Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Screencaps! Comparison between the onscreen book and my Nine Gates replica

Screencap on the left, my book on the right.





The latest version of my Nine Gates weathered book replica

Those who have bought my Nine Gates before would know that I've used 80gsm white laser printing paper for my books for years. These papers were weathered with coffee and tea to stain them to a darker shade. About two years ago, I came across a few rims of 100gsm paper which have been kept in storage for almost 20 years which resulted in the once white paper turning off-white due to natural aging and I've used this paper for my books ever since, weathering it lightly to accentuate the aging.

But I what I really wanted was the kind of ivory-ish textured paper that was used for the movie prop. Being in my neck of the woods, paper option are severely limited but about a month ago, I came across a new art supplies shop that had, in my opinion, the perfect paper. So I bought loads for my latest version of the Nine Gates. They cost much more than regular white paper, but they're worth it after years of looking.

Of course, I also weathered the pages I printed using this paper, but mildly, with tea instead of coffee as I wanted to maintain the natural color.

Here's a close up on some of the pages look like after weathering to show the texture of the paper:


I've also found a nice dark brown (almost black in some lighting, just like the movie book) lambskin leather which takes well to the stamping process, making the fleur-de-lis frame and pentagram in the cover much sharper. I've also been trying out new weathering methods for my covers (isopropyl alchohol, acetone, different grits sandpaper, coffee grains etc) to make it look more genuinely weathered, which also in turn, accentuated the cover embossing.

So here are some pics of my latest version of the weathered Nine Gates (Balkan version):










I also used the same paper for all the ripped inserts and 2 spread page, but it look yellower in the pics below, probably due to the lighting:


As always, if you're interested in acquiring a copy, please email me at swakprops@gmail.com.