Here's another Greek philosophy book that I've finished. It's Epictetus' Enchiridion, Epicteti Enchiridion Cebetis Thebabi Tabula et Theophrasti Charactepes Ethici, published by Oxford University (Oxonii) in 1670. The book itself was in
good shape, thus a perfect candidate for restoration. BUT the client wants
a brand new blue leather case for it. He wants a mottled blue leather, so I dyed the leather in a way that resembles "the universe and what could be beneath the human mind".<--me trying to be philosophical et.al. Yeah, go ahead & laugh! Headbands are leather, & boards are beveled as I thought the book could look like marbled stone because of the texture I created. I hope the client likes it. He wanted to keep the original bookplate, so I removed it. I had a camera within reach, so I made an instruction of removing a bookplate. This is one of the methods. If you happen to collect antique bookplates, you can remove them cleanly by this method.-------------------------------------
I just realized that I've gotten 10 followers for this blog!?! Really!? I started this blog basically just for killing time sake a few months ago, and I usually just put up pictures of some of my recent works and say some boring stuff that doesn't mean much to anyone. So I'm amazed people actually visit my blog regularly!?! I seriously didn't expect anyone checking out my blog except for some clients, who are informed that their books have been featured here. I guess it's mostly because of bookbinding tutorial videos I started creating. Well, whatever the reason you became a regular visitor here, I want to thank you for following my blog. Peace! M.H.R~
You might also enjoy my bookplate blog:
ReplyDeletewww.bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com
I have many duplicate bookplates for possible exchange.
Lew Jaffe
Wow! I love your blog!!I just added your blog to my reading list. As a bookbinder, I see a lot of beautiful bookplates, but they aren't mine to keep. Instead, I started collecting bookbinder's marks and bookseller's marks. (Some of them are very intricate and pretty!) Normally, the clients don't bother about bookbinder's & bookseller's marks unlike bookplates which usually are very personal to them or are important in order to verify the previous ownership of the books. Anyway, thanks for letting me know about your blog. I'll enjoy reading it. If I see beautiful bookplates, I'll let you know! Maybe, there are some designs that you don't have in your collection. If the owner of the book with the bookplate doesn't need to keep the plate, I can send it to you.
DeleteAnother beautiful binging! Love the rich blue leather, is it goat or lamb skin? I wonder what will happen to the original book boards, do you save them for possible use in future restorations? They were wonderful.
ReplyDeletePS: Love your blog, always find it very interesting and useful. Wouldn't miss a post!
Thanks, Teo! The leather's goat, kid skin. This particular leather works well when trying to create marbling texture. If the book is valuable either in a sentimental reason or in the market value sense, and when I have to create a brand new cover for it, the client would ask me to give the original cover back to him/her. Or, if there's no instruction about the original cover and if I determine that the client should keep it, I present it to him when he's picking up the finished work and let him/ her decide what to do with it. Though this client didn't say anything about what he wants to do with the original case, I'll give it back to him, and let him decide whether to throw away or not. I have gotten rid of a lot of beautiful cases over the years, and I feel horrible about it. Our bindery's too tiny to store things that don't have immediate use for us, so we usually throw them away, but I've seen some people who create things like blank journals with those beautiful antique book covers.- I've seen them at a flee market once. So, if someone wants old book covers, they have to let me know.. I'd be happy to give them to them.
DeleteMHR wow! I am those people, well, at least one of them! That's exactly what I do, bound blank books and journals with old leather, recycled or reclaimed materials. I'm a paintings conservator by profession but bookbinding is my full time passion. I'm self-tough at it and currently learning everything I can. I can't tell you know much I would love to give a new life to old book covers. I never found them for sale anywhere, I'd be so happy to get those that you don't need. But better I'm sending you an email with a link to my work so you can decide whether I'm worthy of it!
ReplyDeleteI just checked your Etsy site. Your books are beautiful. I'd be more than happy to give you those discarded covers to you. Like I said, the clients take the original covers with them most of the time, so I don't think we have them "in stock" at this moment. I'll check when I get to the bindery today. But you must know that there are reasons why clients don't want to keep the original covers and we don't keep them. It's typically because the covers are severely damaged and the clients don't want to spend fortune for restoration. But sometimes, those unwanted covers are perfectly in good shape, and if we come across those in the future, I will keep them for you. You'll probably have to do minor restoration like fixing corners and edges,etc, though. As for this particular cover featured on this post, the client just informed us today that he wants to keep it. Anyway, I'll get back to you later regarding antique covers. - I think we kept some discarded covers somewhere in the bindery. A couple of years ago, my master dumped whole bunch of those nice covers in the dumpster, and if I remember correctly, I told him to keep some of them. He's a neat freak who throws away anything on his way (!!), while I'm a bit of a sentimentalist. :-)
Deletemany thanks for your useful information
ReplyDeletemic
Thanks, Mic!I don't know how useful my blog is to my visitors since what I'm basically doing here is 1)to kill time :-p, 2) to give a bit of insight about what we bookbinders do. But as it seems that more and more people started coming here for actual bookbinding instructions, I'll try to add more information about technical things on each post (I'll try..), as well as actual how-to instructions on basic bookbinding techniques. I don't know what people want to know, so if someone asks me specific things, I'll be able to answer based on my experience and knowledge, humbly. - the trade is deeper than what ordinary people would think, so there should be certain things that I might not be able to answer with a definite confidence. If I encounter such things, I'll say so.
DeleteHi, can you send me links with sites where can i buy tools for binding, and if you can suggest to me some of them. Sorry if i make mistakes my English its not so good.
ReplyDeletethanks for your time
Mic
Hi Mic,
DeleteWell, I don't know in which country you live, but Talas in New York (www.talasonline.com)has an extensive collection of bookbinding tools you can buy. And J.Hewit in UK also has variety of tools and equipments.(www.hewit.com)Before suggesting what equipments and tools you need to bind a book, I need to know what position you are at in terms of a degree of which you want to get involved in the bookbinding trade. Like, if you just want to "make" a book as a hobby or something, you essentially don't need to spend fortune for those special bookbinding tools at all. But if you are really serious about becoming a bookbinder, it's a different story. And how deep you want to get involve in the trade also matters as to what kind of tools and equipments you need. Tell me what your plans are, then I can suggest you what you'd need to pursue them.
Hi, if you can suggest me from
ReplyDeleteTalas which Hot stamping tools i need for a start.
Thanks
Hi. Firstly, in order to use finishing tools, you need to have a hot plate to heat up the tool. Talas has a couple of styles, but if I remember correctly, J.Hewit has a style that is slightly cheaper than Talas'. Do check both companys' products that suit you. Secondly, I'd suggest you to have different styles of simple line tools, either in pallets or wheels. But if you have never done this, wheels might be more difficult for you to control. Talas has a line pallet set that comes with variety of line styles. You can get one of those. As for ornamental hand tools, choose whatever you like. You should also get a type holder in order to stamp letters. That being said, you need fonts. And of course, gold leaf for all these finishing tools. Don't buy gold leaf from Talas. They are over priced. There are gold foil available, but for hand tooling, though it's not impossible to use it alternative to gold leaf, it's hard to do the tooling and the end product won't be as good as leaf. - Foil gold won't stick to the surface by itself on the contrary to leaf, so you'll have to find a way to hold down the foil on the surface. And foil gold might not stamp well with first attempt. Anyway, be prepared to pay at least a couple of thousand of dollars for all these "starter" tools. If you ever wanna go with a hot stamping machine, the machine itself will cost a thousand~a couple of thousand of dollars.
DeleteIn case you haven't used hand tools, make sure to lower the temp. of the tools to about 200~250 degrees by resting the heated tools on a wet rug for a few seconds, (or you'll burn the heck out of leather!) It will create a sizzling noise, and when the noise recedes, it should be ready. Before applying the gold leaf, make sure to mark where to stamp. You can sort of see-though the markings on the leaf. Good luck!
I am really appreciating your blog. I come here via Kate Carlisle's books, her Bibliophile mysteries. (I was curious about something she wrote and started sulrfing. )I took a bookbinding course a million years ago so it's fascinating to see the developments (or not!) that have happened since then. Keep up the great information and interesting posts, and thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks! ;-) and I'm gonna check out Kate Carlisle's works as well. They sure look interesting!
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