Nicole Alderman wrote:
Here's some ideas I've thought of. But none of them make me too happy.
- Use stick on jewels. These might fall off, though. Need stronger adhesive.
- Watercoloring the covers. If the covers get the least bit wet, they'll bleed and kids will be sad.
- Using egg tempera paint to decorate the covers. Apparently this cracks? I haven't attempted it yet.
- Dying the cloth with natural dyes? But, cotton doesn't take natural dyes well.[/img]
[list]Letting the kids color them with sharpies. The colors won't bleed, but it won't be historical. - Somehow using some sort of paper or cloth clay to sculpt onto the covers, sort of like paper mache. But, once again, the glue reactivates with water. Unless I do some sort of non-water-soluable glue, l like gelatin. But that's hard to keep warm.
- Using wool for the cover material, since it takes dye better? That's expensive, though!
- Using actual leather. This is too expensive!
Any ideas or solutions?
Hi Nicole, I do admire your ambition and drive with the projects!
Medieval book covers were made of wood, covered with leather.
For best results (most satisfying in cost - ease of making - wow effect ratio), I'd look for 3mm (= 0.12 inches) thick cardboard, assuming the books will be approximately the same size as with your previous project.
Little tweaks will give a lot of satisfaction in the end product, like sanding the edges and the corners of the thick cardboard/millboard to a slight bevel on the outside (but leaving the inside edge as is).
Faux leather from brown paper, like Carla suggested, looks quite appealing!
Make a try-out at home to test the materials and techniques.
I'd go with;
- thick cardboard/millboard covers
- underlay elements - cords, split peas etc under the covering. I've done this with thin-ish leather and it works like a dream, not sure about paper.
- faux leather brown paper covering (if going with underlay elements, press the paste-moist covering material gently on the underlay elements with something super soft, like the palm of your hand, close to thumb)
- do some 'finishing' with sharpies
- tin foil "gold and silver", gold possibly created with a thin layer of nail polish? Embossing the tin foil before *magically* sticking it to the cover. I don't have experience with using tin foil on book covers, but am assuming strong glue like wood glue could work.
- stick on jewels for extra bling, also glued with the extra strong glue
I guess the point I want to make is; try it out to see what works towards creating your vision!
Also, when gluing covering on the sewn-on covers, use some kind of moisture barrier between the book block (paper pages) and the covers. I find the plastic pouches for archive paper we used to hold in ring binders works really well for this. So from cover to book block; cover, glued and folded over edge of covering, blotting paper ( paper towels? ), moisture barrier, book block (paper pages). Put a weight on top that is flat and larger than the book you're making to keep the covers flat. Sometimes it's needed to let the spine of the book sit just outside the weight to accomondate the swelling in the spine of the book, created by the sewing of the text block (in that case you'd need to put a board under AND above the book, to allow a symmetrical shape of the spine).
Change blotting paper, initially quite often, to speed up and help drying.
Argh, it's a bit challenging to 'show' stuff in words. Also, I don't want to come over as a preachy know-it-all. Just want to help
If there are any questions, I'm happy to help.
medieval binding techniques as you go! Good on you to attach the book to its covers with the cords.
