Wooden Sandpaper Book; sparks to ideas
Making wooden book covers
During a woodwork workshop session I learnt various techniques for woodwork. This entailed sawing, drilling, using a sanding machine and a bandsaw.
There was time at the end of the workshop to take some wood and make whatever we wanted. I decided to practice what we learnt to make some book covers from the wood, ensuring to drill 5 holes on one side of each board to be able to sew a book together. I made a pair of simple rectangular cover boards, and ones with one corner chopped off and curved.
After the workshop I brainstormed what could be inside the wood. It made sense to me to draw upon the fact that it was wood material. Inspired by Ben Denzer's work, I decided one could have sandpaper as the inners. I bought some rolls of sandpaper, cut pieces and fold them so that they fit in the covers. I've chosen the rectangular covers for this project as the paper fits well without be having to adapt either of the components.
I realised that the underside of the sand paper could be printed on so the idea is to come up with illustrative designs that may be witty or encouraging for the user of the sandpaper. To continue with the wood theme, I will create the print designs from wood. I would like to do this by carving wood, however I would like there to be 3+ designs to fill the book, so this would take too much time. So instead I will take the designs and have them carved into wood using laser in the woodwork workshop.
The idea is that the sandpaper is perforated so that the user can tear a piece out. As the book is sewn, it can easily be topped up with new bits of sandpaper, or it could be that the sections of printed pages could be available to replace used ones.
Ideas for prints on non grit side of paper
Panic-y person with sandpaper/life metaphor ideas:(Named Sorrowful Sam)
- Smooth it out like you're smoothing out your life! (sanding like they are cleaning their environment)
- Sand away your sorrows. (sanding their face with tears tears)
- Get a grit! (slipping over on smooth floor)
- Life's gifts often come wrapped in sandpaper. (worried, presenting sandpaper with bow)
- Go with the grain... (surfing on wood board riding sandpaper wave)
Snake character/mascot ideas:
(Named Sandy the Snake)
- Sand it 'til it slithers! (Snake using sandpaper to pamper)
- SSSSandy SSSSmooth (Snake wrapped around wood)
- SSSSSmooooth. (snake licking wood winking)
(Named Slid the Sandpaper)
- Best under pressure. (Happy face peaking out from block)
- Wear me down! (Angry with bits of grit gone)
- Rough start, smooth finish. (Worn and tatty, flicking finger satisfied)
- Rub me the right way! (disappointed lying wrong direction on wood)
- Rough NOT ready. (Arms crossed looking angry)
- Relentless rubs! (Rubbing surface with hands)
Picture references for illustrations here.
Other reference images:
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| Old sandpaper adds |
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| Cleaning posters and gift receiving illustrations |
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| Crying cartoons and character design |
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| Microsoft Clippy |
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| Sandpaper actions |
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| Illustrations of a person doing things, like falling |
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| Surfing illustrations |
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| Snake illustrations |
Designs for the prints
All illustrations for the designs are done to the size of 8cm by 9cm, which fits the sandpaper page size.
I decided I would only do 3 designs for each character as some of the ideas weren't that strong.
Sandy the Snake:
The first designs I did were the snake ones, using the reference images I found to come up with a character design and positioning her into the actions corresponding with the text. I had chosen the typeface Halau Spooky from Adobe Fonts. It has a curly nature to it which mirrors the snake's profile.
I did versions with illustration of the texture of wood on the wood bits.
Sorrowful Sam:
I then did designs of the panic-y person, which I also based on a few elements of the reference images I found. I wanted the design of the character to be fun, androgynous and silly, also keeping it simple for a successful laser and print outcome.
I chose the typeface CC Clobbering' Time from Adobe Fonts first, as it has a rough look to it like would before being sanded, so it felt fitting.
I then tried a different typeface as it didn't match the illustration style very well.
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| Comparing the fonts |
I decided to go with Blakely from Adobe Font as it suits the style of the illustrations, and gives the appearance of a vintage style poster, which I like.
Sid the Sandpaper:
Finally, I worked on the sandpaper character, who I designed in Rubber hose style cartoon character, referencing the images I found.
Making wooden book covers
To keep in theme of wood, I wanted the print designs to be made from wood material. Lasercut and laser-emboss is the quickest way to turn digital prints into wooden printing blocks, so I decided to use this method.
It was the first time I had produced print blocks using the laser, but it was a fantastic success. I made sure the emboss was deep enough to leave a strongly raised design, and ensured the work was set up in the software perfectly.
Once they came out of the machine, I cleaned them up and sanded them so there were no loose bits of wood. They printed successfully and should work well with the next stage of the development of the sandpaper book.
Once they came out of the machine, I cleaned them up and sanded them so there were no loose bits of wood. They printed successfully and should work well with the next stage of the development of the sandpaper book.
