Here's a second attempt at a cover for this book. I used some silk noil I had that came very close to the colours inside the book, and a corset ribbon style binding on the end, to get something to go with the whole cloth/embroidery theme, and, I hope, a feeling of luxury and richness. Unfortunately the velvet ribbon I had wasn't a strong enough colour, so I used satin instead. It matches better but I would have liked the texture of the velvet.
So here we are, at the end of a very frustrating project. If you read my other posts about it, you know this already, but nothing seemed to go quite right on this one, and I'm glad I'm rid of it. Which is not really the attitude to have about these things, but still, it happens sometimes.
Here is the cover. I think I will end up changing this, or at least the ribbon, at some point. I had no idea what to do for it. I'm not a very good embroidered so I didn't really want to do that. It worked fine for "The Tell-Tale Heart" because that was supposed to be messy. But this should look nice. Also, it isn't seen when it's open, and will probably never be displayed closed, so I don't want anything elaborate. Leather would have been much too thick because it would be bulky when it closed. Any papers I tired looked bad against the fancy calligraphy. So I just went for some silk. Other than that... yeah, I have no idea what I really want here. Maybe I'll take it with me to the fabric store and see if I can find anything that doesn't look stupid with it.
With the embroidery on the edges. I used silk thread in grey and purple, in a sort of twisted chain stitch. It blends in and compliments and looks terrific all at the same time. At least one thing went right!
The cover when it's on display.
This is the layer going behind the poem. It has the title and author. It was done in masking fluid with a really thick nib I've never really been able to use but work wonderfully for this. On top of that went a few layers of calligraphy and ink to darken it up. I found it kind of difficult getting the look I wanted with this. It had to be lighter and simpler than the poem layer, but it just never quite looked like I'd done enough. I guess the poem was just too complicated and full of colour. It might look simple, but it's actually very very involved and that makes it difficult to work with if it's not totally plain white, really. Still, turned out all right.
Here's a closeup. I like it. Though after I finished I wondered why I hadn''t done it in the same font as the poem. Old habits, I guess.
I finished the last couple panels of calligraphy, and here is how it looked. Then I decided to try and blend the second paper's background into the first a little more, and stupidly started layering ink/watercolour on top of the writing. Which of course smeared it all over the place. I mean, it's glittery. But I sort of liked it, especially since the whole long panel seemed to change as it got to the end anyway, so I ran with it. I put washes of gold over the last bit, and after all that was dry I redid the calligraphy on top where it had gotten washed out.
This is what it looks like all together, so you can sort of see the progression.
And here's a close-up of the last two panels now.
First, sorry about the painter's tape in the corner. But you can see the rest just fine. For instance, you can probably see the missing 's' at the end of the line. Yup, my ability to keep the spacing correct remains as good as ever. It started out too tight, and I overcompensated and ran out of room. The last letter will have to be on the next panel and second sheet of paper. That should look fine for now, but I'll have to figure out how to get the embroidery over top to connect the papers without disturbing the lettering, or being overly conspicuous.
So here's another panel. Nothing much to say about it, really. It looks like the rest of them. But the overall effect will be cool! In proper news, I made some more paper to make up for my terrible math mistake, and it looks pretty close to the original:
I'm not sure how to join them, since it will be the only interuption. Perhaps I will embroider the pages after all? Maybe along the outside edge of each one.
This is the second line, and looking pretty good. I taped the printout with the spacing directly above where I was copying, so it was easier to copy this time around. I made the 'o's small to keep with the previous line. It's a bit wobbly, but I think when it's all put together no one will look that closely.
As I haven't done one of these books I started by making a little mock-up of the different sections that would go into it. The size is basically determined by the large paper with the calilgraphy on it, because I want it in one long, uninterrupted strip. After I made this I realized there will be much less visible of the middle and back layers, so I'm going to make the details, well, less detail, and instead simple and broad so that they can be seen with ease.
This is how I'm working on the calligraphy. I don't want to put too many pencil marks on the paper, so I made a background with a whole bunch of angled lines to follow instead. The line I'm copying is just above. I spaced everything out with Photoshop (yup, took the easy way out on that one) so it would fit right.
And here's the first line. It's really hard to photograph this, and it doesn't really scan. There is much detail showing up on the photo, in the background, then is really there. But still, I think you get the idea. I like how it turned out. I didn't follow my layout very well and had to smoosh in the 'o's and last 's', but other than that it looks ok. I also looked at my little sketches after I started, and realized I didn't actually want all the lines unbroken, because some of them would have been cool with the the swirls on the actual line, rather than just around them. I guess we'll save that for the next lines.
| He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams. --William Butler Yeats |
This star ornament is from fellow Bookbinding Etsy Street Team member KupoKiley, and you can find it here.
I have a basic feel I want to achieve, sort of a dark Art Nouveau look, a bit Gothic and Edwardian filigree and things like that. The trouble is finding paper - nice dark blue paper seems hard to come by, which makes it hard to stick with the 'night' theme, and I want heavy paper to do cutouts that can then stand up on display. Plus, it's three dimensional, so all the paper has to be as pretty on the reverse side as the front. I will probably end up making or glueing most of it, I'm kind of thinking. So much for this being a simple project! I choose a short poem, so some part of me is compensating by making everything else more complicated.
This is the paper for the outside layer, the one that will have the actual poem on it. It's my favourite technique - layers of calligraphy (the poem, of course) over and over until it's unreadable. I also put a couple of washes on top to give a more uniform background for the proper calligraphy. I'm going to use gold gouache on top with loads of little flourishes. Behind that will be a few layers of cut out writing, and maybe some transparent paper if it fits with the them. The back layer will have the title and author, done in masking fluid with this type of calligraphy on top - kind of the exact reverse of this page. Or something. We'll see what I figure out!
