These are not my tutorials, but are the ones I learned from and use constantly to make make my books: Coptic Stitch…
FAIL – multi page dyeing with mosquito net
Let me tell you another story of failure… so you learn from my fuckups… So… I need to make several books and I do not enjoy dyeing all that paper one by one, thus I tried inventing some SUPER clever way to do all the pages at once… So… mosquito net… Cut it into page size pieces… Made a page-moquito/net sandwich… Secured it with elastic bands… And then came the FAIL… I put the whole thing into the usal coffe bath I normally use but the water didn’t even got to all the pages.. so you can see the white parts… suuuucks… Also, the pages that did got correctly dyed were so soked that got destroyed by the water… doble FAIL I think that instead of the normal very low water bath i used this process might work if the WHOLE block was completly submeged in coffe. Who knows… maybe someone is willing to prepare a whole tub of coffe… Back to single page dyeing for now… P.D. If you have some awesome technique of mass paper coloring, please let me know!
Skulltopus book – Part 4: a bit of color
Added some lacquer so when I paint the wood around the drawing the color tone go into the actual logo. After that I added some color to the wood using my favorite multipurpose ink: coffee! Also a bit of bitumen of judea for the burnt effect on the bottom. Some random thingy for the corners. Covered for spaying the lacquer. DONE
Skulltopus book – Part 3: Drwaing
I drew the logo with a pencil. Logo done! Go over the lines with the pirograph. Errase the pencil lines that were left. Add some shadows… Add some random crazy glyphs… and done! Ready for the next step, giving some color to the wood.
Skulltopus book – Part 2: Leathering
And here comes the leather. Since I´m super lazy and I don’t yet have the proper tools to make the super thin edges needed to do a proper bookcase with leather… AND I actually think it looks kinda cool like this, I only cover the exact shape of the covers with leather without actually going around it. Here is the back side: Before putting it into the press I placed a bit of cloth since the pressure kinda eliminates the texture of the leather. Once the glue dried, I made the holes for the pop rivets. There is the rivet before actually placing it. Rivets ready! They don’t actually help with the structural integrity but they look nice so watever… To finish it I added a couple of leather triangles to the corners of the front cover. Done! Ready for the next step, burning an image to the cover.
Skulltopus book – Part 1: The covers
had one extra text block laying around so I decided to make a book with the logo of this website and learn a couple new things on the process. First, I wanted to the cover to look like actual wood so I got some very thin plywood for that. The back was going to be covered with leather so I just used ugly MDF. Pro tip! cut your covers together. That way they are always exactly the same shape and you only cut once. Here I joined the plywood and MDF with a couple c-clamps before cutting. Done! covers ready witn one cut! Yes… in retrospect it´s quite obvious to cut several things together but im just starting my battle against my massive ignorance… Next come glue… Last week I saw a great tip on Tested.com where they spread glue using the side of a screw so I found this piece of cardboard wich allready had a perfect zig-zag on the edge for spreading glue. Covers done! and ready for part 2, covering with leather.
Drywall joint tape… maybe…
The other day I went to get some glue and duct tape and found this “drywall joint tape” which I thought Could be used for the back part of the text block instead of gauze, its stiky so its very conveniente for positioning it befote covering it with white glue. Here is the roll I bought: And here is the tape allready glued: I used three layers and it looks like it works… only time will tell… (fingers crossed!)
Necronomicon (Evil Dead 2013) – Part 4, Finito!
At last… Full view: http://evilself.deviantart.com/art/Necronomicon-finished-445492080
Necronomicon (Evil Dead 2013) – Part 3, the wrong cover!
So… I initially was thinking on doing the actual movie cover of the book with the human skin and the staples… But, I couldn’t find a tutorial that showed a prop that looked realistic, and I had no experience with papeir mache o other technique that might produce something decent… so then I thought I might do the original necronomicon face… But again, no idea how to make it look decent… So fuck it, I knew resin casting.. and i like skulls, so whatever, I just got some actual leather and I sculpted a nice skull to put in the middle… the mold… A little test of the mold with some leftover resin… And the final book:
Necronomicon (Evil Dead 2013) – Part 3, the text block
Wasn’t really sure about what to put as end pages around the normal paper pages so I just grabbed some black construction paper and put it there. I bet there are better options… Placed it between couple pieces of wood so serve as a book press. C-claps to complete the home-made book press. I saw on some tutorial that the perfect binding needs some texture added to the pages in the back so the glue sticks better. I added some grooves so the blue has even better place to stick. Some twine and contact cement… And done In the end the grooves/twine were not such a good idea, the pages don’t quite open properly. So don’t do that. Live and learn… To finish the text block I took some random strips of fabric for the book marks.