Even More Little Menko

The news for the week is not terrifically exciting: I have spent much of the time cutting strips of paper and folding even more little menko. Here are some from yesterday.

I have worked out what I believe is the most efficient system for accurate cutting.

First, I cut three inch wide strips of the So…Silk from Legion Paper on my Kutrimmer.

Then I trim one edge of a paste-decorated dictionary page to straighten it, and cut off a one inch strip from the bottom.

The page can then be cut into one inch strips horizontally, as above, or —for the sake of variety— I can rotate the page and cut the rest into vertical strips.

The cuts are made using a steel guide placed against the raised lip at the front edge of my worktable. In order to protect my self-healing cutting mat, which won’t heal after repetitive cuts are made in the same place, I am using strips of cheap disposable kitchen cutting mats.

When the cutting line gets too worn, I trim a small strip off the bottom edge of the plastic strip, which shifts the cutting line up.

The long three inch wide pieces of So…Silk are cut horizontally into one inch strips using the same method.

The strips of dictionary page are cut to length as each menko is folded. I get three menko from a horizontal strip and four from a vertical one.

 

Since I will be using a numerical code, part of which looks like this,

I need ten different colour combinations. Here are the ones I have completed so far.

Each bag contains more than a hundred little menko. When I finish the ones I started yesterday I will be half done.

As I said at the beginning, not terrifically exciting.

I have also ordered more paper. The available colour range in the So…Silk is limited, so I have chosen some colours of Cocktail to fill in the gaps: Blue Angel, Daiquiri, Mai Tai, and Mojito.

If all goes well, I should have the new papers by the end of the working day on Tuesday.

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In other book arts news:

In case you missed it, the September/October edition of the Book Arts Newsletter is now available for download.

You can find the link at the top of this page.

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If you will be in or near Johannesburg next weekend, you might want to check out the South African Book Fair 2019.

You will find the event home page here, and a link to a printable map of the venue here.