The Build

Part of what made me want to do this project was actually building one physical copy of the Tales to send to the cast and crew. By limiting it to one, I hoped the build wouldn’t be too overwhelming. However, the authors and illustrators did such a great job, I wanted to make sure the book and all of the extras were on that same level.

While I had bound a few books before, putting together all of the pieces of Jester’s Bedtime Tales used a lot of techniques I’d never used before. The cover features embroidery, a second level inset, and a magnetic removable Traveler symbol.

I wanted to protect the book as much as possible during shipping as well, so I laser cut a box with some of the same design elements from the book. It was naturally stained with vinegar and steel wool, then distressed with ink.

To protect everything from water, I made a faux leather bag lined with an old curtain that had plastic on the back. It was really fun to distress and age with ink, paint, and sanding. The yellow wasn’t my favorite, so I started to dye it with ink before realizing it could run and that that was a terrible idea.

I used composition software to try to transcribe Laura’s Ruby of the Sea jingle. It was fun to hand-ink the sheet music, but I am not a musician—so forgive me if actual music isn’t great, haha 🙂

The Tales were laid out in InDesign, with backgrounds, borders, and images built in Photoshop and Illustrator. It was a bit of a trick figuring out how to incorporate the ephemera pieces, but hopefully they’re fun and surprising to everyone!–Roberta C.