One of the final projects in the North Bennet Street School curriculum is the Gothic Binding. After months focusing almost exclusively on modern fine bindings, with thin boards, thinner leather, and smooth, gradual curves, this solid historical structure was definitely a change of pace.
First off, I have some exciting news; my Silmarillion was accepted to the Guild of Book Workers’ Traveling Exhibition, so it will be shown in a variety of locations throughout the country over the course of the next year! I’ll post the schedule when it becomes available.
In other news, I made a parchment over boards binding of the poems of Andrew Marvell.
Poems of Andrew Marvell with parallel and oblique lines
So in my last post I briefly mentioned that I made a bunch of tools so my titling for the Silmarillion could look like this:
Titling--Tengwar (Feanorean) characters, in the Classical mode
I made nine tools in total (and will almost certainly be making the six or so more that I need to be able to tool the entire alphabet). Finishing tools are used in bookbinding to impress designs into leather. The general method when tooling on a fine binding is to make a light impression with a cold tool, then to heat the tool to a sizzle and go over the impression again, and then to dampen the leather and tool it with a warm tool. If done well, you end up with crisp, smooth impressions that are darker than the surrounding leather. This is called blind tooling. They can be left blind, gilded with gold or palladium, or tooled with smoke or carbon to make a very black impression. Read the rest of this entry »
I recently finished my first fine binding, a refined, modern, full-leather binding that often features decorations informed by the contents of the book. What we learn at the North Bennet Street School is a variation of the French style of fine binding, although it’s been informed by the English style. Because we had free reign to choose the book for this project, and I am a huge geek, I bound a copy of The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Here is the finished product (as always, click for full-sized images):
My Silmarillion, completed.
Title: Facsimile of the Black-Letter Prayer Book
Author: N/A
Place of Publication: London
Date of Publication: 1871
Before: front (detached) board and spine
Before: Back Board
Before: Broken front hinge with letter
