bookbinding, etc

[ehyde]

The local bubble tea shop's seasonal offering is green tea with honey, ginger, and citron, and when I ordered it last week I missed the part of the description saying it was a "seasonal hot tea" and ordered it iced. I liked it enough that I wanted to try it as intended, so today I ordered it hot, and I think I like it better iced. I hope it stays on the menu for a while!

6yo has been sick this week so I haven't done as much as I'd wanted to, but we did still manage to pick up a dresser I found on craigslist--a kids' wooden dresser that the previous owner had painted purple, teal, and what I thought in the picture was brown but turned out to be a dark green. It has greenish-purple crystal knobs, too. It's a welcome change from furniture painted gray, and 6yo loves it.

I'm finishing up my exchange bookbinding project and the Christmas present for my dad--which isn't going to be finished by Christmas but his birthday is 2 weeks after so I can give it to him for that. After that I have three commissions to finish. And I'm realizing that--while I don't dislike any of these projects (in fact I like them a lot, and am pretty excited about putting my design ideas into practice), I work so slowly that if I keep doing exchanges and commissions and gifts, I'm never going to have time to bind the books I want to make for me. So, this may be my last year doing the exchange, and I probably won't be taking on more commissions for a while.

Next year 2yo will be 3yo and will start preschool, and I will theoretically have a lot more time on my hands, so we'll see, maybe I'll change my mind about the exchange when we get to that point.

And what do I want to make for me? Scrolling book! One of my friends remixed a short threadfic of mine into a really cool comic (cw gore, body horror), and my first thought was: how do I make a print edition of this? But it's a vertical comic, so something normal with turning pages won't work. So I have plans to make a scroll mechanism built into a box that looks like a book (and have had these plans for months. Sigh).

I also want to bind my own copy of MDZS--and I know this might be controversial, but wanting a physical copy was one of my initial reasons for wanting to learn bookbinding, back before the Seven Seas release was even announced. I put that on hold once news of the official release came out, but actually, I think it's something I still want to do. There are some other cnovel translations that haven't gotten official releases that I'd like to bind personal copies of, too.

Comments

[rhysiana]

Oh, I've been thinking a lot about scrolling stories as well! When I was teaching at the folk school this year, one of the other classes being taught was for crankies, side-scrolling art in a box with cranks at the top, often also with a shadow puppet component. I watched a video on how to make really simple ones using cash register receipt tape that I'm storing in my mind to do with my brother's kids, but I also keep thinking about all the unhinged fanart this could be used for as well.

(I did also wonder if you were going to make yourself a copy of Tai Sui.)

That dresser sounds delightful!

[ehyde]

I do really really want to make myself a copy of Tai Sui! It would be either seven or eight volumes long (by wordcount seven is doable, but I might have to split an arc, which I'd rather not do). I have a mostly finished typeset of the first volume, but there are a few details I want to change, and I need to transfer the whole thing into the new version of Affinity which can do footnotes (so I won't need to do the rest of the footnotes with my overcomplicated workaround).

I'm building the interior mechanism of the scrolling book out of lego, because I looked at all the parts we had and said "this would be so much easier than building it from scratch."

[rhysiana]

Legos! The perfect solution!

Binding Tai Sui would be a huge endeavor, but I'll look forward to seeing if you ever do it!

[sunshine304]

I've noticed the annoying trend to make childrens' rooms grey or beige... Like, furniture you can buy has almost no variety, it's indeed mostly grey. of course, everything else fits grey so it's super neutral and easy to decorate. But I can't help but think... it's for a kid? Get some colour in there that's not just the rug and a nice picture frame! XD That dresser sounds awesome!

Oh, I really get that with the exchanges and commissions eating up all your time! I'm also quite slow with bookbinding (mostly because typesetting takes me a long time) and I've decided early on that I don't want to do commissions for now or put myself under stress with participating in exchanges etc. I work on the books when I'm in the mood and also have time, so there might be weeks or even months between projects. I want it to be fun and to be for me, as you've said, so i don't want to get stressed about it.
I was stressed when I did 8 books pretty much at the same time, because 4 were gift copies and I know that I'm never going to do that again! XD (At least the books turned out really nicely, I have to make a post about that...)

I'd played around with the idea of binding MDZS but I would have to either edit the whole existing online TL or get the official one that also has its faults as an epub. Neither option sounds appealing to me atm. I've got some other cnovels saved that I might go for, though. But *sigh* the typesetting will be so much work... T_T
Fanfiction is easier, because as of yet I'm only binding fis I have read multiple times, and have corrected the typos I found. XD Because I want this book to have as few faults as possible when it comes to the text, so I always try to catch the occasional typo...

[momijizukamori]

I feel like grey is EVERYWHERE these days, but yeah, it's particularly bleak in a kids' room (I painted three of the four walls in my sewing room magenta, cyan, and bright green-yellow, so...)

[sunshine304]

It is a good neutral colour that you can add any colour to, but for children it's just... the poor kids. XD I do have more neutral colours on my walls, too, because my rooms aren't so big and I like to be able to add colourful furniture. But I did get some wallpapers with great patterns on them and got a bright red couch and rainbow coloured side table. XD

[ehyde]

I don't mind neutral colors on walls, although grey isn't my first choice there either. Right now our house has a long way to go before it's decorated the way I want it (the bathroom is still as it was in the probably fifties, which is. very pink. which is a color, to be fair!), but we'll get there. The craft room and one of the bedrooms are fully wood paneled, which is terribly dated but which I don't actually dislike. Personally I'm a fan of colorful curtains!

[sunshine304]

Neutral wall colours are usually the way to go if you want to use colourful decorations and/or furniture. I do love looking at those cosy rooms all held in one bold colour, very aesthetically pleasing, but I think it would drive me crazy after a while. XD

OMG yeah, those old bathroom tiles! XD When I scroll through house listings just for fun, there often are bathrooms whith 70s tiles - sometimes, those are really cool, kind of (there once was one in royal blue with some accent tiles in other colours, that was dark but also relaly stylish), but often they have this weird orange-beige or muddy green colour where I'm immediately like, "Get that away from me!" XD My grandma has a very light green in her bathroom upstairs, that's okay.
Full woodpanels aren't my favourite, either, but they can be interesting or give the room a certain charm. Colourful curtains are always great!