Leather Bound Book

Background:
I was honored to do a vigil book for Mistress Efilian's induction on 10/30/04. I had two weeks in which to complete the book and life worked against me (I had a scroll, embroidery and a major exam all due the same day). This is the first leather binding I have attempted.

MATERIALS:
I used a piece of leather I had bought over the internet for scrolls. It is a little thick for scrolls, a little thin (in places) for gloves, but makes a nice weight for a flexible book cover. I used acid-free paper, linen thread, and acid free book glue. I also used thin metal and pearls for the cover.

PROCESS: Materials: I started out by cutting and folding folding 4 pieces of paper into folios, then nesting them to make a signature. I repeated this process to make 6 signatures and then placed 4 holes in each of the signatures. I then sewed the signatures together with linen thread to form the bookblock and coated the spine with glue.

I then made the bookcover. I started cutting the bookboards slightly larger than the bookblock and then laid it all down on the leather to measure it. I cut the leather to size and glued the leather and fake binder pieces using an epoxy to the bookboards.

I then assembled the book. First I glued the headbands on (the white pieces you can see at the top and bottom of the spine) and tested the bookblock inside the cover. I then glued the front and rear pages in, smoothing them down as I went. I finished by creasing the spine and around the fake binders.

Then came the decoration. I tried using a thicker piece of metal, but did not have the right tools for the job (nor could I get them in time). I settled on rolled brass which is slightly heavier than tin foil and easy to cut. I couldn't decide which way I liked the spades best (part of Efilian's arms), so I pointed two in and two out. I did paint two of the spades blue to closer match her arms. as a note, period books that I have seen mostly used 'L' shapes in the corners, so I really didn't have a guide. Then came the Pelican - a pain to cut out and a pain to glue. The epoxy appears to have started to dry out as it 'clumped' under the metal and made for bumps (that and it wouldn't flow nicely to the edges to hold them down). I glued on 3 pearls with a pinkish hue to simulate the blood drops as I could not find tear shaped gemstones (in time). Thoughts of painting them red crossed my mind....