Category Archives: finished work

I ♥ Handmade Books

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Look what I received today! My copy of I Love Handmade Books.
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I was asked by the author to participate by sending in pictures of some of handbound books and information about them (and myself), as well as a couple of tutorials.
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Alas, my Japanese stab binding tutorial didn’t make it in (cut because it was too long) but the French Link Stitch tutorial was included.
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Pretty fun, to be in a published book! Also neat to see work by blog-friends Ruth and Lestaret. Check it out on Amazon.com. It appears it was also released as this version, but I don’t know how many copies are available.

Tiffany Anne

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My talented friend Tiffany and I bartered: I would create a name plaque for her and she would make a gift baby quilt for another friend of mine. Custom sketch, digitized, and then laser etched onto birch plywood. I’m not 100% happy with how the staining turned out. It looks great from some angles, but from others the words completely disappear! Live and learn. Oh, and because I did it all in Fontlab, I gave her the font so she can use ‘Tiffany Anne’ as a signature or tag on other projects. Fun!
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a fontified version of The Princess Bride

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I’ve been playing with lasers again! These designs were created as prizes for my office. We’re a bunch of nerdy geeks who create fonts for publishing minority languages. Last year we started taking bits from the ‘team movie’ of The Princess Bride and twisting them to our own silliness. There were actually a few more converted quotes, but these were the ones I chose to design. I etched them on wood as well as several different types of acrylic, but I feel that these turned out the best. Pardon the bits of dust clinging to them! I rubbed silver paint into the etching, exactly like I did for the Obscure Word book.

F.O.U.S.s…Fonts Of Unusual Size!FOUS(R.O.U.S.s…Rodents Of Unusual Size)

The Glyphs of Insanityglyphs of insanity(The Cliffs of Insanity)

Twoo Typetwoo typeTwoo Wuv

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy quote book

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This was a birthday gift for a huge fan of the radio show/book/movie Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. There is one quote per each of the eight pages, arranged so that when the book is closed the words form a ‘word cloud’. The pages are laser-cut and etched acrylic plastic and are sewn with waxed linen thread using the same method as in my previously posted book. I wanted to create a gradient of sorts using paint in the etched letters, fading from white to black. It mostly worked the way I wanted it to.

Let me just say, photographing this thing was a nightmare. First, smudges! Ack! And then the waxed thread left marks all over the surfaces. Plus having to dodge the reflection made taking pictures super fun. Not. Anyway, I really like the possibilities of laser-etched acrylic…but if I ever do clear again, I will be using non-waxed thread for sure, and waiting to peel the backing off until the very last minute! (Scratches seemed to come out of nowhere.)

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obscure word book: volume 1, light edition

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For a while now I’ve been wanting to create a project using obscure or old-fashioned English words. I just wasn’t sure how I would do it. Enter the fabrication lab and the laser cutter! I decided to create a ‘book’ of laser cut and etched acrylic plastic sheets, sewn together with one of Keith A Smith’s techniques. Though the bind looks ok, I think I might have to redo it with a modified version. There just aren’t enough pages for the design to look right.

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First I sketched the designs on paper, then digitized them in Illustrator. The darker the color, the deeper the laser will etch the plastic. It was similar to the thought process behind intaglio printmaking – the darkest colors will be the lightest, and the lightest colors the darkest. It took a a couple of tries to find the right setting for the laser, but I was fairly happy with the second run.

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I tried a couple of different colors of acrylic paint, but settled on white and a shimmery gold. I smeared the paint into the etched lines and gradients, then wiped (or scrubbed, if it had dried) off the excess paint.

obscure-light-5“lucubrate” – to work diligently by artificial light

obscure-light-6“ignivomous” – vomiting fire

obscure-light-7“fulgent” – shining brilliantly, radiant, gleaming

obscure-light-8“ascian” – a person or thing without shadow

obscure-light-9“clinquant” – glittering, showy, dressed in tinsel

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Finished size: 6 in x 4 in (15.24 cm x 10.16 cm). I’m planning several more ‘volumes’ of obscure terms. If you’re curious about where I found these words, check out this book: Mrs Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words.

a little Sharpie fun

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I made this for a friend’s birthday. Please pardon the poor lighting. I don’t have time to take a picture in the daylight. But good daylight is kind of hit or miss in England anyway… Seven colors of Sharpie marker, eight including the silver. On a brown paper envelope I cut apart! I like the contrast of the silver with the brown.

 

 

 

 

a new sketchbook

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I’ve been devising new Japanese stab binding designs for nearly two years, and my sketchbook has gone along with me on quite a few travels. And now…it’s full! So I made a new one.

Here is my old friend…

And my new one, with a bit more pizazz:

Both binds were from Keith A Smith’s book on section sewings.