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Days 28 - 31
Nov. 3rd, 2019 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
antuhsaThe last few days were such a whirlwind of work and bookbinding that I completely forgot what I did when, but I definitely did something every day.
Laundry detergent
Remember that conker laundry detergent I made in the beginning of the month? Well, I finally had the chance to use it! I put some of the dried conker bits in water and waited until it turned into a soapy liquid. Then I filtered the conkers out, added the liquid to the washing machine and turned the machine on. It was really easy. The laundry came out looking clean, so I suppose it has worked. The only thing is that this laundry detergent has no smell and that takes some time getting used to, I find. Otherwise, this seems to be succesful.
This is what the laundry detergent looked like
Bookbinding
First, I finished the two books I had to finish for class. I'm not super happy with them, but I didn't spend that much time on them either, since the commission was my priority. For the first book, I found some odd, textured paper in my stash that I decided to use. This paper was very difficult to work with, because it was transparent, so everything shows through. I used more glue in the middle than around the edges and you can very clearly see that, because the black paper I used underneath shows through. Oh well, now I know what not to do when I use the other sheet I have of this paper. For the second book I tried something I have wanted to try for some time, namely folding paper into pleats. I made three pleats on the front cover and left the back plain. I really like how minimalistic it looks. I just don't like the placement of the pleats very much, but I hope the design will look more balanced when I trim the books in class in a few days.
The weird book and the pleat book
I made a lot of progress with the sheet music commissions. I have now made all the endpapers, which was a lot of work. I wanted my design to look very neat and clean and it took a lot of time and experimentation to figure out how best to do that. But I did it and am happy with how they turned out!
The endpapers! I love how clean this looks. There are some irregularities in the middle, but that was fine, because the sheet was going to be folded in half anyway. I tried a few different methods to see which one gave me the best results, and that turned out to be ruler + white gelly roll pen, so that's how all six endpapers are made.
Then I discovered that the dark blue tapes I had sewed the books on showed through the bookcloth I want to use on the cover, so I cut new tapes in white and resewed all three books onto those. It was frustrating to have to cut the books apart and redo them, but if it makes the end result better, it will be worth it.
I glued my freshly made enpaper onto the bookblocks and glued the spines. As I'm writing this, I still have one more book to glue, but I hope to get to that within the next few days. After that, I will still have a lot of work and experimentation to do, but the bulk of the work for these books will be behind me, which is a really good feeling!
The resewn bookblocks with the endpapers attached. The top one has been glued, the bottom one not yet, so you can see what a difference gluing makes. I have another one glued, but that one was still drying at the time of taking this picture, so you'll have to take my word for it that it's done.
Final notes
Wow, I can't believe this challenge is already behind us. October flew by so fast. I had a blast doing this challenge and sharing my work with you guys, though I am sorry I didn't finish much this month. I mostly started projects, so I posted a lot of process pics. All these projects will get finished, but not in October anymore, obviously. When I have the sheet music commission finished, I'll probably post pictures of it on my personal journal though, as I do with all of my more complicated bookbinding projects, so feel free to subscribe if you want to see them.
I also loved seeing what everyone else was doing, since we were all working on completely different projects and crafts. Keep up the great work and hope to see you all again elsewhere/ next year!
Laundry detergent
Remember that conker laundry detergent I made in the beginning of the month? Well, I finally had the chance to use it! I put some of the dried conker bits in water and waited until it turned into a soapy liquid. Then I filtered the conkers out, added the liquid to the washing machine and turned the machine on. It was really easy. The laundry came out looking clean, so I suppose it has worked. The only thing is that this laundry detergent has no smell and that takes some time getting used to, I find. Otherwise, this seems to be succesful.
This is what the laundry detergent looked like
Bookbinding
First, I finished the two books I had to finish for class. I'm not super happy with them, but I didn't spend that much time on them either, since the commission was my priority. For the first book, I found some odd, textured paper in my stash that I decided to use. This paper was very difficult to work with, because it was transparent, so everything shows through. I used more glue in the middle than around the edges and you can very clearly see that, because the black paper I used underneath shows through. Oh well, now I know what not to do when I use the other sheet I have of this paper. For the second book I tried something I have wanted to try for some time, namely folding paper into pleats. I made three pleats on the front cover and left the back plain. I really like how minimalistic it looks. I just don't like the placement of the pleats very much, but I hope the design will look more balanced when I trim the books in class in a few days.
The weird book and the pleat book
I made a lot of progress with the sheet music commissions. I have now made all the endpapers, which was a lot of work. I wanted my design to look very neat and clean and it took a lot of time and experimentation to figure out how best to do that. But I did it and am happy with how they turned out!
The endpapers! I love how clean this looks. There are some irregularities in the middle, but that was fine, because the sheet was going to be folded in half anyway. I tried a few different methods to see which one gave me the best results, and that turned out to be ruler + white gelly roll pen, so that's how all six endpapers are made.
Then I discovered that the dark blue tapes I had sewed the books on showed through the bookcloth I want to use on the cover, so I cut new tapes in white and resewed all three books onto those. It was frustrating to have to cut the books apart and redo them, but if it makes the end result better, it will be worth it.
I glued my freshly made enpaper onto the bookblocks and glued the spines. As I'm writing this, I still have one more book to glue, but I hope to get to that within the next few days. After that, I will still have a lot of work and experimentation to do, but the bulk of the work for these books will be behind me, which is a really good feeling!
The resewn bookblocks with the endpapers attached. The top one has been glued, the bottom one not yet, so you can see what a difference gluing makes. I have another one glued, but that one was still drying at the time of taking this picture, so you'll have to take my word for it that it's done.
Final notes
Wow, I can't believe this challenge is already behind us. October flew by so fast. I had a blast doing this challenge and sharing my work with you guys, though I am sorry I didn't finish much this month. I mostly started projects, so I posted a lot of process pics. All these projects will get finished, but not in October anymore, obviously. When I have the sheet music commission finished, I'll probably post pictures of it on my personal journal though, as I do with all of my more complicated bookbinding projects, so feel free to subscribe if you want to see them.
I also loved seeing what everyone else was doing, since we were all working on completely different projects and crafts. Keep up the great work and hope to see you all again elsewhere/ next year!
