Gothic Tome

Hi there, I have neglected keeping you all up to date about my projects.

Here is one I started a little while back. It was a big project. The biggest book I have ever made to

date. There is a flip through video a the end of this blog post. I also will be doing progress videos as I add things too it. 

I call this my Gothic Tome. 

I was rewatching Penny Dreadful while I wasn't to well one week and became inspired by Vistorian Gothic Horror Stories. Many are featured in Penny Dreadful and I felt drawn to compile something unique that holds much of the theme. 

I had a clear idea of what I wanted, but the trick was achieving that finish on the cover. I started but working on some samples to get the surface finish I wanted. I had done much research on achieving the crackle finish.

Once I was satisfied with the sample effect I wanted I set out to start on the actual cover.





I will do a more detailed post on the crackle technique that I use for my cover, so stay tuned.








After finishing the cover surface, I had at it with a bit of sandpaper to distress the edges.

Next came the drilling of the holes for the signatures. There were a lot. I chose to drill the spine rather than using an awl to maintain some strength in the spine.









Folding the signatures. Wow there were a lot



Sewing in the signatures was another massive undertaking. After which I HAD A HUGE FRICKEN BOOK!!






I had this face in my stash that I wanted to put on the front cover. The idea was to paint it and then add a crackle medium to the surface. ALWAYS DO SAMPLES FIRST. I used the wrong paint on the face and the crackle medium did some fun and interesting things.



Luckily I was able to salvage the face an completed it which a LOVELY finish.



The finished BOOK.





Here is the flip through.

A Birthday Card and a Book Cover

I made this for a new friend who has had a birthday recently. 

I also passed on one of my hand bound books as I have SOOO many of them and as this friend does draw I thought she might like it. 

I actually made this book cover well over a year ago and did not like how it come out. To resolve this I coated the entire cover in gesso and started again. 

I found a crimson spray in my stash and totally love it so using that and some black ink, I ended up with a VERY moody end result and loved it. 

Now because I use sprays which are essentially ink you cannot seal the surface with matt medium or anything like that as it just rehydrates the ink and starts moving it around which was what happened the first time I did this cover. SO, what did I use? Hair spray.... and THEN sealed it with matt medium which worked a blast. 

 I had to relearning coptic stitch to bind the book because I haven't made a bound book in a while. Interestingly enough I seemed to have improved on the method a bit and I have no idea why or how. I am just going with it. 

 

Let me know what you think by asking any questions.

A Shabby Chic Sherlock book by Watson

Hello crafters and readers!

So I decided I wanted to do something shabby chic'y with my Sherlock Book by Watson and this is what I came up with.

The aim shabby chic, the method of achieving this is done using.

laces
BUTTERFLIES
paper and fabric flowers
ribbon
metal gear embellishments, Tim Holtz gears
Metal Corners
Stamps

Book cover with Tea Stained Lace

Hi crafters!

I have a great project to show you today. I wanted to pay with staining lace with tea to see how it would turn out. I have some lovely cotton and synthetic lace from Meg's Garden that had been sitting in my stash that I thought would be perfect for this project.

There is a video at the end of this post where I talk about how I went about doing this project.

I hope you like this project as much as I do.

Please feel free to leave a comment or any questions.