Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Editor in Chief, Danijela Krha Purssey, talks about the sucess of our 2nd Art Prize as well as the necessity to make self-care a priority in our busy lives.

Art by Ye Shuhang

Gigi, frankie, and poppy of peach riot

The Best Of The Worst

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#Astarion #bg3 #BaldursGate3 #vampires

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Julia Zhuravleva

“#エクシア #アークナイツ”

This was my entry for the #areyoubookenough challenge that happens on instagram. June’s theme was “hardware store” and I figured that I could do that :D Please note that this is a Long post with a lot of pictures. To skip this post on your dashboard, press “J”. I started out in the shed with some wood. This was going to be the main feature for the covers. I made some strips of pine for the cover base, and some oak strips (from my old press that broke) for the border. I then ran some pine board through the thicknesser until it was about 1mm thick. As you can see, this board was thin enough to be translucent and I spent a fair amount of time holding it up to the light and admiring the grain. Unfortunately I could only get 3 pieces out of the board. I needed four for the end pages, but I made do - more on that later. Speaking of the end pages, I chose brown kraft paper for the end pages (I was making a springback again). and the paper was joined in the middle with some grey bookcloth. I then glued the wood down on the inside - on the side that would be immediately in from the cover. This was the book guts after sewing and trimming. I was surprised the guillotine actually went through the wooden end pages without too much drama. I must admit that worried me. I rounded the book guts and trimmed the outermost page on either side to work as part of the hinge. Then glued on some thick cotton onto the spine between the tapes. The first lever board went on next and was trimmed to size. I first attempted to make some wire headbands, but that proved too much of a hassle, so I dyed some linen thread a nice brown colour and went that route. I just threaded the needles, tied off the ends and stuck them into the cloth covered core to begin. Then it was just a case of sewing the entire length as normal. Next up was the spine cover/hinge. That is posterboard backed with cloth. When attaching this part you need to make sure it has a 10mm gap on either side of the spine otherwise the lever board wont work properly. I tried using contact adhesive for gluing up the pieces for the spine this time. Worked fine. I then started building up the pattern I wanted on the spine. And I just kept adding to it until I was happy with how it looked. Then it was time to add the leather! This book got to use some of the gorgeous kangaroo leather I’ve had since my birthday last year. It is amazing to work with. I glued it on un-dyed. To colour it I diluted some brown dye and started to build up layers of colour where I wanted it, starting with a dappled base, and then painting in where I wanted darker. Since I didn’t want to waste too much leather on this, since anything under the wooden covers wouldn’t be seen. I just needed a leather covering on the edges. After a fair bit of wrangling, I got it to work. After a couple more coats of dye, I then got my line tools and crisped up the design with the hot tools. This is what it looked like with a buff using nothing but my hand. Next I went onto the wooden covers. I first needed to shape the oak strips into the right shape of the borders. And glued them onto the pine strips to make a board. I then went onto the heart design. Using some simple wood carving chisels, I shaped the MDF hearts. I wanted them to be leather covered, so I needed to dye some more leather. Luckily I had some kangaroo offcuts lying around. These are the covers all glued up. I then gave them a coat of spray varnish before staining it with the same leather dye I used for the leather and gave it a sand to make to look more aged. I glued on the covers and that was when disaster struck. I was in a rush to leave somewhere, so I just whacked it in the press and clamped it down. Little did I realise that the cover slid under the pressure and moved backwards. It was so bad the book didn’t even open properly. And that is why I always back my wooden boards with paper when glueing them to books. In the event that you need to rip it off, you can do so without ruining either the cover or the book. Granted it did require some careful brute force, but I was able to separate them without too much damage. I did have to remove the torn cardboard packer on the front cover and replace it though. I then reattached it with a little more care. Last thing to go on were the leather covered hearts. And there you have it! This was a real challenge for me this month but I’m really happy with how it turned out. Thanks so much for reading. If you would like to help support me in my bookbinding ways, please consider buying me a coffee through Ko-fi. It only costs $3 and all donations will end up going towards purchasing some tomoe river paper. The link is below. Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/BuildingBooks/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/buildingbooks/ Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/BuildingBooks Help support me by Shouting me a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/buildingbooks

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