How about a process post about flocking? If you don’t know, flocking is made up of powdered rayon fibers, which when adhered to any object with the proper adhesive, creates a fuzzy, felt-like texture. All 77 contributing artist copies, as well as the first 200 of the run of 500 will have the “BEARFIGHT” title flocked in white.
Here’s my ever faithful screenprinting setup with my makeshift flocking box next to it. I did the first 50 covers myself as a test, but will have assistants later, so it was helpful to have the box right next to the screen.
The company through which I bought the flocking fibers also sells a water-based adhesive which has a lengthy enough working time to be able to screenprint with it just like ink.
Since only a small part of the cover was to be flocked, I used a box just large enough for half the cover. The bottom of the box is lined with wax paper, so all that extra flocking that’s piled there can be dumped out easily and placed back into the flocking applicator bottle (you can just barely see the tip of it in the lower right, it’s just a plastic squeeze bottle).
With the adhesive freshly printed, place the cover inside the box, and puff the flocking fiber over the sticky area until covered. Flip over and tap to remove excess fiber.
This is what you’re left with after tapping; still too much. The water-based adhesive can be cured in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes, then brushed clean with a soft paint brush or towel.
The final, flocked cover. It’s very visually subtle in person, but it feels really awesome.
Hope you enjoyed the process. Now I just need to bind them and Bearfight should be up for sale by the end of the month!
For those of you who are also interested in buying my upcoming thesis book, B is for Beard, from which I’ve been posting pages this last week, I’ve set up a pre-order special for both books. It costs quite a chunk of change to put out the larger and larger books I’ve been working on lately - especially since B is for Beard is two-color offset printed - so any and all pre-orders will really help make the process a little easier, financially. Pre-orders will also include a Bearfight! button and whatever else I decide to throw in your package.
(Bearfight will be for sale separately by the end of the month, but B is for Beard will not be printed until the end of April, so any pre-ordered Bearfight copies will not ship until early May, along with B is for Beard.)
Thanks for reading so much!
