Marketplace: Ailurobibliophile…what?

September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 Bernadette

I’m working out a design I’ve had in mind for a while—since just about a year ago to be exact! This was to be September 2017’s new introduction, starting with a tote bag then possibly moving to other things, and the concept would lead to a line of items with this design and others, using photos as well as art. This stencil isn’t ready for prime time—in fact, stenciling is just not going to work for this—but I have a plan for that. It’s the idea that counts!

About that word, “Ailurobibliophile”. Yes, I made it up. It popped up in my design consciousness about a decade ago when I was photographing my cats in the cat book library, on the books, in the books, napping, bathing, posing, and I held it there until I had such time to really work it out. Finally, I can let the world know about “ailurobibliophiles”!

What does it mean? Just what it says. My initial idea was just “lover of cats and books”. Then I photographed Basil last August 2017…

…and knew the time had come.This was why it was to be introduced last September, back-to-school, that sort of thing.

As with all my designs, this one is based on a real cat, a cat you know, a cat just being a cat. Just after my Panhandle Trail show last August I started playing around with this photo and others I’d taken that morning at my desk. What I’d really like is to simply screen print it, but adding one more element to my studio in terms of materials and equipment and I’d be falling out the window. I decided I would be stenciling this design to start, much as I dislike stenciling more than a word or two of text, so it had to accommodate the strengths and weaknesses of stenciling. That would mean that the area “inside” a letter, for instance, needed a cutout to connect it to the greater background of the stencil or I’d end up with all the “a”s and “o”s and others filled in. It also meant that things like Basil’s eyes would need to be done separately. I can demonstrate, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

I worked up a few designs, and in doing so found more fun things to add to the text because Basil was “on” the books, and several of the books were “on” cats. Likewise with my pho9tos of cats in the cat book library, and I was just beside myself with the possibilities. I finally managed to edit it down to three statements so I didn’t go on and on.

I settled on one design for layout and used several text variations, then chose two that would work well for stenciling. I couldn’t decide, and I especially wanted to be certain the “new” word was understandable, and the text clarified it, and nothing made anyone think overly hard so it lost its fun and whimsy. I sent it out to several trusted friends for feedback.

We came around to spring when I’d intended to finish off the design and start printing and I had the feeling I had more work to do than it seemed. I really did want to work them out for my open house in July but had way too much work in getting my house ready. In August I played around with designing my little signs instead of working on this, and I’m not unhappy with that. Then came my Panhandle exhibit, and here we are.

And I was right, I had more work to do to get this ready to stencil. I spent some focused hours last night and most of today working it out. I knew it would take more time, but hadn’t anticipated all day, and that it’s cute, but not ready to go.

I preferred the heavier font. I think it balances Basil’s dark shape well. I added the little cuts into the closed letters and cut the stencil. It ended up having too many thin areas between the letters and inside the letters to print clearly so I decided to try my other option, which worked a little better. But I also fund that things like the stack of books would be very difficult to work with because all those white areas are little slivers of clear plastic material with just enough tacky adhesive to make them all stick together in a cluster like a sticky burr, and twist around. And all sorts of other things that made just getting the stencil set up very tedious and would eventually cause me to tear the stencil. So I worked out all the little details that were problems and came up with this final design.

You can see how I reworked the books so I didn’t have all the little plastic flaps, and also the little cuts in the letters. You can also see what happened with the text, fine in the large size, but it just didn’t work smaller. But I really like to see it on a tote bag. From a distance it looks great!

For now, I have to put this aside until I decide the best way to move forward with screen printing. It’s not hard, just an investment in materials, and finding some place to safely store the screens and other materials that I’ll use with them.

I have another design that I’ve been working on concurrently because it kept me up one night recently, one that will work much better as a stencil. Who knows? I may finish that one off and see how that one looks on a tote bag for tomorrow.

Marketplace

Basil the model.

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All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.