Final Major Project: How it all comes together

Yeah,  today I got my colour proofs printed at my local printer, which was lot cheaper than getting it done at uni or at a printer in London. I am so glad I found them. They gave me the option to change the colours the way I wanted them and they creased them for me. Lovely!

Now I had my printed pages, which had been creased and cut and I could start binding.  For this book I have two sections/signatures and a cover and as you can see they are all loose.

I watched a few YouTube videos, which all contradicted each other and decided I was ready to start. I took out my crafty tools, aka a needle thingy, needle and thread, a pencil, a ruler and – the magic ingredient – double sided tape.

First I marked my holes and then punched them in with the needle tool. I realised not too quickly I shouldn’t do this on wooden floor,  since it does leave permanent marks and quickly searched for my cutting mat which I couldn’t find and used an old piece of uncut linoleum instead. That’s what I call innovation ;) The holes turned out nicely though as you can see. Marvel at my lovely holes :)

Next I took to needle thread and sew the signatures. This was easier than I thought and the job was done quickly.

Now the next step was so tricky that I haven’t got any photos since my fingers constantly stuck together with double sided tape. Basically I lined the inner edge of cover with the tape and also put one stripe around the back of both signatures to keep them together. That this isn’t enough to keep two rather heavy sigs together was clear to me, when I opened the book the first time. To remedy that I inserted a very thin piece of double sided magic between the signatures, pressed them evenly and now they stick like a charm. And presto the book is finished. I pressed for about 15 minutes under a large pile of heavy unread pasta and healthy eating cooking books with myself sitting on top. That did the trick and the book is now well bound and can stand heavy handling.  And here is the proof.

The only thing that bothers me, is that the spine is sort of broken, but that happened back at the printers when I folded the creased lines.  But it’s still pretty, isn’t it? It makes me happy looking at and reading it (awww), no matter what grade will bestowed on it. Dravya, the girl in the book, also likes it and that’s most important.

Wohoo, five weeks hard work and I got almost everything done before the deadline. I only need to print some big prints of a few spreads for the exhibition and I want to make a stuffed lion which will hold business/ postcards and hopefully get me lots and lots of commissions. Well, one would do for now ;)

Tomorrow I’ve got my BA Illustration interview at Brighton. I’ll take this little charm with me and hope it will bring me luck.

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Tags: "children's illustration", arihoma, art, arts, binding, book, children's book, college, communication, competition, cute, design, exhibtion, fairy tale, final major project, foundation, fun, girl, gujarat, illustration, illustrator, india, indian, kawaii, lcc, lion, london, macmillan prize, people, photography, photoshop, student, study, ual, uk

• 22/03/2012
• FMP, illustration, macmillan, photography, story
• 3 Comments