Circles/rings and especially Dots are among the humblest of decorative tools binders can use to adorn their bindings and yet among the most useful. Regardless of whether you are making a design or period-style binding, dots and circles can be used in combination with traditional decorative tools or to create entire decorations on their own.
DOTS
I offer two sets of dot tools:
Large Set (10 tools) from 1 to 10mm in diameter. Available for 170 euros (+shipping)
Small Set (5 tools) from 1 to 5mm in diameter. Available for 100 euros (+ shipping).
You can acquire them by writing to me at koutsipetsidis@gmail.com and supporting my work directly, or by visiting my Etsy shop.
Below you can see examples of bindings decorated with the dot sets.
CIRCLES
I now also offer a set of 5 circles
With an inner diameter (hole) of 1,2,3,4 and 5mm and an outer/total diameter of 2,3,4,5 and 6mm correspondingly. Available for 125 euros (+shipping)
You can acquire them by writing to me at koutsipetsidis@gmail.com and supporting my work directly, or by visiting my Etsy shop.
Below you can examples of bindings decorated using the circle set.
Ρresenting Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. This is my last and biggest collaboration with Mia Heath (the book minder) from the summer of 2022. An epic bookbinding project for one of the most wonderful stories ever written.
Getting Lost in Middle Earth
I read Lord of the Rings back in early high school, right after the Hobbit. I’ve described the latter’s impact on me in the corresponding post, so I’ll just quickly say that LOTR’s beauty, scale and depth completely absorbed me.
I was exceptionally lucky because by the time I finished the books the films started coming out. Nothing like them had come before and -I dare say- ever since. Those who haven’t had the chance to watch them in cinema for the first time have no idea what kind of experience they’ve missed.
Miss K. originally commissioned me to bind the trilogy as a unique gift to her husband on whom Tolkien’s works have also had a significant impact. The Hobbit was actually commissioned after the trilogy, but since it would be finished first her devious plan was to use it as a diversion so that he would be completely unsuspecting there was more to come…!
Binding the Trilogy
Designing LOTR
Lord of the Rings is an epic saga. It deals with a lot of complex themes regarding war and its impact on those caught in it, the value of life, inner struggle, pain and enduring it, forgiveness, friendship, good vs evil, all in a way that is far more intricate and meaningful than it is usually given credit for. With these in mind I felt the bindings should be respectful, solemn in a way. They should look and be well-made, beautiful, but not in a way that draws the attention on them and away from the story. This led to an aesthetic that is in contrast with the pictorial and whimsical decoration of our binding for the Hobbit, thus reflecting the difference between those two stories.
The design is Mia’s work, who came up with it and also did the drawing I later used in tooling the decorations. The idea behind it was to show important locations found in each book, drawn using only a single, uninterrupted line (with the exception of few decorative details), an allusion to the fellowship’s journey.
Some of the locations were pretty straightforward, while others proved quite challenging, with Hobbiton being the most difficult. The final designs are elegant and imposing, while their minimalism compliments the wonderful texture of the leather.
“In the fires of Mount Doom…” – Decorating the Edges
Although the Hobbit was finished first as a binding its edge painting was actually meant as a practice for the more challenging one intended for LOTR. The idea was that it should fool the eye just enough so as to be perceived as a continuation of the marbled papers -and vice versa- upon a hasty glance.
By the time we got to do the edge paintings for LOTR we had the process down fairly well. I would prepare the book blocks by sanding them to a very smooth finish and then Mia would do the painting. She did many tests on books I keep around for this purpose and after a while managed to get the result as close to the marbled papers as possible, producing these impressive edges.
It couldn’t have been achieved without the help of Glenn Malkin who has made an excellent video illustrating this technique and also kindly answered some extra questions we had. Make sure to check his channel as he has quite a few instructional videos that I’m sure binders of any level will find interesting.
Maps, Titles and Rings
Maps The maps in the original edition were printed as the endpapers which prohibits their re-use, so new ones had to be made. As in the Hobbit’s case, I had them printed on an expensive cotton paper that can be found only in one place in Athens, which happens to be very far away from the bindery. But it was worth the trouble as I wanted the maps to feel as real as possible, to have texture and be exciting to look at.
Round Titles – Again! If you’ve been following my work then you’ll know by now my fondness for round titles, which I consider one of my trademarks. As such it was a no brainer to do round titles for LOTR, One Ring and all…
This however, as is the case with many other elements, posed a challenge. I’ll get a bit technical but bear with me as you might appreciate how even the smallest detail of a binding may often require problem solving.
The difference in length between the titles (with the 1st and 3rd book having rather long ones in contrast to the 2nd) created an issue concerning the lay out. The circle of the titles should be the same for all 3 books and at the same time it should look right on the thinnest spine, that of the second volume. After quite a bit of experimentation, which involved laying the longer title over many different sized circles, I found the optimum radius.
This then led to another issue: type size. I either had to use very small letters, so that the titles of the 1st and 3rd volume would fit within the circle but would also make the title for the 2nd volume appear tiny and ridiculously sparse, or use a “normal” size, with the second volume’s title looking ok and the other two unable to fit.
To solve this I condensed the 1st and 3rd volume’s title as much as I could, also using dots instead of gaps between words to save even more space. It wasn’t enough though, so I turned to a trick I’ve seen in old bindings, which is to use much smaller type for certain letters, snugged in the gaps left between or under the larger type.
More Rings… Doing handsewn endbands is always on the table, as they’re classy, neat and look beautiful, but I find myself opting less and less for them in recent years. In this case they would create too much extra visual noise and would hardly be noticed between the colorful edges and marbled papers.
Instead, I made these from a lustrous black leather. The 9 rings are either a reference to the members of the fellowship or represent the rings given to the kings of men, who above all else desire power – as everyone knows…
Mount Doom and the One Ring – A Bookcase to rule them All
The bookcase deserves its own section in this post. It’s arguably the most complex bookbinding structure I’ve ever attempted and one that was a true nightmare to make.
I really wanted to push the envelope and create a unique display for the LOTR bindings. A case that wouldn’t simply be a nice looking protective shell but something that could stand out on its own. Something impressive and unique, that would intrigue the viewer’s eye and invite exploration through its texture and vivid colors.
Several different ideas and structures were discussed for a long time, going back and forth between simpler and more intricate ones. At some point the project was overdue and Christmas (oh, did I mention it was intended as a Christmas gift?) was growing ever nearer so by the end I suggested we settle for a much simpler structure from the options discussed up to that point.
But it bugged me. It didn’t feel bold enough, befitting the scale of LOTR or its importance in my heart. I pitched the idea for a case representing the One Ring being forged at the fires of Mount Doom, without having much to share with Miss K. apart from a vague but full of excitement description. To my delight she was intrigued and trusted me to move forward.
Here’s a comparison to give you just a hint of how complex this was… A regular book slipcase has 5 parts. A clamshell, which is quite more complex as a structure and requires precision down to half a milimeter to all its pieces, is comprised of 9 parts. Well, my case for LOTR has … 38!
Trying to plan, cut, cover and join all of these irregular pieces caused me headaches for days on end – not even joking. By the end I was exhausted but, much like Frodo, I had successfully taken the Ring to Mount Doom…
The marvelous marbled papers representing the lava-filled chasms of Mount Doom are, once more, made by the perfection-seeking Daniela from Papiers Prina.
Photoshoot and editing was done by Maria Siorba. She really managed to captivate and showcase the beauty, texture and intricate details of this project.
Last but not least I would like to make an honorable mention to the Greek Tolkien Society, the Prancing Pony, which were most helpful in providing me with lots of information for the originally planned designs. They didn’t make the final cut but their help and support is much appreciated.
Mister C, the patron saint of Greek bookbinders, graced my bindery a while back with a commission involving a beautiful 2-section book from Incline Press titled “Minerva, Mantone and Circes”. He only provided one guideline: to base the design around the title’s initials.
This is one of the bindings done in collaboration with Mia Heath. The creative freedom granted by Mister C. and the peculiarity of the book definitely invited some experimentation, so we stepped out of our bookbinding comfort zones and tried new things.
Work was divided as follows: I would do the forwarding (binding the book/structure) while Mia would do the finishing (design/tooling the decoration).
Forwarding: The book was simply too thin for any of the standard structures so I came up with this stub binding / clamshell box hybrid. I sewed the sections onto a sheet folded like an accordion and then attached that onto a core similar to the ones often used to create a curved spine in book cases/boxes. I also chose to incorporate the book’s original covers in 2 flaps, also doubling as endpapers, made of a vivid yellow striped paper which complemented the unusual color of the pages.
Finishing: Mia came up with the design and tooled it. The border motifs were inspired by traditional decorations, which fit well with the book’s content and also with Mister C’s preference for a more classical style. However, the twist lies in the main design, which at first glance might seem to be extra flourishes but instead makes unconventional use of standard decorative tools to create the lower half of a female body. Can you spot the three initials?
Finally, I felt like the book needed some kind of enclosure to protect but also underline its luxurious feel but couldn’t see it a regular slipcase. The idea of a pouch came up and went for a lustrous golden satin fabric, which makes it feel as if you are undressing the book.
The idea to make the Brass Band Sticks originated from a fellow bookbinder who had muscle strain after decades of work, telling me she had trouble using band nippers due to the hand pressure required. Band sticks immediately came to mind.
Wooden band sticks have been around for a very long time. They’re an easy to make tool that helps form the leather around raised spine bands.
However they have some significant drawbacks. Wood contains natural oils which are in some cases likely to stain leather. The groove can widen through continuous use, eventually rendering the band stick useless. Most importantly though, it loses its smoothness and as a result the edges become coarse and eventually produce splinters which will scar leather.
Enter the Brass Band Stick
Enter the Made from a bookbinder for bookbinders, the Brass Band Stick is an updated version of the old-timey tool, one that is more robust, precise, friendly to leather and comfortable to use.
The Brass Band stick offers:
– A clean raised band As it will never stain leather, in contrast with wood.
– Smooth edges The edges are carefully finished by hand to be smooth enough to produce a great result, but not polished, so the tool retains some necessary grip over the leather to help form the leather crisply over the spine band. And of course, it will never become coarse or scar your binding.
– A lifetime of precisionAs brass is a material far more robust than wood, the groove will retain its width through a lifetime of use and produce a neat result each and every time.
Comparison with Band Nippers
Band Nippers work for all sizes, so why should you prefer the Band Sticks? Each tool has its strengths. Band Nippers work for any raised band width but require adjusting, applying pressure constantly and cost more due to their complexity. Band Sticks are easier to use, have a fixed width which allows repeatable precision and cost less. In the end it comes down to preference and way of working.
The Brass Band sticks are ideal for:
– Big binderies with high volume of work. – Bookbinding projects that involve doing a number of identical books on a regular basis. – Binders or bookbinding enthusiasts that have tendinitis or reduced hand strength (injury or age related) and have trouble using band nippers. – Anyone preferring the ease of use this tool offers!
The tool comes on a comfortable wooden handle, smoothly finished with oil and wax.
Current available groove widths are: 4mm, 5mm, 6mm and 7mm. The groove has a depth of 5mm. Custom sizes available upon request. Please take the leather’s thickness around the band into account as well when deciding which width you want!
Pricelist: – 60 euros for one Brass Band Stick. – 110 euros for a pair. – 210 for all four.
Mighty Queen Nefertiti went to see the court sculptor for a new bust.
The sculptor Thutmosis was old and wise and the Queen found him examining a block of black basalt.
“Can you make me immortal?” asked she, to which the sculptor replied, “No, I cannot, my Queen, for only the Gods are immortal”.
“Can you make me perfect?” asked she, to which the sculptor replied, “No, I cannot, my Queen, for these hands belong to an imperfect man and thus cannot create perfection”.
“Of what use are you to me then?” wondered she, to which the sculptor replied, “I can give you beauty, my Queen, and that surpasses both immortality and perfection, for even immortals covet beauty and it defines perfection”.
Seeking Beauty
What is beauty? Defining its nature is one of the oldest and most persistently pursued endeavors of the human mind. We’ve yet to reach a conclusive definition and most likely never will, which is strange for something that governs our life in all its facets, one way or another.
I was commissioned to bind the memoirs of an aesthetic surgeon and in them he writes poignantly on the matter:
“ Countless mathematicians and philosophers attempt to quantitate true beauty and define perfect proportion. While they have succeeded to some degree, pointing to repetition of forms and ratios in the natural world as proof of their theories, there exists something unquantifiable about beauty. For me, it always comes back to the moment in the museum in Paris when I knew I stood before something beautiful. If beauty could be completely and entirely described, then an understanding of beauty would be something that anyone could obtain through study. We all know that’s not the case.”
What follows is a long journey into the creation of this binding and the worlds/thoughts of the surgeon and bookbinder behind it. If that, dear reader, sounds like something you’d enjoy carry on, and maybe pour a glass or two as we’ll be here for a while…
A Surgeon and a Bookbinder
We discussed a lot with Miss V., the person behind this project, and while I had a few ideas from the get go, which managed to find their ways into the finished bindings, they were mostly concepts without yet a solid canvas to bind them into a cohesive whole.
The commission involved two identical bindings and since one was intended as a gift to the very author of the book I decided to get to know him better. As I read his memoirs, I was surprised to find parallels between our professions, more than I’d expect, ranging from the superficial to the essential. This intrigued me: I felt I was looking at a strange mirror, seeing a distorted reflection of myself…
On a first level, the bookbinder and the surgeon use some similar tools (scalpel and various other cutting instruments) and work with the same basic material, leather, although obviously in different forms. Their work has to not only look good but function properly too: a stiff book joint that doesn’t open, or a stiff face, do not make for a happy client (although it may be argued the latter is more frustrating than the former). They both have to be very precise in their work, fusing over details less than half a mm in size, and must pay great attention to detail. Both fields require a balance between a skilled and steady hand and a good perception of aesthetics. The result is either lifeless or inspired but poorly made, if one of the two is lacking. The ideal surgeon and bookbinder are both an artisan and an artist.
On a deeper level, both seek to produce something beautiful. Some will probably argue that the most important pursuit of bookbinding is to protect and preserve the text, and they’d be 100% right, but I doubt it would have become such a vast and complex craft/art if it was only restrained to its technical purpose.
On this note, I couldn’t help but share this quote where the author draws an analogy between books and his field of work – although he probably didn’t expect it would apply to his memoirs one day: “ We are all drawn to beautiful book covers: there’s a part of us all that looks to cover art to tell us something about what is inside.”
What intrigued me the most though were the similarities between the author and me. Although there are parallels it’s also true that his profession, work and world in general, differ a great deal from mine. Yet there were certain parts which resonated deeply with me.
A good example is his words on perfectionism: “ But the great ones (surgeons) are awakened by challenge and driven by a chronic dissatisfaction with anything that could be better. ” I highly doubt I’ll ever be considered one of the great ones and I’m not implying that here – it is, after all, a title that’s always bestowed by others upon one’s person, as the author does here. That said, perfectionism has been an incredible driving force but also an occasional plague for me – I’ve talked about it and the effect it has had on me as an artisan in quite a few of my posts.
Here’s another one: “ Aesthetic surgery is the perfect place for me. There is an intersection of art, science, and medicine that can’t be found in any other field. ” Upon reading this I said to myself “Yes, exactly!”.
Bookbinding is an incredible amalgam of crafts and arts, unmatched (feel free to argue with me on this one) in the number and variety of craft fields it encompasses. No other craft comes close to it and it is this vastness and depth that I have fell in love with, as it makes every part of me come alive: it is about encasing the human intellect and psyche in a three-dimensional artifact and making sure it is functional, long lasting and beautiful. Sounds like something a wizard would say describing his art, doesn’t it…?
But the part which resonated with me the most was his recollections of Paris, and more specifically coming face to face with masterpieces of art:
“Paris was an incredible setting for expanding my horizons. I spent my time immersed in a culture that gave rise to some of the most beautiful art in the world and spent hours in the most celebrated museums. I was charged. Anyone who appreciates art knows the moment in a gallery or museum when perception of the sound of the floorboards or the knocking sound of your shoes on concrete gives way to the tidal wave of visual stimulation bestowed by a painting or sculpture. It shakes you. It isn’t just your eyes, but a feeling. You just know, with something beyond your eyes and brain, that what you are looking at is beautiful and meaningful and true. That feeling has the same force as the one that brings people to tears at symphonies and causes riots after Avant guard plays. As a young man in Paris, I experienced that over, and over, and over again. Standing feet away from perfect human forms released from marble,the abstract and yet completely controlled paintings of Seraut, and the luminous pastel forms of Degas, it clicked. The nebulous appreciation for art that had permeated my childhood coalesced and became a central part of who I am.”
The feeling he describes is something very familiar to me and I’ve had the pleasure to experience it in many cases. None of it however prepared me for my trip to Rome…
Rome was sublime. I never imagined such an immense scale of art and beauty -magnificent art that ranges from fragments of the ancient past to enormous masterpieces of the renaissance and beyond- could exist in one place in the world. It was simply too much to absorb and I’m still trying to process it.
Perhaps the most characteristic single instance was in Palazzo Massimo, which I highly recommend spending the time to explore.
Here I must note that I had the huge privilege to be almost entirely alone there during my visit, as it was during “off-season” (as much as it can be in Rome) and while the pandemic was still in almost full effect. This allowed me and my partner to have entire floors, sometimes entire museums, to ourselves, making the experience deeply personal. It was as if all of this art and beauty was created and collected there just for us…
Anyway, back to Palazzo Massimo. While it contains some extraordinary pieces of art, like the breathtaking sculpture of the Wrestler, it was something entirely different that stood out for me. At the 3rd floor of the museum are on display, excellently preserved, the interior walls and paintings of a Roman villa. Among them was a room portraying a garden. Viewing it in the serenity of absolute silence and solitude, I was moved. There was something in that artificial garden, it’s hard to put in words, as if this unknown painter was so in control of his skills, so confident and at the same time so humble and close to what he was depicting, making it seem completely effortless and full of life, as if he could do anything with his art. He could bring forth the mysteries of existence but instead created this garden, which felt in some ways more real than the real thing. I was almost in tears.
It also brought to mind what Picasso (supposedly) said after seeing the Altamira cave paintings “We’ve invented nothing”…
Capturing Beauty
It was this trip to Rome that gave me the inspiration I needed for the design, which is somewhat of an irony since I was asked by a couple of people if I believed it could find its way into my work and, having a hard time digesting the excess of excellence I came in touch with, I remember thinking to myself the unlikeliness of such a possibility.
In his memoirs the author writes: “ Standing feet away from perfect human forms released from marble […]” and “In many ways I consider myself a sculptor, and my medium human cartilage, bone, and tissue.”
I knew there was something I could -no, not could, should!- work with there. But I couldn’t come up with something. After returning from Rome, and while I was trying to convince my ideas to work in unison, I kept thinking about the trip. I remembered my visit to the Vatican museums. The first stop was their great collection of Egyptian antiquities, among which were artifacts and statues made of black basalt. Suddenly, something clicked. A concept began to emerge, my up-until-now random ideas gravitating towards it.
An important part of the design I came up with was to surface-gilt the back cover with a foil that would make it look like dark granite or basalt. This was a technique I was familiar with and I also did various tests, which looked great in person. However, when I went on to apply it on the bindings themselves disaster struck: for some reason beyond the result was “clotted” and didn’t look at all like the test boards, although the materials and the process was exactly the same.
Hmm, this felt familiar… Fortunately, I am not the binder I was 10 years ago. This disaster forced me to rethink the design and the final piece of the puzzle was revealed: I decided to use a material I bought a while back and had been itching to use, a paper with a stone texture. Why didn’t you think of it in the first place, I hear you ask? I’ve no idea, tunnel vision I guess. The point is abandoning the surface-gilding technique and introducing this paper freed me and eventually led to a much more nuanced design.
One of the reasons I immensely enjoyed working on this project was how well it lended itself to my beloved play on symbolism. As you might have seen in my South Sea Scheme or Hamlet binding, I like to create layers of meaning, some of which point inwards and some outwards, by playing with the three elements interacting with each other: the book’s content, the thoughts it creates and lastly the binding, the physical object, itself.
However in this case the concept of layers took on a much more literal meaning as well, a nod to the topic at hand. Books have layers, just like human bodies. And just as is the case with people those layers take on a metaphorical sense as you peel deeper: Books and People are more than the sum of their parts.
I tried to incorporate the aspect of layers in different ways. First by actually taking off a piece of leather/skin from the face on the front cover, “unveiling” that way what lies beneath. The cover itself is a layer and when you open it you are once more left facing the tissue underneath, but bigger/closer now. The endpapers are followed by a section of two papers that differ in hue and texture, to add tactility but mostly to simulate a transition from one layer to another into the human body. And finally, we reach a paper in the color and texture of bone upon which the thoughts of the author are laid.
The layer concept, as described above, also doubles as a play to the authors quote on being a sculptor with human cartilage, bone, and tissue being his medium.
The cases could be considered as adding a final extra layer over the bindings.
Moving on to the covers themselves, which I named Pre-operation side and Goddess side respectively in my mind.
The Pre-op side features, with some artistic license, surgical markings inspired by Langer lines, which normally depict skin tension.
The detail that stands out the most on this side, in fact one of the core elements of the design in general, is the incredible marbled paper that Daniela from Papiers Prina managed to create, custom made for this project, which was also used for the endpapers. I had the idea of such a paper in my mind long before the design began taking shape and so a lot of it was created around this paper. I needed something that would bring the image of human muscle, tissue and blood veins in mind, while being artistic and interesting to look at – beautiful but also slightly disturbing. It was, as requests go, very specific and at the same time quite vague.
Daniela’s paper surpassed my wildest expectations. It was extremely difficult to make, as it was triple-marbled and required a great amount of experimentation and precision to achieve the intended result and have all the layers show through each other in the right way. In the end though her skills, meticulousness and artistic perception allowed her, through the strange mix of chaos and order that is marbling, to create the most unique marbled paper I’ve ever owned and used.
I wanted the Goddess side to have a transcending quality to it. To be a beautiful face but also one that isn’t exactly real. Gone are the anatomical lines and the jawline indicating a face contour, the skin and tissue underneath: a black stone with intense texture, abstract lines and gold accents has taken their place. Its shape, the shape of the face now, is not anymore bound by the restraints of human anatomy. The straight colorless hair has turned to golden ornaments. A vibrant electric blue emanates from the eye, capturing the light in every move of the cover.
This is the desired image of ourselves, beauty itself. The disparity between the two faces is huge, yet they exist on opposing sides of the same book and if one would flip the covers open in a 180 degree angle (ideally don’t though!) they could gaze onto each other…
The eye, lips and nose of the Goddess side were traced over an astonishing face, that of Queen Nefertiti, as seen through the famous bust.
The title, running down on the bindings spine between the two covers, underlines how the surgeon is the intermediator between us and our desired image of ourselves. The letters of the title are each tooled in two colors: gold and a silvery black, inspired by the gold-black stripes on King Tut’s sarcophagus.
For the headbands I went with a red leather core held in place by golden silk threads, the idea being to resemble exposed veins.
It’s a happy coincidence that this is the first binding I’ve put some sort of personal insignia on – something that’s been long overdue. The symbol you see represents a monogram of K and D, my initials.
The story of Nefertiti and Thutmosis (“calligraphy” on papyrus by Marianna Koutsipetsidis) originally came to me as a nice extra touch. However, in the end it became what really brought everything together: the idea behind the design, the source of its inspiration, the style of the bookcase, the book’s content and my thoughts during the whole binding process.
I’m a storyteller at heart and, to me at least, this short story is the most important part of this project and why it’s possibly my most “artistic” work yet. Binding the book and making a case for it, no matter how special, is simply a transformation process through my skills, it’s still taking X and using it to make Y. The short story represents the transition from transformation to emergence, creating something entirely new, that also grants meaning to my design. It’s the core, the life-giving heart of it all.
I always considered myself a craftsman and not really an artist when it comes to bookbinding – the artistic side of me usually being just a sprinkle on the cake. That’s why this project, for the reason mentioned above, felt like a birth of sorts, as if entering a new realm where strange and exciting things happen.
Who knows, if I manage to stay here long enough I might even find Thutmosis somewhere, patiently revealing a face hidden in stone…
Epilogue
Before signing off I’d like to express my gratitude for G.V., the person who commissioned this project. By giving me freedom, patience, helpful pointers, trust and last but not least a decent budget, she made it stress-free and allowed me to immerse myself in it, to explore, experiment and finally produce something that speaks of the creative in me as much as, I believe, speaks of the book’s content.
Here’s two of my recent bindings, Blake’s Prophetic Books in two rather large volumes.
Though it’s not apparent, the tooling is in (dark) purple. I used ink tooling (here are a couple of examples: one and two), a technique I’ve invented based on carbon tooling, the idea being for purple to contrast the vibrant green.
However in retrospect I believe I could have done it differently (regular blind tooling perhaps): the color is barely noticeable and also doesn’t take advantage of the lovely gradient effect that you can achieve by using two different colors. Overall though I’m pleased with the end result.
The lovely marbled paper I used is from Papiers Prina. Recently bought a few marbled papers from her and I must say I’m in love with them: vibrant colors in balanced combinations and the patterns are delicate and beautiful.
Daniela is also very helpful and a pleasure to work with. For what is more she was able to accommodate a custom request I had (needed one of her designs in different colors) in a fairly short time! Make sure to add her to your marbled paper supplier list (site/online shop and Instagram account) – can’t recommend her enough!
Last but not least I’ve used my Brass Band Nippers, Versatile Typeholder and Dot set to make these bindings. If you’d like to add them to your tool collection you can contact me directly (mail at the top right column) or head over to my Etsy shop.
After 5 years I get to return to my beloved ancient Rome through these bindings of Robert Graves’ books I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
The idea behind these bindings was to go for something simple and classic. Although in theory this should have been easy I struggled a lot coming up with a decoration. Perhaps the lockdowns (dear future reader: this was the year of the Covid pandemic) finally took their toll on my inspiration!
The decoration on the covers was designed by Marianna Koutsipetsidi, who has aided me time and again with her valuable skills, using historical artwork from that era (frescoes and mosaics) as reference. It depicts an eagle holding a wolf pup, an omen within the story of things to come.
The leather I used for the bindings has a deep grain which is very beautiful but made tracing the design very difficult. I commissioned a stamping plate to assist me in that regard: I carefully damped the covers and pressed it until it left a clear impression. I then proceeded to blind tool the whole design by hand.
I’m particularly happy with the printed marbled paper I used for the clamshell boxes which looks very similar to actual marble, for that extra ancient Rome touch.
The titles were tooled in genuine 24 carat gold leaf and the endbands were handsewn with silk thread.
When it comes to the book spines I drew inspiration from early 16th century bindings, which were most often blind tooled rather than gold tooled and many of them had rather simple decorations on them, most often linear in nature. There’s also a “roughness” to their decoration. I tried to capture a bit of that aesthetic to allow the bindings to look “dated/old” while being new.
These historical bindings also lack titles in most cases, I suppose because metal type was still in its first decades and not as readily available. For what is more I couldn’t find a way to properly fit the title to the spines of the bindings in a way that would look nice. So, in the end I decided to tool the titles on the spines of the book cases.
Last but not least, I used my Bookbinding Stylus Set to tool the covers decoration and the pillar on the case spines, as well as my Versatile Typeholder to tool the titles.
Greetings everyone, hope you managed to enjoy the holidays and brace for whatever 2021 has in store for us! Without further ado lets… dive in this special project.
Mister C. owns an admirable collection of marbled papers from around the world. Word on the bookbinding street is that he keeps them in a secret room in his study, revealed only if you press 43 books -out of 6000- in a specific order, while others claim the way to reveal the entrance is to loudly name the 3 greatest economists in reverse speech while standing on one foot. In any case, Mister C. often initiates a project by choosing a marbled paper for a book, either on his own or consulting with the bookbinder, and building the overall design from there.
Such was the case with a pamphlet on the South Sea Bubble, a famous financial scheme that involved slave trading. More specifically the pamphlet is focused on the absurd case the defendants made in court, since the scheme resulted in a financial disaster on a national level. Coincidentally 2021 marks 300 years from the South Sea Bubble, as the fraud was revealed in 1721.
Mister C. had a few requests when it came to the design. I was to use one of the marvelous marbled papers made by Antonio Velez Celemin, which had swirls that would resemble a turbulent sea. I tried my best to capture the beauty of this paper on camera but one really has to see it in person to appreciate its extremely fine details, such as the numerous hair-thin gold lines that populate it and add to its splendor. The design was to also include a ship, chains, the pound sign and the words “human rights” among its elements. The overall layout and the way all these would be incorporated was left to my crafting judgement though. The intention was to create a binding that would narrate the story of the South Sea Bubble in a symbolic way, while at the same touching upon its repercussions and ethical questions it raises.
The first thing I did was trying to find out which part of the marbled papers to cut and how. I had to decide which areas best suited the design, take into account the paper grain and the exact outline of the cut. As the entire design would be based on the resulting pieces and I only had one sheet it took me 3 hours to complete this process.
I felt like a lapidarist, who has to study a rough diamond and come up with the ideal final shape, in order to remove the impurities but also preserve as much of the precious material as possible, thus revealing its hidden beauty and ensuring the resulting gem will have be of the highest value.
Once the pieces of paper were cut I knew the space I had available and its exact geometry, allowing me to create the rest of the design in detail.
The ship sailing on the turbulent sea under a storm and its wreck sinking to the bottom to meet the remnants of other ships were made using small pieces of leather pared down to a 0.3mm thickness, called onlays.
The chain on the front cover carries a double meaning: representing the shackles of the people that suffered under the slave trade conducted by the South Sea Company as well as the cuffs that were put on many of the ones responsible for the scheme, falling upon the ship and their business in the shape of a lighting – hinting at allegorical interpretations of “divine punishment”.
This design was also an excellent chance to utilize my (copyright pending!) Round Circle Title form, which I haven’t used for a very long time. (Here’s two examples: A and B)
Ι blended “human rights” with the title and tooled it in a blood-red foil to add even more symbolic notes to the overall theme and make a stark contrast with the dark leather and gold title. Fun fact: I haven’t been able to find this foil locally and so I’ve been religiously keeping/saving a small scrap for nearly a decade. It paid off, as I think it adds a great touch and becomes in some ways the central focus of the design. Take that Marie Kondo!
The pamphlet itself sits comfortably within a recess on the velvet and marbled-paper covered interior. When removed it reveals what is in many cases the cause of human suffering: money. As with the paper on the covers I tried to use a piece that would make the most of the marbled paper chaotic and fine details.
The pamphlet was a binding at some point in the past, though the only remnants from that state were a damaged endband sliver and some dried up goo along the spine. I decided to intervene as little as possible and simply guarded the folios with Japanese tissue, later binding them on a strip of thick paper using the longstitch method. This way there was almost zero harm to the pamphlet, as most of the holes used for the longstitch were already present and the strips of Japanese paper can easily be removed if necessary, while at the same time remaining readable.
Some years ago I watched a documentary on the construction of the Florence Cathedral, highlighting of course its magnificent dome and the life of its maker, Fillipo Brunelleshi. I encourage anyone with an interest in history, architecture and engineering, or good documentaries in general, to watch it!
The story behind the massive dome and its brilliant maker were most interesting and stayed with me for years so it was not without some excitement when V.G. tasked me to make a binding for a book on the architecture and physics of the dome.
One of the notable features of the dome is its octagonal shape, upon which I based the decoration.
I wanted the design to hint at red chalk, which was often used historically to draw/plan all sorts of things. In order to achieve that I used ink tooling, a technique I came up with inspired by Hannah Brown’s carbon tooling. The resulting effect is quite interesting: a dual-color impression, randomly shifting from one color to another.
Last but not least I tried to match the leather with the color of the roof tiles.
The second binding is more straightforward with a mix of blind and foil tooling on a lovely teal leather.
This is my last post for 2020, which has been a very strange and difficult year. May 2021 be kinder to us all! Best wishes for the holiday season and see you folks next year!
Stowing the tins in her tent, pitched inside the Olympic stadium, Laila climbs to the roof and watches the sun fall past the horizon. Hundreds of feet below, the city’s constellations of streetlights start blinking into existence. … There are no humans left in London, but the city hums with activity, a hollow approximation of organic civilization.
Folks, there’s romance and there’s romance, and then there’s story-set-in-post-apocalyptic-world-for-our-wedding-book kind of romance – which honestly makes making everything else weak and vanilla by comparison.
Mister W. wanted a special binding for a story he wrote and will be displayed at his wedding. I happen to be a sucker for post-apocalypse themed stories and Mister W’s story was a small gem of a novel, so I went a bit beyond the original plan to do this project justice.
(Check my bindery’s Instagram account for a video presentation of this binding!)
My design was based on the excerpt at the beginning of the post. I wanted to capture a glimpse of Laila’s view of the city: alive and yet non-living, beautiful but at the same time cold and distant.
I used a map diagram to blind tool the outline of a central London area. Then I used metallic foils to inhabit it with the hundreds of machines, like driverless cars, drones, billboards, etc lighting up and moving about.
Since machines are optimized for efficiency I imagined they always arrange themselves in certain ways, move or settle in formations, and thus I created a number of “secret” rules I followed regarding the size, placement, number and color of dots. The result is a chaotic order, incomprehensible to us and seemingly random, but perfectly ordinary for the machines.
I also made a custom slipcase featuring an important element of the story.
I’ve had lots of fun making this one. Let it be put on record it’s among my top favorite bindings I’ve made and I’ll be really sad to part with it.
Last but not least, A6 size is amazing for design bindings. Everything feels/ looks neat and interesting! Dear clients, more A6s please.
Dimitri's Bookbinding corner 