ok, so, like, three months ago or something (!) i entered a the manglish contest over at manganovel. i just got the results. well, not even the results, just the results of the first round of judging. on the one hand, i made it past the first round. on the other hand, the announcement email contained phrases such as “Manganovel proundly announces you the result of the first stage” and the above-reference “Conglaturations!” it also turns out to be addressed to “Dear contestant on the manglish contest.” i can only hope that i make it fairly far in this contest so that i might be able to offer my assistence to them directly… although the free ipod i get if i win the thing wouldn’t be to horrible either.
the other reason i have to be conglaturating myself is that i just made my very first order at talas of NYC. i ordered a very cool horn folder, a specially shaped bone folder, a chiyogami sample book, and an instructional book on how to hand-make headbands. for those of you not NERdy enough to know what a book headband is, i am discussing the small rounded bits of thread/cloth/weaving that have been placed at the top and bottom of your book, just at the spine. these were originally made by hand, and were intended to protect the top and bottom of the bok block spine. in my neverending battle for total and utter perfection, i must master every traditional technique known to man. i’ve got a couple types of case binding, coptic stitching and a couple types of japanese binding under my belt, so it’s time to go for the details, i think.
speaking of bookbinding, i’m in the midst of making a sort of series/limited edition at the moment. the covers are all textured chipboard of varying colors and the pages are all different types. i’ve got some sketch paper, some kraft paper, some antique style laid paper, some newsprint, a little of everything. i still haven’t really decided, but i’m leaning towards sending these off for consignment. i’ve sold a couple of things at the frame station, but i’ve been very neglectful of them as of late, and i mean to correct that! now if only i had the ambition to sew these things together this evening…
Labels: books, facts, NERd, translation