Progress on Winterfair Gifts
I've be somewhat lax about noting down things I need to know later (lazy much?) so I'm going to hide this behind a cut for people who don't want to read my
When we last looked in, the bole was drying. The bole (which worked very very well) is a few drops of titanium white Gouache paint mixed with a little PVA and water until it is the consistency of milk
Next is to lay out the tools. The glair I'm using for the edge is PVA beaten in water until it is also a milk like consistancy. Since silver will tarnish, I'm sealing it with Speedball Mona Lisa sealer for gilding.
Silver is a lot more forgiving than gold- it's thicker so it's less apt to get messed up by an errant breath of wind (say, from the cat charging past at full speed).
Sliver applied- waiting for it to fully dry before applying the sealer.
Ok, now that the gilding is done on the edges, the spine needs to be slightly rounded and the shoulders created. I should have rolled the signatures a bit before chocking it up in the press- the foredge did not get that concave effect.
I sewed the bookmark to the headband before I applied it.... and the kitten tried to run off with my roll of headband!
Brown paper over the mull and headband- this can even be a piece of grocery bag as long as it's acid free.
Preping the leather for the cases. Doe skin is lovely but too stretchy and I won't be using it again.
Ok, here I had pictures of casing the books... and my camera and computer in conjunction lost them. I do feel that I've documented that pretty well before however and it's a simple task.
Glair for the cover decoration. A note- glair is glair but there are several different ways to make it. I use two different kinds because I find that the beaten and strained egg white I use for the cover gilding is not strong enough for the edges and the PVA glair I use on the edges is too effective for the cover. (In other words, the whole leaf sticks and is the very devil to get off if you even can... and then the whole thing comes off leaving none of the leaf in your designs.)
Egg white beaten until it is foamy and then I have to let it sit overnight and strain it through a coffee filter in the morning.
When we last looked in, the bole was drying. The bole (which worked very very well) is a few drops of titanium white Gouache paint mixed with a little PVA and water until it is the consistency of milk
Next is to lay out the tools. The glair I'm using for the edge is PVA beaten in water until it is also a milk like consistancy. Since silver will tarnish, I'm sealing it with Speedball Mona Lisa sealer for gilding.
Silver is a lot more forgiving than gold- it's thicker so it's less apt to get messed up by an errant breath of wind (say, from the cat charging past at full speed).
Sliver applied- waiting for it to fully dry before applying the sealer.
Ok, now that the gilding is done on the edges, the spine needs to be slightly rounded and the shoulders created. I should have rolled the signatures a bit before chocking it up in the press- the foredge did not get that concave effect.
I sewed the bookmark to the headband before I applied it.... and the kitten tried to run off with my roll of headband!
Brown paper over the mull and headband- this can even be a piece of grocery bag as long as it's acid free.
Preping the leather for the cases. Doe skin is lovely but too stretchy and I won't be using it again.
Ok, here I had pictures of casing the books... and my camera and computer in conjunction lost them. I do feel that I've documented that pretty well before however and it's a simple task.
Glair for the cover decoration. A note- glair is glair but there are several different ways to make it. I use two different kinds because I find that the beaten and strained egg white I use for the cover gilding is not strong enough for the edges and the PVA glair I use on the edges is too effective for the cover. (In other words, the whole leaf sticks and is the very devil to get off if you even can... and then the whole thing comes off leaving none of the leaf in your designs.)
Egg white beaten until it is foamy and then I have to let it sit overnight and strain it through a coffee filter in the morning.