Leather book binding

Cover with name

side of book

For my latest book binding project I wanted to try the use of leather fabrics to create a book cover inspired by the journal from the film Tangled Before Ever After and the Red book of Westmarch from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movies. To follow that this was done using case book binding with gold parchment paper and brown leather to accompany this being an old age style book. To create the cover I measured the text block against the fabric and measured around the block to get an idea of shape and size. Following this I measured a boarder of about 7mm with a curved half circle which would later wrap round the book when tied together.

This was then cut down slowly and carefully to avoid any mistakes or wrong cuts in the fabric as Leather is very delicate. To attach the text blockI used some bondaweb adhesive, a method that was used in the tutorial that I followed. Measuring the text block against the text block I cut two sheets of, the adhesive which was then carefully ironed on with the use of an iron to secure the adhesive onto the fabric. The paper side was then peeled away carefully and slowly, so as not to accidentally peel the adhesive away. The text block was then secured into place by ironing the front pages to the marked out areas on a medium heat so as not to damage the leather or melt it. My first attempt seemed to work well however I did noticed that the paper seemed to peel away so it needed another 4 minutes of ironing. I had assistance when ironing, so as not to, make any mistakes.

Upon completion I worked on the ties for the book to secure it close. To create these ties I used the scraps of leather that I had left to create strips for the ties. The measurement positions were marked out at 3.8 cm down and 1cm across in the near end of the half circle. The strip was then placed through the cut thin hole which was done using a craft knife.

To secure the tie I used cotton thread to create an "X" to tie the strip down then the back areas were tied down to secure it into place. A second tie was created in the near centre of the back cover using similar measurements and marking them out carefully so that they aligned correctly against the first tie. Once completed, I signed my name using a white paint pen but did several tests first for the typography and the drying time of the paint pen so it couldn't smudge. Looking back at the piece I would think that this first leather covered book seemed rather successful given my first try at the method.

This was posted on my Tumblr blog as well as this to show others what I'd created.