The contents of this book had been typeset for 4 minis (which are still in progress) but over the winter holiday I wanted to work on my marbling. Specifically (a) I needed more 28lb paper strips that I could obviously source a number of ways but are most satisfying when they come from the trimmings of my 1/3rd page books and (b) a text block of at least some volume to practice marbling on.
Threw this together in a rush and of course botched several things. While I'm disappointed in the end product, it’s contained a number of lessons (under the cut)
so far I’ve only used the black oak gal for a base when marbling. This was a water-soluble red ink and I do not like how it’s held up re: flaking and wear. Never again
that headband turned out pretty nice, my first attempt at a double core, one of which was a strip of leather. Will try again
I forgot how much I hate 28lb paper for anything larger than a mini
while I’ll never actually manage “real leather” bindings, leather scrap from fabric store yields good results. I need to figure out my turn-ins with it though- hate how it bulks up at the corners
if I’m casing in leather I need to mindful of how sensitive it is-- normally I wrap the whole thing up in yarn (like taxidermy) while it dries but this time I thought to combine it with the press. Bad idea-- the yarn indentations are permanently set in the cover now. One or the other method, but not both!
wtf is up with that weak hinge at the head? is it a gluing problem? a pressing/setting problem? I do tuck the excess fabric back down with this binding style, probably munged something on that side... but what?
used home made end papers that had been painted/coated with matte mod podge for texture. Bad idea, never again. Remained faintly tacky the entire time, had to fight with it to free my first and last pages
margins margins margins... I didn’t nick anything this time but allowed too large of outer margin-- need to increase me inner margin a bit because this does feel like the right width
I continue to kick myself for miss-assembling the very first signature-- and it’s only 3 folios! Ugh... makes me want to crawl back to a fold-up imposition so that I can’t hurt myself like this again... obviously ‘try harder not to screw up’ isn’t cutting it. I am sloppy in my work, there’s no changing that-- I need to factor that into my process rather than futilely hope I’ll change/improve
despite all the negativity expressed above, it is a pleasing book to hold. Fits well in palm, feels good, looks pretty (in passing, till you open it it..)
