24 Aug 2011
I recently made a new friend and it seems that I’ve been in the possession of a letter, on the cover of which her name is emblazoned, a time just a hair longer than one year. To remedy this lamentable trespass into the realm of ignorance and malpractice I rendered her this sweet treat that is very much in line with a personal obsession for playing the ukelele. I wonder if she’ll use it to scribe pretty little ditties and play them pluckily, wandering the narrow passages from now until tomorrow?
The nitty gritty: I recently found a postcard on the window ledge of a shop adorned with and devoted to ukeleles and their endless accoutrements. It was an instant association and understanding that the universe had willed me there on a magnificent day in the midst of a morose Berlin summer(weather-wise) and all I had to do thence was accept inertia’s creep and do the deed of manifesting its intent.
It’s perfect-bound with glue and I lined the postcard with kraft paper as it became the book´s interior; then I folded the card around the book block and glued it all together to set for a while.
I did have more problems with “lifting” so next time I´ll try folding the card before gluing in the lining to prevent too much distortion or crumpling.
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Books · tagged glue, postcard, upcycle
10 Aug 2011
Some people toil for years obssessively on an idea, concrete, never managing to bear any fruit. Others collect every piece of scrap-paper and stray postcard that they find and store them in a mysterious bag of goodies waiting patiently for the time when a spark will descend from the heavens and don them with the creative inspiration sufficient to produce a tiny wonder. The latter is what applies to this tale.
We decided to produce a small edition of these postcard booklets in commanding colours with a Japanese hand stab-stitch and a variety of threads. They turned out really well and for the interior covers, we used whatever we had around: scrap paper, namely. One even has a simple collage design which I think is quite funny, though you may never see it!
Overall, we learned a few clear lessons during the production of this edition:
- Don´t break your tools
- Don´t underestimate the importance of paper weight
- Don´t obsess over the finest of details
- If you care about what you´re doing your books will look good in the end
- Keep making mistakes and keep learning from them, but don’t ever stop.
Of course, there are numerous others but I´ll save those for the future. For now we´re going to bask in the glory of our fine achievement.
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Books · tagged enquadernació japonesa, japanese, postcard, stab-stitch, upcycle