custom clamshell box Archives - Kristin Dunn bookbinding & design

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Kristin Dunn

3 New Colors

While I was disappointed to have to remove Metallic Aqua from the color chart a few months ago, I am very excited to be adding 3 new colors to the covering options for custom portfolios and boxes.

There are now 37 colors to choose from so everyone is sure to find a color combination that is suitable for their project.

The new colors are Avocado, Orange and Metallic Midnight. If you’d like to see swatches of these or any of the other colors please call or email with your request and they will be sent out the next business day.

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Kristin Dunn — 3 Comments

Printing on Bookcloth

Many years back I did a personal photo book project in which I printed onto a grey bookcloth and really liked the results. The process and it’s possibilities have been in the back of my head ever since.

Another, more recent, personal project allowed me to do some further testing. I designed a CD cover for a friend who really liked the look of the foil stamping that I do onto bookcovers and so requested that I somehow incorporate that look into the design. Again I loved the printing, particularly how the softness, created as the fabric absorbs the ink, contrasts with the sharp saturated marks of the foil stamping.

The past couple of weeks have been particularly busy here at the studio but I was determined to find time to create a donation for my niece’s school auction. I’d been wanting to experiment more with inkjet printing onto bookcloth and this was the perfect opportunity so I made a scrapbook style photo album with a tree design printed on the cover. It is a fairly low contrast design, with a dark brownish grey printed onto a light brown cloth. To me it feels very atmospheric, like I’m standing on a mountain looking down into a misty forest. I also made a clamshell box to hold this album. The box is covered in the same light brown fabric but it’s brightened up a bit with burnt orange accents. In the bottom of the box I created a well that can hold a 1″ stack of the photos that don’t make it into the album.

CD artwork printed on bookcloth with yellow foil stamping

In each of these cases I printed onto Iris bookcloth which is a linen style cloth with very little texture so I’d like to move on to some other textures and incorporate some color. I also addressed the issue of the ink running if it gets wet by coating the fabric with a spray varnish. It didn’t affect the color, texture or gloss but did prevent the water from reaching the ink. As soon as I find some time, I will move forward with some experimenting. I’ll report back, hopefully soon, with the result and if all goes well I hope to add this option for portfolios and boxes in the online store and for custom projects as well.

finished clamshell box with well and ribbon lift

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Kristin Dunn

FONTS & COLORS

Take a look at these new fonts & colors available for personalizing your custom portfolios and boxes. There will be more embossing and foil stamping options added throughout the year so check back often.

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Kristin Dunn — 1 Comment

Big Box

This is the largest box I’ve made to date and I’m really excited about the possibilities it has opened up. I had always seen the 38″ x 26″ dimensions of the bookboard as the limit. After watching a home improvement show about how laminated plywood beams are made I decided that more than likely those limits didn’t exist. For each of the 11 pieces that make up the structure of the box, I cut 4 strips of .059 bookboard and laminated them, overlapping the seams of each. The box measure 42″ long, so I used one piece of 38″ and one piece of 4 1/2″ and reversed the placement on each layer. After the glue had dried I trimmed the ends down to the proper length. This produced a super strong and stable piece of bookboard that I knew could support the weight of the finished box. Since the box is so large it was important to build it with 1/4″ walls, standard 1/8″ walls would have made for a very flimsy and unwieldy structure. Trimming the pieces was a bit tricky. As with the pieces of any box it is so important that they are cut at perfect 90 degree angles through their width. 1/4″ thick pieces do not fit into the board cutter so they are all hand cut. It takes a real steady hand and perfect attention to keep the blade straight when cutting through that thickness. Once all the pieces were finally trimmed and glued, I covered the box in a lime green linen cloth and lined the trays with a deep wine colored Dupioni silk. I really like this color combination and am very happy with the finished product. I’m looking forward to applying this new technique to the creation of some unique and impressive custom portfolio and presentation pieces.