cookbook done!

after many grueling hours of binding, i finished the cookbook restoration of the joy of cooking! after all of the drama and heartache, i was really happy and relieved to be done with this book. the background on this project is here.

here's the final results:

i remade new cover with a similar color paper as the originals, then made the title plate for the front. the wording is hand inked and backed with navy cardstock.

the inner cover was lined with a dark blue (the photo is a little light) and i included a reference guide that was in the original copy of the cookbook. the inner edge of each set of pages was covered in Japanese paper to add some strength and color to the book block.

the book opens fairly flat (for a 900+ page book!) i added different colored buttons onto the spine for some decoration and little pops of color. in addition, it strengthened the binding a bit, as some of the buttons were wrapped as i bound the book.

so what do you think? when i delivered the book, i finally met the client i've been working with - she's so patient! she really liked the book (*sigh of relief*) and i hope her friend does too (since that's who it's for). now i've gotta get started on my next project - cleaning/organizing the studio!

weekend

we took the crazy puppy out during the weekend for a walk (full sprint for him). here's a couple of pictures:

sprinting towards our knees

not tired at all

since spring is coming, everything is melting and turning into a sloppy mess. which means vito is wet, dirty, and stinky. quite the combination. so, we got ready to give him a bath:

note the tail is a blur of happy

the end.

boxcar base

with all of the oogling i've been doing at letterpress stuff, i've started to consider (again) buying this:

the AWESOME boxcar base

this is something i put in the bed of my press in order to print letterpress stuff. old school letterpress printing consisted of little tiny pieces of lead type, one piece for each letter, that are all "type high" (.918"). the new & more versatile way of printing to have plates made with whatever design you like and then sticking them onto this base, which then makes it type high. so i'll be able to get that embossed, beautiful imprint with having to find tons of lead type on ebay.

i've been considering this purchase for the past year and am probably going to commit to it in the next day or so. while i love the ability to carve linoleum blocks, i miss the impression of letterpress printing. plus, i've been wanting to try out a few things and come up with some new business cards and notecards with the tama press logo on the back. in addition to being able to print some amazing designs, i'll also have the ability to try my hand at custom invitations down the road. sooooo, who wants to be part of my first boxcar base project? (brandi, i'm looking at you! heehee)

letterpress

thanks to giovanna at swoon, i was introduced to the gorgeous world of spark, a letterpress company in south dakota. they do really gorgeous work and have a fun website too. here's some of my favorites (click on photo for credit):

lucinda wedding suite (same one giovanna liked) - i love the blue & brown!

closer view of lucinda suite

spark mallorca

passport invitation

sarah invitation suite

erin invite & envelope

i obviously don't have a thing for blue, based on my photo choices...ha! these make me want to run out and print some letterpress stuff! maybe i'll look into designing some photopolymer plates (which i have never done) and get back to my printing roots.

puppy antics

our dear puppy vito stayed the night at our (& his) friends' house over the weekend. bfff & i were going to help out at a gun class early sunday morning and our options were to either take vito & have him be stuck in the car, then probably start eating the car....or leave his with his bestest friends. so we decided he would have more fun with his buddies.

he had a blast. and he was also exhausted. he slept hard when we picked him up and all the way through monday. and we started getting worried. "why is he SO tired? he should have bounced back a bit by now." he usually jumps up when he hears the cheerios box rattle. he normally looks out the window with a bit more excitement than this:


then, at about 5:30pm, bfff was petting him and vito started the sound. if you have a dog, you know what i'm talking about. the "i'm-about-to-throw-up" sound that usually happens at 3 in the morning and wakes you up from a dead sleep. fortunately, he made it to the linoleum. lo & behold...he had eaten a squeaker. we don't know when he ate it or where for that matter. at least he threw it up. and didn't choke.

5 minutes later, he was back to normal. he wanted to play, race around the house, bite bfff's ears, eat, and be his usual mischievous self. geez.

cookbook project drama

over the past week, i've been working on the cookbook project. and i made a ton of progress. i was all excited.

i decorated the spine:

i bound the covers together:

i started binding the inside of the book:

then saw a huge, massive, awful error. pretty much all hardback books have covers that are 1/8" larger than the book pages inside. this allowance protects the pages and makes it look nice. well, my book did not have that 1/8" on the outer edge. FAIL. it didn't occur to me that i needed to check this measurement because i was reusing the covers of the original book. i just assumed they would fit. but since i decided on a new & different binding, they don't fit. and that miscalculation makes it look bad.

bfff & i talked about some solutions - trimming the pages of the book (too risky), adding additional bookboard to the covers somehow (would look like a bandaid), or...remaking the covers. dammit. i went with the last option. because if i didn't, i wouldn't be happy with the project as a whole. and it would bug the hell out of me.

remaking the covers isn't as bad as it sounds. i will have to completely rebind the book though. mostly, i'm disappointed that i can't use the original covers. i liked the juxtaposition of the old worn covers with the new binding & spine. *sigh*

hair!!

and here are the results (forgive the phone pictures):

before

after!!!!!!!