The Book is DONE!

>_< Finally... after three days of toiling (not that bad toiling though, still get to sleep at least 6 hours... Wonder) I realised it's the most productive 3 days of my sem 2 life... Yea, the 2D project.. We were told to make a compilation of our works from sem 1 to sem 2, like a portfolio, just that she wanted it in a handcrafted book.... The idea I got was pretty simple, Art --> Philosophy --> Magic book, went somewhere on that line. The final product in my head was an old looking book, wooden covered, a bit medieval type.

I wasn't very hyped up about the making of it at first, but when you just have to do it cos it's gonna be due soon, I got down on the table and started writing what materials to get etc. Frankly.. there wasn't a confirmed shopping list, I just looked around in Art Friend for an hour or so, hoping to find things that might fit into the book.

Started off the project with staining the whole new block of 30 pieces heavyweight Daler Rowney papers. It was a gamble at first, I haven't did out the pages of the book then, having no idea how many pieces I need. Emptied the new box of lipton tea and got my mum as an accomplice to the drowning of these papers...

After that, I got out all my past works, gathering them up and pondered how little pages that would be. Seeing the 30 pieces of paper, I thought I should just use them all. Counting the pages they can make, it was 120... making me crap half the book up with 'design'. I added in the process sketches of the projects, which amazingly, managed to fill up the book.

As for the wood cover, thank God that Dad had a cabinet full of tools.... Seeing me saw that pathetic piece of wood made him shake his head... 10 minutes passed and the saw went less than 10cm far, and to think that the line was starting to go crooked....'Wen ah, how big you want the piece to be, papa help you saw. How big?'. T_T Yea man... nailed that cover down in less than 2 hours, complete with sanding and coloration. After that, it was the details and binding...

The youtube video was of real great help. However, I decided to play cheat with glue.... So the signatures were sewn together with coptic binding, with an extra page on the front and back, which are later glue to the wooden board, with a cloth glued between them, acting as a spine.... Cheaterbug, but I got what I want.... so... yea.



The cloth for the 'spine' was leftover from mum's previous lobang (see the cloth on the table?)



The book can't really close properly when it's standing... bad on my binding part... but that's what happens most of the time when you go for easy way out... Thought of doing a metal clasp kind of thing to close the book firmly, but heck, I've spent too much time on this. Need to move on to the other project which I have yet to start on (and is due on tuesday!!!!!!!!!! T_T)



If it's lying down on the table, the weight of the wooden cover pushed the papers down and kind of closes the book. The metal looking structures are made from cardboards. I used some gold paint (Daler and Rowney 'Goldfinger'...) and later varnished them. Went over the entire book cover with shoe polish to give that antique feel. Now it smells...


The back of the book.



First page of the book! Yea, you can see the threads there.





Jason was complaining about the problem of organising the pages. Having done some magazine layouts before.... I know how confusing it can get. But the moment you make a mock up of the pages, everything comes easy. It's easier cos I'm dealing with 5 papers per section, so just one section would be enough to plan all pages.




After sometime, decided to change that bead thing... It kind of pops up too much, so replaced it with an old ring which I've kept in the cupboard for many many years. The metal is starting to wear off and the green part is supposed to be blue... Anyways, it kind of fit there, so just paste it there along with some small beads I found in my pile of junk.



So yea.... ONE DOWN!!! >_< Time to move on....