Another roadblock? Jeez, do they ever end? Well, no. They don’t. That’s life, though. Life is just a series of avoiding accidents and death. Or something.
Yesterday, I was pretty excited to get going on chopping the Dan die through the covers of my new Artist’s book. I even ordered a Woodzilla press, which I had been wanting anyway.
One of the reasons I splurged on the press this soon is because both Hannah and I tried hand-pounding the die through the cardstock ourselves many times with mallets to no avail. We were able to cut through parts, but not all the way. I figured I needed a press.
Well, that was not the issue. The die itself is a piece of crap. It’s uneven, and the back of the metal rule is pulling up from the backside. It’s my own fault, as it was made in China. I didn’t know it was going to be manufactured in China until after I paid for it. In fact, I could have paid less than half the price had I wanted a crappy custom die to be made there. And good luck to me getting a refund now.
So…onto creating solutions. I have a few in mind. So does Hannah, who has offered to cut each cover by hand with an Xacto! It’s not that I don’t have confidence in her abilities; it just seems like a royal pain in the ass to cut one, let alone eight. However, she insists on trying. How sweet is she? But I insist on paying her for this feat.
If that solution isn’t feasible, there’s always having a new die made locally. I could also perhaps take what I already have to a letterpress place to see if they could work it. Or maybe they have a better die-making resource. All of this would be breaking the budget, but it is what it is.
As far as the rest of things, the little drafting tool I got yesterday is nothing short of amazing. It’s so simple—a 10-inch metal triangle. Why didn’t I think of that before? I’ve already tried it on one of the signatures, and the right edge cut very nicely. Thirty-nine more to go!
And early this morning, I was able to finish the fourth book’s pages. These are the two felt pages I’ve been hand-stitching.
Each of these takes a while, but now half of them are done, which feels good. I’ve only stuck myself with the needle a couple of times.
Once the next four are done and I trim all the signatures, I will need those Dan silhouettes punched out of the covers before I can go any further. But will it be so? Magic 8-Ball says: Reply hazy, try again.
