Seven Sins handmade book

It was always my intention to make a book for the final product of my seven deadly sins project. However, with deadlines and everything, I never quite managed it. I finished the imagery but just didn't have 3 days spare to complete the project how I wanted it. Which was terribly annoying. Then of course MA applications and Semester 2 took over, so it's only been until now that I've had the time to do this. Having said that, I'm glad I did because I loved it. I haven't 'made' something in so long; I'm always in front of a computer or drawing, but to actually make something physical like a book, work out how all the pages fit together, bind it and everything, was really fun and rewarding. And I want to do more of it; never really tried bookmaking fully like this before.

The idea was to have a collection of the images of the 7 deadly sins I created, along with the inclusion of back up work and variations that were created along the way, to create a kind of sketchbook feel. Also, the whole point of the project was for the sins to be ambiguous, so although one follows the other in sequence (least deadly sin to worst), I didn't put anything that tells the reader which sin is which; just the dictionary definition under each final image. Easy to work out though if you know the order of the sins :)

Here are a few, not all, pages of the inside of the book:


I wanted to use different types of paper, so I experimented with tracing paper and using different stocks underneath, here you can see my original letraset quote on graph paper, underneath the tracing paper, and then the final image underneath.


Again, here I used the tracing paper printed with my handmade text, with the original paint underneath, echoing what I ended up creating on photoshop with the final.

This is my favourite page I think; neither of these pieces of sewing were used in the final imagery, but they helped towards my development of the project, and I just like having the actual sewing in there.

This is the pull out page where I included the actual sewing that I did for the final image of envy. I have it as a pull out because 1) it's clearly too big for the book and 2) it's meant to be touched and looked at. The last pages after this aren't included here; you get the idea.


So, tomorrow I have my interview at St Martins for my MA course. And I am so petrified. It's pretty much the most important 30 minutes of my life so far... I want to do this course so much, I know I'm capable, I'm confident in my work... it's just the fear, you know? That I'll go completely blank and say something silly or won't be able to talk about my work in the way that I've got planned in my head.

I think it's because I remember my interview for my BA at UWE in Bristol, pretty much exactly 3 years ago. It was a massive fail and didn't get in. At the time though, I'd barely really grasped what illustration was and just didn't answer the questions well enough, I now realise. I know so much more now obviously and I could talk about illustration and design and communication all day, probably. But the fear is still there that I'm just going to go "um, because I liked it" or something stupid like that. 'The Fear' is ok though I think because it means I care about it. Because I do, so much, I need this course for the development of my work, I only feel now that I'm just getting into what I do and who I am and how it all relates to my work, and I've got this potential but I'm just not quite there yet. And it's a challenge and I need that to thrive. I love my current course but I feel like... maybe that I've outgrown it? Or that I just need a bigger challenge now. And there's definitely this graphic design element of my work coming out at the moment which I want to explore a lot more, and this course seems to have the structure that will let me do that, and that's quite exciting actually.

Plus living in London would just be....immense. I love that city, always have done. I'm freaked out now because if I don't get in.... well, I just have to. I feel like I belong there.

*explodes in a pile of terror* This is. going. to be. so scary.

Right, the last thing today, is I came across a blog that I'm going to be watching. I found it through Ben Terrett's post at blogs.com about 10 blogs that are important to designers and one is called One Last Thing which is a blog by a girl student called Sian Louise doing graphic design at Uni. Much like meeeee. Except I do illustration. But yeah. Her blog is less rambly than mine and she gets actual real visitors, but it's interesting because Ben's blurb about it was "One of very few students blogging through their course, and female students are even rarer."

*waves* Hi, I'm a female student that blogs. I'm rare, apparently. Woo! Actually, I did have an inkling(sp?) about that because I had a lecture, there was probably about 70 students in there, the lecturer asks how many people have a blog, I was the only one that put my hand up. Get in.

So, I'm going to be checking out her blog every so often because she's a designer and I like the work I see on there. And she's a girl. And we're rare.