Sunday 23 January 2011

Got any old leather?

Today saw me at another workshop at the Welbeck Estate at the studio of Louise Presley of Hope and Elvis - this one being run by Cath Ray bookmaker.



I'd seen Cath at a couple of craft fairs so was familar with her work - recycling old leather into the covers of new books. These leathers include an old cream sofa, a leather jacket too squeaky to wear, leather from old car seats and old handbags.



We were to make two books today one with a soft back and another quarto bound. Cath had lots of lovely papes to use as end papers but I'm a fan of the marbled papes so used those on both books. Although we used new paper I love the idea of incorporating some vintage papers - the possibilities are endless.



I must admit I missed a trick when somebody spotted this vintage crepe paper wrapper among Louise's treasures and bought it to cover his book!



And so the day was spent measuring, folding, pricking, sticking, pressing and generally becoming more familiar with a set square than I have cared to be since leaving school. (Speaking of school - one of the attendees recognised me from being in the year below her at school 36 years ago!). This pile of blocks of wood and clamps is a book press to ensure that papers had bonded with leather.



It was great to see that something which I had envisaged would need a lot of expensive tools could in fact be undertaken with some very cheap tools using a bit of imagination.



The book on the left is the soft back lined with marbled paper with 6 "signatures" (bundles of papers) hand stitiched down the spine.



And the greeny one below is the one with hard back boards covered with marbled paper and with a leather spine taken from a suede jacket. If you look closely you can see the holes from the stitching which I decided to use as a feature rather than remove its history.



I think I might have a new hobby!

Love Wend

15 comments:

  1. What a great skill to learn. Your books will be something to treasure.

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  2. Oh this looks addictive! You did really well! xxx

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  3. They look lovely. If only I had known you are in need of leather. I went to the Antiques Centre in Newark yesterday and there were large pieces of leather from a sofa I think and they were only £1 per piece. The studio was looking pretty fine wasn't - I popped across to help Louise give it a fettle on Friday. I may go on the course next time - it looks like great fun - although I am not sure I could bring myself to write/draw/plan in such a beautiful book.

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  4. What a lovely day I love hand crafted books and papers. Isn't it funny how people pop up from the past when we least expect it.
    Jo x

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  5. Sounds like it was a lovely day. I love seeing old books covered, we used to cover our work books at school in wrapping paper that used to be fun, Dee x

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  6. And thats your Christmas presents sorted out for next year too! Beautiful Wend. xxxx

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  7. What a lovely skill to have learnt, Wend, looking forward to seeing more of your efforts.

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  8. What an interesting thing to learn. Thanks for telling us about it. Scraps of leather, huh? I'll put it on my 'things to look out for at the boot' list. xx

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  9. How interesting! I have never even heard of this as a craft but it look amazing!

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  10. Wend,
    I've been making books for years and I'm afraid to tell you it's not a hobby, it's an obsession!! You'll find yourself looking at lots of things now and thinking how they'd look as book pages or covers. The variations are endless and they make fabulous gifts for people. I'm running a workshop next month for our local Embroiderers Guild and if they make anything half as good as yours I'll be very happy. Yours look really well made. Great stuff. Lesley x

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  11. What a lovely way to spend a gloomy January day - your new hobby has paid off cos your books look amazing. Years ago hubby used to be a printer and made his own books, which we still have.

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  12. looks great , i think it's brillant to learn at least one new skill a year...
    i love that you left the stitches, i think that makes it even better and truly unique....
    you've obviously not changed a bit in last 36 years ....lucky you .

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  13. Hi Wend:
    Just discovered you this morning. Your blog is wonderful! I am fairly new to this blogging community and I just love it! In fact, your post on Toy Shelves was so much fun as I did one on Shelf Life a week or so ago.

    I will be back. Also loved your recent post and the steps you took to make that book!

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  14. beautiful finished product. Looks like a fab course x

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  15. Hi - followed you here from your comment on my blog. Is that the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire? 'Cos if so, that's where my grandfather worked all his life, and my dad was brought up in Norton.

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