Quick watercolours

I printed my digital drawings in light grey and used them to do quick watercolour paintings for my design books.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Watercolour paintings.

Design book-stitching

My first attempt at binding my design book by hand. The stitching was loose so to add tension I used my sewing machine to stitch the signatures together.

Bowes, K.,(2021). Signature test.

Design book-prep

I made mini books to work out the layout of my design books before I printed them. I scribbled a mini-book for each of the collections. It helped but I still ended up printing the pages more than once. 

Bowes, K.,(2021). Printing layout

Bowes, K., (2021). Test booklets.

Design book- gloss paper

 I found out that my local Postnet can print on gloss paper almost photo paper for my design books. I take photos of my prototypes and work so gloss paper is great because the paper comes in A4 sheets and I can write on it. Unlike photo paper, it is less expensive and doesn't pick up fingerprints. "Photos don’t do well with fingerprints[... they] can obscure proper photo viewing or even permanently mar the paper," (Anon, n.d.) which isn't ideal knowing my design books need to be handled. 

Bowes, K., (2021). Print on gloss paper

Anon. n.d. How to Remove Fingerprints from Your Photos.  Available at: https://cramerimaging.com/how-to-remove-fingerprints-from-your-photos [Accessed 8 November 2021].

Bookbinding

 Thinking about the booklets/signatures I printed... I wanted to find a way to bind them into a book to keep a record of my design process. A signature is "one unit of a book comprising a group of printed sheets that are folded and stitched together"(Anon. n.d.). To me, it is an "essential"(Olver. 2002:12) tool to identify how I develop my designs and to keep for future reference when developing more designs. 

Below are the photos of my first bound book I did under the guidance of a Youtube tutorial. My handmade paper was too thick to print on therefore I can use it for the cover and flysheets in my bound books (See Figure1). 

A few improvements are needed: The cover needs to be reinforced with cardboard, I need to find the right paper to print on and the right size for displaying my drawings. 

I want to make a book for each project I finish for my exhibition. 

Figure 1 - Bowes, K.,(2021). Bound booklets

Figure 2 - Bowes, K.,(2021).Cover of my book.

n.d.  Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/signature [Accessed 2 November 2021].

Booklets

I printed my chain drawings and folded them into mini booklets. I was hoping to print on my handmade paper but the off white paper was too thick for the printer.

Video of how to fold the booklet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHa6kR2SZok

Bowes, K., (2021). Booklets

Bowes, K., (2021). Folded booklets

Mass Designing

 Using my customized Art Flow brush I mass-produced designs by changing the settings and adding different elements.