brass on this one. Ahh, electricity and chemicals...

Photo posts and more details to follow. There're a couple of things I'm really proud of, it's just a matter of pausing in the doing of them so as to write about them...

So that's how my month's been--how about yours?

Note to self (and anyone playing along at home):
Buy PVA in bulk. In the summer.
Or heck, even in spring or fall!
Do what you have to do to avoid running out in winter.
Because when PVA freezes (as it might well do on the delivery truck between Ann Arbor, MI and Huntsville, AL), it curdles, and when it curdles, it stops being glue.

Further notes: 16oz of the Hollander's PVA will do at least 30 books, probably more if I started using a squeegee instead of a brush to spread it. Hmmm....

The upshot of this is that I get to experiment with wheatpaste today.
Thankfully, I'm not cutting any new trail--others, like Rhonda at My Handbound Books, have been kind enough to post recipes and pictures of what the process should look like.

Keep your fingers crossed, thou lovely readers.

1) I'm finally getting off my duff and puttering around with the blog's formatting! I've managed to lose several hours today looking at the bones of various freely-available templates and at tutorials far beyond me. In the back of my head lives the sneaking urge to learn to ACTUALLY WRITE THIS STUFF, but for the moment, I'm bribing it with snippets and tweaks to existing code.

2) Finished a set of stemcharms for the silent auction my son's preschool holds every year. The parents all chip in things for themed baskets, then bid on them to raise money so we can all dodge a tuition increase. Judging by the rest of the contents of Dae's class's basket (two bottles of bubbly, glasses to drink it from, noisemakers, etc.), I'm guessing the theme is "New Year's Eve Party At Home". Bless Anglicans.

Anyhow, there are pictures!



One of these days, I'll remember to set up a tripod and lighting for shots like these...

Just wrapped up another shipment of The Evil Gazebo. I'm finding that I actually like doing a string of similar books--it gives me the chance to try one different thing with every iteration.




Pictures are up at Crow's Eye View.

So...

I've spent the past 45 minutes or so sewing a book together. Nothing new. Trying out something with a tacket binding that doesn't leave strings waving in the breeze (because there're two things I can't stand: wavy strings and cut off ends inside a signature). It was going pretty well, too; look!



Just one problem:




...
~sighs, curses, and breaks out the embroidery scissors...~

Finally getting round to posting pictures of the first two books in Brni's edition. I TOOK pics of the other two, but they're both so jittery, it's hard to tell whether they're books or Fungi from Yoggoth.

Anyway, here's the set so far.

And here's a poster-book!