Summary

This one requires some explanation.
As a writer I have this nervous tick while editing my books. Any time I find an egregious flaw, I go read like 20 books on writing and try to figure out how to do that thing better. Whether it's a poorly written description or a typo. While I am working on editing the fourth book in the series, I realized that a lot of other writers are doing sprayed or stamped edges on their books, and... I'm not. My books are... normal... and that feels wrong. Though I have to say I'm a little concerned about the sprayed edges. First of all they don't always use ph neutral spray on those books, which can be really bad for their longevity.

Anyway I know about fore edge paintings. Which are these magical hidden images on the sides of pages which you can only see when you open a book. Otherwise they're hidden by foil or gold edges. So I decided I wanted to create these fore edge images for my books.

This of course led to me realizing that with my hands going in and out from ALMOST carpal tunnel, I'm not the artist I used to be.

So while practicing as many tutorials on watercolors as I could get my hands on, I began trying to come up with a method to transfer transfer printed images onto the fore edges of books.

It's been a few months and I've painted hundreds of tiny pictures on watercolor paper - cut to the size of the fore edges I'll be working with.

I've also gotten the transfer images to work from the toner printer.

The only problem is the ratio of adhesive I have to use both for the transfer + the gilded edge... that and we ran out of toner... and the printer broke...

So three problems.

But being able to transfer the images means I'll be able to reproduce the images while maintaining quality for my readers. It may seem like a lot to go through for something that isn't part of the normal writing process, but my readers are worth it.

Anyway, now my desk is covered in all these supplies I've never used before.

(SIDE QUESTS: {skip this if you don't care about side quests} This project also led to us slowly gathering all the tools for book binding. Doing a few Bob Ross oil paintings. Doing crazy Acrylic spin art as a family-with a 5 foot canvas. Trying out dust pan pours, and of course trying out pendulum art. I also ended up learning about water slide paper and making a cool tray with a resin finish, and HP themed candles, and inadvertently learning about wood burning and putting a dragon on a cutting board... which still needs to be finished. I also picked up a mini iron/soldering iron/3d printing smoothing tool for making foil edges which I need to create an organizer for soon... And getting a eufyMake in hopes it can help us with covers someday in a year when we can actually access it. We're overseas and had to send it to a family members house. But it was an investment for the future good. Also we ended up meeting a pop stars parents inadvertently while trying to get a doll for my best friend. They were really nice, but they were all sold out of dolls, and she didn't even warn me about who they were. We thought the pop star thing was just a theme but he was their son, and he's on tour in America right now, and their yogurt was really good. Like I'm probably going to tell my grandchildren about their yogurt someday. And I still can't believe she didn't tell me. Apparently they're famous too, and we just walked right in there with zero information. Oh, but this is part of the story because we were actually visiting the fabric market for another side quest getting leather for book binding at the time. I guess the moral of the story is, when your best friend asks for a doll from across the country, find out all the details before going on a trip with the whole family for it... I would still do it again, it was fun.)

It's been an adventure. And my desk has suffered for it. So I created an organizer, specifically for the fore edge tools I've been working with. That in itself was a process but I ended up printing the file titled:

altered desk organizer 003 embossed.stl

The rounded bar on the bottom is a support beam which worked far better than I thought it would. I also took a picture of it from the front, but it fits better on my desk the other way. I also made it about 1 inch too short to fit the book glue, but I have other ph neutral glues that work just as well.

Despite the fact that is the final design I've added in the others so you can see the entire process, and how I wasn't thinking ahead when I started. Apologies about the inconsistent file names... that's normal for me. I get a bit scatterbrained.

If you're interested in desk organizers, or if you work on bookbinding, keep a look out for the next one I'm going to make, eventually when I have all the things for it... of course the leather will need something entirely separate because you're not supposed to bend it, but maybe just a towel rack or something will work for that. I'm rambling, and that means I'm sleeping. Probably because it's almost midnight. Night all. Hope you like these designs.