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Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
Butterflies and butterfingers
Posted by on November 26, 2007
This is a book made with one of the Italian graphic papers (bought from the States) with a Japanese paper (bought in the UK) inside. A veritable United Nations of a book! I’m not entirely sure I like it – I think the Italian papers make the books look too ‘manufactured’ (although as that translated from the Latin means ‘made by hand’ it is actually appropriate) I probably mean ‘machine made’. Anyway I expect you get my drift. They don’t look as homemade as the others somehow.
I think I am getting RSI or something. My right wrist is very achey and tingly . I notice it hurts when I am cutting the board for the covers with a knife, using my mouse and horror of horrors, when I am playing tennis. I have bought a mouse mat which has a wrist support which seems to help a bit, but I think it’s cutting the board which causes the problem.
It’s not my tennis racquet as I have been using my faithful old Head TiS6 for about 6 years now and I still love it as much as I ever did (which for me is quite something, I am usually very fickle and prone to leaping onto the next trend). I just looked it up on the Tennis Company web site and it says that it is America’s # 1 best selling tennis racquet and I notice they are selling it for $76.95 or two for $71.95 each, which as the original price is $249.95 is quite a bargain! It is very good for tennis elbow sufferers and has a huge ‘sweet spot’.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure it can’t be my racquet that is causing the problem. I shall have to look into other ways of cutting the greyboard. Madame La Guillotine anyone?
Much of a muchness 
This one is nice, but I agree these papers look less hand made.
Great Snoopy animated gif there. I love the Peanuts and have all the collected comic strips they have released so far (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Peanuts-1965-1966-Charles-Schulz/dp/1560977248/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196099875&sr=8-3).
I’m just reading your excerpt (I couldn’t wait until bed time!) I see it’s a funny bit not a scary one so it doesn’t matter so much!
Snoopy is so cool! I love Woodstock too :)
I’m not ready to release the scary one. I’m not sure if it would make sense out of context, and I think I’ll need some people to read it before it is released into the wild.
I hope you enjoy the funny excerpt, though. I have no idea how good/bad it is. It is so hard objectively reading my own work.
My daughter loves Woodstock and loves saying Woodstock. The word is so cute coming from a one and a half year old.
I have commented on your blog. It is excellent – doubly so as you are so tired and pressured. Nearly at the end though :)
Just don’t cut towards yourself in an attempt to deflect pressure off your wrist. Bleeding is so much more inconvenient.
Thanks for the comments Diane. At least I know all my hard work hasn’t been terrible :)
Mr C – thank you for the advice- and so true, blood might get onto the books and ruin them. Although committing Hara- kiri while making a book out of Japanese paper does have a sort of irony somehow….
Diane, please take that pain serious and don’t overstrain your wrist/arm. I’ve recently posted a question about this over at the forum, go look what people wrote to warn me!
Just a tip: watching myself, I found that I probably cause part of the problem myself by unsensible ergonomics. For example, when cutting cardboard, I have my right-hand thumb on the left side of the cutter, my index on top, and the other fingers on the right side. Thus, most of the pressing power used had to be done by the index finger. I have now taken to grip the cutter with my whole fist, laying the thump on top giving the cutting pressure. This works much better, plus you get more power ot of your arm (instead of the wrist). And using a sturdy cutter is better than taking a scalpell-like knife. They’re too thin.
Get well soon!
SW – by no means! I am dying to read the whole thing, these tantalising snippets just whet the appetite :)
PS: what’s that flickr tool showing your piccies in the side bar, if I may ask? Is it coming from wordpress, or from flickr itself?
Astrid – I am off to check out the Book Arts Forum now – thanks for that!
I use a big cutter (we call them Stanley knives in the UK, in the States, I think they are called box cutters – don’t know what you call them in Germany!) but maybe I don’t hold it properly. :(
Astrid – I just had to go and check – I couldn’t remember, I am pretty sure it is a WordPress widget