#suminagashi

Fantastic b&w suminagashi (floating ink marbling) inspired pattern for this great kimono.

Just in time for the upcoming 2nd anniversary of The Duelist's Apprentice, (Or: The Uncanny and Serendipitous Reawakening of one X'rhun Tia) I finally finished this leather-bound edition I'd been puttering away at for the past year, as a gift to my beloved editor and life's companion - without whom, this story would never have come to life.

"Now, pray don't tell me that the very one who danced within the blaze of the Vermillion Scourge, leaving gratifying Garlean-Prince-shaped scorchmarks upon Ala Mhigan flagstones, is suddenly fearful of getting a tad…singed?"

I may have experimented with "carbon tooling" using candle soot, among other new techniques... Details, and a lil sumpin' sumpin' special secret beneath the cut:

I do must admit, I have a tumblr phobia. Scrolling back on my fee I posted a few, really sill memes back in 2011, and probably changed my password back in 2023. Not even a whisper in between. Anyway last August, pretty much to the dat, I finished my first ever bind. It was meant to be made as a throw away before doing the REAL bind, a fic for a friend's birthday, but I fell in love with it and the craft in the process, and now I'm here.

Oh yes, I'm here because the author of this beautiful. masterful, filthy little fic gave my the privilege of bringing this little slice of heaven to life. They were so excited and asked if I were on here so they can share, and deep down I'm a pleaser, so here we are. If that wasn't enough, the incredible artist also gave me permission to use her art in the typeset, and here are the results. So thank you so much @yiiiiiiiikes25 and @eleadore for this beautiful, little feisty story.

So, as established, I'm new to this whole tumblr thing, so I have no clue if I'm doing this right. Anyway, I was inspired by @sits-bound's tiny book spree to bind a tiny book and honestly this was the only option for me. So - here's my first octavo. My brain was blank for so long about how on earth does on fold these things, but turns out - not so complicated. After that things went pretty smoothly. I think it was the fastest bind I've ever did, not sure if because of the size or the pure dopamine all this cuteness brought with it.

The other thing was, that I got to use my own self made marbled paper in a bind for the first time. This was a major exciter as I've collected quite a number of theme and was starting to doubt I'll ever use it. Anyway. The same sheet (White, A3, short grain, canson by Oxford 120gr, highly recommended for beginners) was enough for the end papers, the teeny tiny headbands and the quarter covers. Amazing. To cover the spine I sued suminagashi paper that I made in a workshop a few months back. I have to admit - suminagashi isn't really my thing, and I was pretty sure I will never use it, but I didn't want to make cloth just for the spine and it seemed like the best option. So. Not mad about it honestly. It was my first quarter bind and I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The dust jacket was a whole other story. I REALLY wanted to use this ridiculous glittery laminate I saw and fell in love with, and then spent WAY too much money on, having bought it in the worst website ever which I sore to myself I'll never buy anything off - didn't help - but when I tried using it for the first time was a total bust. But I decided that I will use it now no matter what. I did a few more experiments and it worked! Just cut the design the dust jacket and print and cut to size! Right? RIGHT??? I guess not, It took 5 tried I think until I got it to print and measure correctly. Don't ask, I don't know. But hey, not it glitters and shines like a polished Malfoy signet ring. Here's a video.

I went the the fire motive for reasons of content, and the double-meaning tagline, which is an ingenuity in an of itself. The palm pattern was perfect for it (also I tried to nail it for hours, and now I don't know that I'll ever be successful again), and the three quidditch posts, well... When reading this fic it becomes glaringly obvious why. For the inner text I used holographic glitter vinyl from teckwrap craft, and I only list the dot above the i! Huge win. Oh, I was cool with vinyl on the inner papers because I used soft touch laminate on both the marbled and suminagashi papers.

For the typeset I want with simple typography, and use my favourite Crimson Text, size 8, Grid spacing 11, Tracking -25% cause it's just better this way. Perfectly readable (I was a bit surprised, honestly). 9,165 came down to 67 octavo pages.

Ok that's probably way too many words, I will try to also post my other binds.

Thank you and goodbye.

suminagashiNoise