I knew right away that I wanted to use parchment over silk for the cover. I hemmed and hawed though at what to carve into it. In the end I remembered a comment Hugh had made the last time I used this parchment and kept the pierced design simple. He said he delighted in its simplicity and beauty. So I chose to punch a laurel wreath into the cover and let it speak for itself.
The cover is indigo dyed calf over bleached raw silk. The boards are Davey board, a descendant of paste boards made in period. The tapes are linen, as is the sewing thread. The paper is a heavier text weight that takes ink well and stands up to being used in a blank journal. The furniture (the four pegs on the cover) are brass.
Pierced parchment binding is an area I have very much wanted to do more of. I love the mudejar style, which combines needle piercings and thread work, but I also want to explore more cut work. I acquired a kit from Nancy Hulan at Pennsic one year and was hooked!
I simply must acknowledge this very helpful blog post from Francesca Galligan, Rare Books, Bodleian Library as I was starting out. It provided more detail after the kit whetted my appetite. One stunning example of cut work (which is a little out of SCA period but still OMG) is this manuscript in the Walters Art Museum. Here is but one page:
One day I will accomplish this!
Here are photos from the binding of Katheryn’s book.
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My antique book press, which still does a very fine job with text blocks and finishing!
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Sewing signatures onto linen tape.
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Sewing signatures onto linen tapes with linen cord
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Done! All signatures onto the tape bindings.
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Tape bound text block released from the sewing frame.
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8.5" by 5.5" tape bound text block from above.
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To ensure a smooth fit, the boards need to have a slot carved in for the tapes to sit in.
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Both covers are now attached. The tapes are glued down into their channels and the book is ready to be covered.
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I wanted to make sure the laurel wreath went on well so I created a template to punch the design into the parchment cover.
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Punched, lined, glued and furnitured! The book is nearly done - a few tweaks to go. The parchment is punched with the design. The text block is covered in white raw silk and then the parchment laid over. The four corner studs are placed to help protect the cover.
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A view including more of the spine.
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Tweaks have been made and it's ready to go!
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Simple indigo parchment back