Hi all! I hope everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Welcome to those of you who have just joined this story. And thank all of you for being here! This update will have formatting, so I know you are relieved.

Before I forget: I have added a ($50) physical CD + T shirt or Tote level for those who requested it. <3

The UPDATE

Before she went out of town for a few days, Starr Weems shared some pictures of the latest Peppermint Lady Bookmarks or mythic bookmarks. (I change the name of these constantly.)

Bookmark Progress

 Check out the spiders on Arachne’s thread and her long tapered spider web sleeves! 

Torrey Stenmark is the costume designer for the mythic bookmarks and chose to model them on several filkers she knows including herself as the costumer goddess Arachne. I love her ideas so much, that I wanted to have them made into these bookmarks. It works out beautifully that so many of the people depicted in the bookmarks are involved in the album itself. Delightfully self-referential.

Sunnie Larsen is Ariadne! I love the key pendant and the maze elements both behind her and in the bodice of the dress! And her hair is still Sunnie’s purple and blue. 

Recording Progress

This weekend, Sunnie (aka Ariadne) flies out to record violin and viola parts at Mystic Fig Studio. She will be very busy working on both my album and Char MacKay’s. Yes, there is some excellent music coming out soon! I am really excited Char is doing an album—she is an exceptionally gifted songwriter! I hope to share a couple of snippets of songs with you after Sunnie is done, but I’ll want to check in with Jeff Bohnhoff first. He will have a whole lot of work to do mixing for both Char and me after this tracking gets done.

Chapbook Progress

 Chapbook is an inexact term. It can be anything from a small folded pamphlet, to a paper covered booklet, to an actual small book with hard covers. And that last description is the one Wesley (my husband) was interested in making for this Kickstarter. He started researching, and he made a book press. 

These lovely books will shelter a wonderful original short story by Seanan McGuire from a series that isn't published yet. (This story is the prequel.) The story Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour is inspired by my song (and title track for this album). Seanan wrote it for me for my birthday and is letting me make it available as part of my Kickstarter rewards. The story is included in PDF format at the USB drive levels of the Kickstarter. Here is how the hardbound copy is manifesting. This next part of this Update is a progress report from Wesley himself.

Progress on the chapbooks breaks down as follows at this point: 

1) Research - having only coil bound books before, I have read three excellent references, including Pauline Johnson’s Creative Bookbinding, which is an older reference from 1963. The YouTube videos of Crafty Loops and DiRester were also very helpful. 

 2) Materials (Codex) - I have zeroed in on most of the final materials at this point, having run several tests. Since the book is printed on landscape oriented 8.5" x 11” paper there where two main concerns: A) The paper grain; B) Opacity and readability. Grain was the more difficult hurdle. Regular sized paper is almost exclusively long grain, which means it cannot be folded in half (in landscape) without folding AGAINST the grain. This is a big no-no for the book to fall open and fan correctly when bound. In short, it is important enough that I am cutting down International Paper's Smooth Finish long grain 11" x 17" paper (80 lbs. Text / 118 gsm / 32 lbs. Bond) in half to create two 8.5" x 11" SHORT grain papers that are opaque enough for good readability. This paper is gorgeous and it is making me (more of) a paper snob. I’ll include various other material discussion in future updates. After testing both methods, individually folding and creasing each page before forming signatures of three sheets (six pages) works far better for the final codex than folding the three sheets all at once and then creasing with a bone folder. 

 3) Materials (Cover) - The books will be quarter bound with a thick Pomegranate wallpaper over the spine with a cream colored heavy bond parchment for the color cover image. The whole thing is wrapped over Lineco Binder’s Boards since the cheaper heavy chipboards warped too much. I thought the overnight press would fix the chipboards since they are dirt cheap and come in very convenient sizes, but alas I have had to upgrade to the archival binder’s boards. A picture is worth a thousand words here. 

 4) Practice - I have several practice projects going so that I can try different techniques. The kettle stitches on the collection of signatures (“the codex”) is working well and I have my sewing techniques finalized. The gluing of the spine, applying the head and tailbands, and printing of the color end papers is also well understood at this point. Assembling the final book once all of these pieces are finished is . . . well let’s just say some of them go well and others are good practice. The final books well definitely be the ones that turn out well. I am getting better. Luckily, the 3-1 PVA Glue-to-water mix cleans up easy. 

 5) Current Work - I am excited to try a few new techniques on this next round of binding. The power sander trick on the page edges (to give a feathered look) is up next. I am also going to get rid of the linen binder’s tapes that run under the full stitches and try using a muslin “super” over the spine of the codex. The next end papers will be folded into the creases of the spine prior to final gluing. More later. 

 -Wesley Crowell     

And that concludes today's update.

Love,

Mary Crowell