reflections in my navel

I didnt quite shoot enough photos to cover this in detail, so apologies for the gaps in the process, it was done largely over a very late saturday night and most of a sunday & i was in the bookbinding zone & not thinking cameras very well. But anyway. So i kettlestitched the 2 signatures as per the test one from the earlier post. I learned from that one that you need to be vigilant on keeping it tight, so i got much better results the second time around. It came out well.

Then came the glueing on of the mull. Things got a bit pear-shaped here. For one, this binding method is probably not really appropriate for such a thin book. Because you need a nice wide block to brush your glue onto - with such a thin one it is easy for glue to spill down the edges, as i discovered. Also if any glue creeps onto the tapes where you dont want it, you’re in for trouble later. Lesson 2 - use paste and have brushes to apply it (in case of thin books, better have thin brushes, with big ones for the covers). So i got it done, but yeah, got glue further down than i wanted it.

This came back to bite me when i came to glue the boards on. With glue on the tapes where i didnt want it, i couldnt get the tapes flat, there was bumpage at the edge of the spine on the front cover. Back cover came out ok. Once dried i trimmed off the excess tapes. Once this was done, i put it back under heavy books for a an hour or so. It started to look like a book at this point.

Next was marking up the buckram for where the covers and spine boards should go. A t-square is useful for this. Then glued up the inside of the buckram and pasted the front cover down, rubbing out air bubbles with the bone folder. Second tricky part - how much of a gap to leave for the hinge (space between cover boards and spine where the book bends). I used 2x the thickness of the spine board… it wasnt enough. Book bends ok but its not as much as normal books have. Got the buckram on without much trouble though. Essential tool - bone folder, without this it would have sucked. Oh yeah also - dont forget to file down the edges of your boards or the sharp edges will wear through the buckram eventually - go for a rounded square edge.

Further note to self- trim the buckram to the exact right size before attaching it , this makes things much easier to deal with. Miter the corners so they fold in cleanly, again a brush would have been handy here.

Then came the end papers, ran the back one through the printer to put my name & student number in the back endpaper, then glued and worked them in. Perhaps the hardest part of all, because i had to cover up my crappy bulging tapes in the front, which ended up skewing the front endpaper out of whack with the pages, but the back one came out ok.

If i know anything, its that you rarely get anything perfect the first time you do it. So i thought i’d do a rough version, using the right paper, just to see what i get wrong. The kettlestitching came out ok, though a little loose. It wasnt actually too hard to do though, and i can see how to make it tighter next time. Hardest part was actually threading the needle, which presumably is as small as possible to keep the hole size down to a minimum. The tutorial recommended making the hole with an awl but for a signature of 2 sheets that was a bit pointless.

I also tried to cut the backing boards and failed dismally. Lesson one - use thinner backing boards, these were just way too thick to cut without seriously huge craft knives or power tools (ow my aching thumbs) They came out way rough and slightly different sizes, gotta get this right next time. A trip back to Artists Supplies in Little Latrobe St tomorrow for a different grade of binding board and some buckram to cover the boards, was planning to use my nepali paper (after leather looked like too much of a mission) but think that may be too weak. Buckram, tea-dyed is the current plan.

Its coming along. Beni took me to Artist Supplies in town & managed to get some buckram, binding thread, bone folder & stuff for binding. Was going to use leather but after reading how hard it is to work with on the tutorial site mentioned in my first post i might just cover the boards in some nepali paper i have which should suit the garcia vibe. Illustrations have been mostly done. A couple attached below. Still lots of work to do, but i can see how its all going to work now.. I think.

Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s little jewelled golden fishes

The soldiers come to town

Jose Arcadio Buendia sees ice for the very first time

The first house in Macondo

Jose Arcadio Buendia tied to a chestnut tree

It rains for five years without stopping

The last of the Buendias is born with the tail of a pig

Because you can’t read it in 400px wide jpegs.. I have written it in a kind of mangled past yet present tense (no idea what the technical grammar for this is), to give it some immediacy, whereas Marquez wrote his all in past tense. I may yet change this after a few more read throughs.

Update: Just to add some notes on process here. From the sparknotes summaries page i crunched all the summaries (chapters, themes, etc) out to pdf and printed them for easy offline reading (better than paying sparknotes for pdf versions when u can print to pdf anyway). Then i went through and divided main events up into 4 main sections. Then i made a list of key visuals from these points. Then i boiled them down till they fit the number of pages. From the visuals i then wrote the new shortened story sections. Then i started sketching out the visuals.

Spread 1

Back in an earlier time of the world Jose Arcadio Buendia sets out with his wife Ursula to reach the coast over the mountains. After years of struggling through the swamps they give up and foundthe town of Macondo beside a beautiful clear river filled with round white stones.

Spread 2

In the beginning Macondo is peaceful and happy. Bands of gypsies led by the mysterious Melquiades visit bringing objects of wonder and magic. In a gypsy tent beside the river, Jose Arcadio Buendia sees ice for the first time in his life.

Spread 3

One day the government sends out a magistrate with an escort of armed soldiers.
His first order is for everyone to paint their houses blue, the colour of the government. Jose Arcadio Buendia sets him straight but the town has lost some of its innocence.

Spread 4

The ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, the man Jose Arcadio Buendia killed arrives in Macondo and his presence drives Jose Arcadio mad. He begins smashing up the house and it takes twenty men to restrain him, whereupon they drag him into the backyard and tie him to the chestnut tree.

Spread 5

Jose Arcadio’s son Aureliano grows up and goes to war against the conservative government stifling the country. Years later, Aureliano returns a war hero, but tired & disillusioned he retreats into his workshop where he spends the rest of his days making beautiful tiny jewelled golden fish.

Spread 6

The banana company comes to town after the railway connects Macondo to the rest of the world. When its workers strike for better conditions, the gringo bosses round them up in the town square and machine-gun five thousand of them to death, dumping their bodies in the ocean. It rains for five years without stopping.

Spread 7

The last of the Buendias is born with the tail of a pig and is eaten by the ants, fulfilling the prediction of Melquiades the gypsy. His papers are finally translated by Aureliano III, discovering that the history of the Buendias had all been foretold. As he reads on to discover his future a terrible wind destroys the house and removes Macondo from the face of the earth forever.

These are the (very) sketchy first storyboards for this here 100 year tale.

First 4 spreads.

Second 4 spreads.

And here are some images that reference a similar style to what i’m aiming at, simple, slightly loose linework, restricted colours from Sydney-based Columbian Designer/Illustrator Marcela Restrepo