{"id":1008,"date":"2012-10-17T10:44:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T14:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2015-05-06T21:13:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T01:13:04","slug":"at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"At Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I am really excited this week to be able to share this one with you.\u00a0 I’ve been sitting on it for several months because it was part of an Artisan swap that I was taking part in.\u00a0 We were supposed to keep the recipient a secret. Since this has his heraldry on it, that would have been somewhat difficult.<\/p>\n

I have worked on a lot of projects this year, but I think this is the one that I am most proud of.\u00a0 And it wasn’t even the most difficult one (though it perhaps had the most steps).\u00a0 This project required me to have a fairly broad array of skills, and some that I didn’t already possess.<\/p>\n

To begin at the beginning.<\/p>\n

I thought very hard about making my own paper for this book, but in the end I decided that was going a bit far, even for me.\u00a0 I did attempt to use home-made paper for the end papers, but that was not a resounding success as you will see.\u00a0 So instead of home made paper I chose a high quality parchment style paper.\u00a0 The next step was to find some wood for the boards.\u00a0 This I found at Michaels, with a reasonable width.\u00a0 A quick trip to my friend Kaleeb’s house to borrow her circular saw and they were cut to a nice width as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a certain ratio of height to width that we have come to expect from books, and I chose to conform to that.\u00a0 Unfortunately that meant that I had to cut down my paper, because when you fold a traditional 8.5×11 sheet in half, it is a bit longer than I wanted.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the paper has been trimmed, 2-4 sheets are stacked and folded in half.\u00a0 Using more sheets per signature<\/strong> (as these booklets are called) makes for less work when sewing, but it also makes it more likely that your pages will be uneven and need to be trimmed.\u00a0 I do not have a means of trimming the pages after they have been sewn so I stuck to small signatures.\u00a0 Using a edge to press the fold makes for a neater edge as well.<\/p>\n

The next thing that I needed was some kind of cord or tape.\u00a0 I like the look of cord binding (that’s the raised lines across the spine of the book) so that’s what I chose to do.\u00a0 For the cord (and for the sewing later) I am using some of my hand spun linen yarn\/thread.\u00a0 Since this is a medieval reproduction, I made the cord through a technique called finger-loop braiding.\u00a0 This is fairly easy and is popular among preteens making friendship bracelets.\u00a0 You can make some interesting patterns by varying the color of the loops, but since mine will be covered by leather, I stuck to an all white cord.\u00a0 Finger loop braids can be done with anywhere from 3 to 12 loops.\u00a0 I wanted a substantial cord, so I chose 8 which is the largest you can easily work with only 2 hands.\u00a0 A great tutorial can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0 This one is worked in a spiral.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once I had the cord finished, I suspended it on a frame made for book binding.\u00a0 I borrowed this from Kaleeb, and I still need to return in.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This book has two cords on the spine.\u00a0 I think that the next one I do will have 3.\u00a0 The signatures are stacked on the board and one by one are sewn onto the cords with waxed linen thread.\u00a0 I wish I had some pictures of this, but I was way to into the process to remember.\u00a0 Again, YouTube is one of my favorite things ever.\u00a0 You can learn to do just about anything there.\u00a0 In this case BookBindersChronicle <\/a>was an excellent instructor.\u00a0 Many people argue that Coptic Binding is easier because it requires less in the way of equipment.\u00a0 I had a terrible time not ripping through my signatures when I tried that.\u00a0 This technique allows you to get the signatures tight up against one another without ripping through the little holes with your thread.\u00a0 Here it is finished sewing and removed from the frame.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Next the boards have to be attached to the sewn pages.\u00a0 I found this to be one of the trickier parts of the whole process.\u00a0 You drill holes in the covers for the cords to run through, but it is very difficult to judge exactly how wide those holes have to be.\u00a0 To fix the boards tightly to the cover I had to insert pegs into the holes to hold the cord in place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now it’s on to working on the cover.\u00a0 I found a really good deal on goat skin leather from Distant Drums<\/a>.\u00a0 Around $25 got me enough leather to do 2-3 books this size and a couple of other smaller projects.\u00a0 At 1.5 ounces, this leather is too thin for carving, so I used a technique called blind tooling.\u00a0 Basically you get the leather damp where you want to tool and press your design into the leather with a dull(ish) utensil.\u00a0 In this case, a knitting needle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> I drew on some medieval sources for the central design.\u00a0 Both probably French, but possibly Italian from the 14th or 15th century.\u00a0 The one on the left is in the British Museum and the one on the right, in the V&A.<\/p>\n

\"Book<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I liked the back ground designs, but I wanted something a little simpler, mainly so that I could successfully create it.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42 It was very un-medieval to leave the back and sides blank, but I was quite frankly terrified of ruining the work I had already accomplished. (I looked up close at a medieval book this past weekend at the Chrysler Museum, and even the edges of the boards had been embossed.)<\/p>\n

Once the leather was successfully carved, it had to be glued onto the boards.\u00a0 The first time I did it, it was seriously crooked.\u00a0 You never heard such cursing.\u00a0 I did discover that Elmer’s is water soluble, and thoroughly soaking the glued leather allowed me to pull it off without damaging the tooling.\u00a0 The second go round was much more successful.\u00a0 Into a press the book goes, in this case it was wrapped in cloth and my illustrated Complete Works of William Shakespeare (a hefty volume) was placed upon it.<\/p>\n

I mentioned before that I wanted to make linen end papers for the book.\u00a0 Once again I am back to Kaleeb, this time begging her for her bags of linen scraps.\u00a0 We were at this time in pre-Pennsic garb making fest.\u00a0 Since she creates garb for 4-7 people each year, she generates a lot<\/strong> of linen scraps (I got enough to make an entire books worth of pages).\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>These I wetted down and attempted to get them to rot in a plastic bag.\u00a0 Whatever modern treatments they use to prevent linen from molding work<\/strong>.\u00a0 After three weeks damp, in plastic bags, in the warm Virginia Spring, they smelled a very little of mildew.\u00a0 Well, I moved forward.\u00a0 The linen scraps were still too sturdy to beat with a mortar, so I killed my hand cutting them up into small enough pieces to go in my blender.\u00a0 I am very lucky that I did not burn out the motor in my blender attempting this, but I, eventually, managed to generate a more or less homogenous pulp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now I run into my second problem.\u00a0 The frame and deckle I have can make an 8.5×11 sheet, with ragged edges.\u00a0 I don’t want ragged edges, so I need to be able to trim the the sheet.\u00a0 No where can you find an oversized deckle and frame, so off to the hardware store I go to get the things I need to make one.\u00a0 I am pretty proud of my frame.\u00a0 It was built entirely with hand tools and is held together by pegs.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>The deckle is the grate that goes over industrial lighting fixtures, and the screen, regular window screen.\u00a0 I needed a large pool of water, hence the kids wading pool.\u00a0 I poured the pulp into the frame, agitated gently… and came up with a lumpy mess with a definitely “crafty” feel, not in keeping with the rest of the project.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 I just couldn’t get the linen fibers broken up enough to make a smooth paper.\u00a0 At this point I was getting pretty close to my deadline to send the project on to my partner for painting, so I decided to shelve this part for later.\u00a0 I ended up choosing a heavy weight paper stock from the scrapbooking aisle of the craft store.\u00a0 In retrospect, I would have chosen a lighter weight paper.\u00a0 I had difficulty gluing in the papers and not having a huge wrinkle in the fold.\u00a0 Still, I was over-all happy with the result.\u00a0 Here is what it looked like when I sent it off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I hope to get pictures soon, either from my partner or from the recipient that show what it looks like now that it has been painted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am really excited this week to be able to share this one with you.\u00a0 I’ve been sitting on it for several months because it was part of an Artisan swap that I was taking part in.\u00a0 We were supposed to keep the recipient a secret. Since this has his heraldry on it, that would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leather","category-medieval"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/book11.jpg?fit=700%2C903&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/author\/admin\/"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/book11.jpg?fit=700%2C903&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gp05-gg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":949,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/diorama\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":0},"title":"Diorama","author":"admin","date":"September 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes an idea comes into your head so strongly that you can't rest until you've followed it through.\u00a0 Sometimes the results are amazing, and sometimes not so much, but you can't stop in the middle.\u00a0 That happened to me this week. I have been working my tail off recently.\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2D"","block_context":{"text":"2D","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/category\/digital-graphics\/2d\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Pasta.jpg?fit=640%2C507&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Pasta.jpg?fit=640%2C507&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Pasta.jpg?fit=640%2C507&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":885,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/sun-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":1},"title":"Sun-day","author":"admin","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's craft was silk painting.\u00a0 Unlike my previous post, this is most definitely not stupid simple, and I can safely say that I learned a great deal including several things in the \"what not to do\" category.\u00a0 Still, I think I can be said to have been moderately successful.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dyeing"","block_context":{"text":"dyeing","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/category\/fibers\/dyeing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/perspective1.jpg?fit=640%2C490&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/perspective1.jpg?fit=640%2C490&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/perspective1.jpg?fit=640%2C490&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/deceptively-difficult\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":2},"title":"Deceptively Difficult","author":"admin","date":"November 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The family has left after Thanksgiving.\u00a0 It was a really wonderful visit.\u00a0 And since my dad's birthday is in early December, I was able to give him his present early.\u00a0 This should have been his present two years ago, but I got so frustrated with it that I put it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fibers"","block_context":{"text":"Fibers","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/category\/fibers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/keyscarf.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/keyscarf.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/keyscarf.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":304,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/flowers-for-valentines-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":3},"title":"Flowers for Valentine’s Day","author":"admin","date":"February 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been seeing a lot of really nice paper roses around on the net lately.\u00a0 Since I recently bought a whole bunch of tissue paper to make fiesta flowers with my daughter, I thought I would try out one of the patterns on ellin\u00e9e.\u00a0 I'm still experimenting with good backgrounds\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/flowers-for-valentines-day\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/PaperRose3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/PaperRose3.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/PaperRose3.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":774,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/ratta-tat-tat-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":4},"title":"Ratta Tat Tat (Part I)","author":"admin","date":"March 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the passion for this week, (or actually two weeks ago, since I am running a few weeks behind in posting) is tatting.\u00a0 Inspired by the pattern for the paper roses that I posted around Valentine's Day, I decided to try a tatting a rose. Tatting, by the way is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "tatting"","block_context":{"text":"tatting","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/category\/fibers\/tatting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/tattedearings.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/tattedearings.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/tattedearings.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":343,"url":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/photo-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1008,"position":5},"title":"Photo Practice","author":"admin","date":"March 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a really neat idea while watching the plumber dig up my flower bed a few weeks ago.\u00a0 Last year's chive flowers had dried in their beds to a beautiful, skeletal shape.\u00a0 I gathered them together into a beautiful bundle that was more difficult to photograph than I expected.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2D"","block_context":{"text":"2D","link":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/category\/digital-graphics\/2d\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/driedflower1.jpg?fit=700%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/driedflower1.jpg?fit=700%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/driedflower1.jpg?fit=700%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/driedflower1.jpg?fit=700%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1420,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaliastudios.com\/squirrel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}