Tag: shelf of madness

The King in Yellow Annotated Edition – Homebound

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Finally finished up my latest project.

When working on my Yellow Sign display, I was introduced to the amazing Annotated Edition of The King in Yellow.  Unfortunately, I quickly discovered it is no longer available in print.  However, it is available to purchase as a PDF.  So work began…

I’ve done a few homebound copies of gaming books, but I wanted to take things up a notch on this one.  So that means trying a couple of things I haven’t done before.  Most significantly, this is my first time working with real leather in any capacity.  And I needed a new printer to handle larger paper.

So here are some pictures of the finished product.  It was another learning experience, and I already see ways I could have made it better.  But overall, I’m happy with how it turned out.

This copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition uses a paper with a natural parchment appearance.  Subtle variations throughout the paper really give it a nice look that simultaneously says rich and aged.  These pictures really don’t do justice to how they look in person.  The new printer did a great job with both the text and amazing artwork.  The pages are hand-sewn and gilded in gold, with a black ribbon bookmark.  The cover is black sheepskin with gold foil on the spine as well as the large yellow sign on the cover.  The yellow endsheets also feature the yellow sign, this time in black.

Cover of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Spine of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Inside the cover of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition

Essential Saltes

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All three bottles of Essential Saltes in wire frame, tagged

Finished up my Essential Saltes.

I’d kept this gift set because it seemed like something I could use as a display.  Decided to stick with numbering each subject, with a couple of additional touches on the bottle labels.

It was originally a set of 3 different Jameson whiskeys and is what gave me the idea in the first place. Each bottle is about 9 inches tall.  Used a version of the Copiale cipher on the label – it seemed appropriate given the loose ties to Eastern Europe in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.  Sprayed to give them a bit of an aged look, then wax sealed (both the top and the string).  Add in a university tag and call it done.

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Stone Seals and Clay Tablets

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Stone seals and accompanying clay tablets

Here’s another one of my handmade displays for my Shelf of Madness.  This was actually made prior to my Yellow Sign and Carcosian Star Chart displays – after the brain cylinder.

One of my favorite purchased artifacts is a set of stone seals from the ‘Hastur’ experience from the Mysterious Package Company.  For those that aren’t familiar with these, they are little engraved stone/resin cylinders that when rolled across a soft medium like clay leave an imprint of part of a story describing Carcosa. I always though these were really cool, but anyone simply looking at them wouldn’t be able to easily see the scenes they depict.

So I decided to make some faux clay tablets that show each scene. These are actually made of a moldable EVA foam that has been painted to look like clay. I then mounted these tablets in shadow boxes with their respective stone seals and tags that include a small excerpt of the story told in each scene.

After finishing this project, I got the green light from my wife to expand my Shelf of Madness 😁, so they have moved around a little since these photos were taken.

(By the way, photographing these was much more difficult than I expected. Apologies for the glare and reflections.)

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Shelf of Madness Archives

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Building from my collection of mythos-related games and book, as well as my interest in integrating props into tabletop games, I’ve gradually developed a fondness for displaying my collection.  In some areas it’s modest, in other areas less so.  I have dubbed this constantly evolving display my Shelf of Madness.

And I’ve recently taken to creating some props and display pieces of my own.

I’ve posted pictures of some of these items here and there, and I’ve gotten a few requests for a more detailed description of some items, where they are from, etc.  So I figured I could start posting some of that here as well.  That way when I post some new acquisition or creation and someone sees something in the background, I’ll have a place where I can point them to check out what’s in the collection.

You can see all the posts describing the Shelf of Madness here.