Update on 346 and: invitation to listen to me speaking

I have been busy with working on 346 the past couple of days. Not for the first time I thought I was done witht he text, and switched my attention to the artwork and medium. – I chose Tyvek for my first large dummy. Tyvek is thin and strong and can be printed upon like paper. These were good reasons to try it, but I am not happy with how the print looks like. Text looks well enough to me, but the colours slightly bleed, and thus the lines in pencil drawings blend unpleasantly. And the saturation of black was more than disappointing. So I tried some other options today (with a dummy page with some text and images as you can see above). Thin and strong – that sounds like Japanese paper, so I mainly tried that. And I also had a go with white bookbinding fabric and with a simple white fabric. Both worked surprisingly well. The advantage of the white linen is that it reminds me of the beedsheets in hospital. And I like the intimate feel it has, and that I can get it comparably wide (so I do not have to stitch together too many pieces for the scroll which is after all about 13-15m long). Also I could sew the pieces together with a sewing machine – also nice. But the print lacks detail, and I like the crisp look that can be achieved with paper more. I am still considering printing on paper and sewing it onto the fabric, though, and another option.

For the time being, I like a comparably thick (85g/sm) white Japanese paper best. It is called “Dosabiki Masashi”. In the image above it can be seen in the second row from top on the right. I’ll have to find out where to buy more of it. A email was sent out to John Purcell this morning. If you know of any other source, preferably in the UK, I am grateful if you could let me know. While the print is nicest on this paper, the downside is that it is available only in format 42cm x56cm. I will have to check the fibre direction, but I guess I will have to stitch the scroll together from only 42cm wide pieces – which will be a lot of piecing together.

To in order of preference I now have: 1. Dosabiki Masashi, 2. white book fabric, 3. white fabric.

Before I can get the layout done on the computer, I will have to know what paper I am using, obviously, so that is put to a halt until I have more information about the availability of the paper.

It turns out, I am going to speak twice in the weeks to come: On 10th of March I am going to talk about my Etsy shops and business decisions as part of Nottingham Etsy Team’s “Meet the Maker” series. You are more than welcome to come along, entry is free.

And on April “social” in NWS I am going to read from 346. I am currently a little confused about whether it will take place on the 5th or 6th of April. (Usually it is the 6th, but it is placed in our event calendar on the 5ht.) Anyway, I have one of 10 slots for people to read a bit from current work. Entry Fee is free for member, and there is a small fee for family and friends (let me know if you want to come along as it is not generally open to the public).

Just having received the confirmation that I have a speaking slot on the social, I thought it was a good moment to select a bit I want to read – and now I am full back into editing the text. How do all you writers out there decide when a text best be left alone?!

I guess it is time for a break – and a miniature. Look what I bought the other week, can’t wait to try it: