#fighting the delete everything demons by shrimply not being online. apologies

[swordsmans]

woah!!! another!! here are some glamor shots of two gift copies completed and ready to be mailed >;3c theyre a bit wonky in some places because im still learning (and there was supposed to be a third copy in this set that died tragically to a structural failure) BUT overall im very happy with how these came out.

the left book is a special bind for @faggotzoro as thanks for writing fanfic of my story, with his fic bound in the back!!!! it has a blue dragon skin marble cover with a silver hand-foiled title, a black cloth/silver hand-foiled spine, black endbands, blue/blue endsheets, a silver katana bookmark made from black woven trim, and hand-sanded, black speckled edges!

the right book is a special bind for @fluffyartbl0g as thanks for their fanart!!! they also asked for feed your plants a little sunlight to be bound in the back... ALONG WITH AN AMAZING UPDATED VERSION OF THE COMIC THAT INSPIRED IT!!!! AAAAA!!!

this bind has a red/gold lokta cover with a rectangular square cut-out in the board and layered white/gold lokta + cardstock over the opening to create a 3-D effect! the endsheets are metallic gold mulberry paper and the bookmark is a white silk ribbon with a 24k gold clasp and a gold painted katana charm. the titles on both the cover and spine were hand-foiled and then painted with gel ink, and the edges were hand-sanded and then speckled with red. oh! and it has white endbands.

the third copy that i ultimately scrapped (literally during the case-in step!! it was almost done!! RIP to those materials...) had thin endsheets that led to a structural failure. to try and prevent that, these books have sewn-in flexible made endpapers to... i'd say 80% success?

overall, im learning a lot--my textblock edges have significantly improved and my cuts are much cleaner. board measurement, however, continues to be the biggest challenge--and i might try a thinner ink for edge-painting. i also think im going to experiment with other titling methods, because hand foiling takes about 2+ hours per title (so with two titles per book, each book takes 4-6 hours depending on how often i have to take breaks, the size of the title, and whether its on the fabric or paper).

i have some ideas for my next two gift copies (which are already sewn... ive been busy), so im hoping the process will go even smoother. in other news, ive started the typeset for ocean theology. taking my current pace into account, i'm hoping to open shop around january 25th.