Braids (continued)

I finished the braided cord bound book! It turned out pretty nice, I think, and my husband even said "I like this one." High praise indeed.

 

The paper is from this atlas. I actually felt guilty tearing this page out. It hurt me more than it hurt the book, I think. After seeing the end result though, I don't feel so bad. It's an old atlas, some of the maps are no longer correct (Instead of Russia, it's the USSR, not to mention all the former soviet countries), and the data is outdated (populations and so forth). This atlas has lived a good life, and I think it makes great cover paper.

 

The endpapers are a lovely cloudy blue. I think they go well with the blue on the front and back covers.

Now I'm just debating whether to post it up in my shop, or to test it out some more to make sure the spine keeps the braided look. Le sigh.

Atlas Love

 

This is my amazing new atlas. As you can see in the picture, I am extremely happy it finally came (finally? it only took like 4 days... I guess I'm a really impatient person). It's so beautiful, and almost as big as my torso. I'm so very excited to have it. It really is a shame that I bought it for the purpose of destroying it. I'm starting to feel guilty.

I picked up my paper yesterday. This paper is meant for cutting up, so I've been focusing on that and avoiding the atlas for the time being. I got some pretty papers from Paper Source and Paper Mojo, which are both pretty awesome paper suppliers. I bought a piece of black lokta paper from Paper Source because sometimes the colors I have just won't do, and I'm actually not very happy with it. I'm not sure where the Lokta paper I'm used to comes from, but this piece I bought just isn't what I was expecting. Sad day. I guess I know now. It will do the job, I just wish it was prettier, and better quality.

The paper I ordered from Hollanders hasn't come yet, which is also sad. I think it was late the last time we ordered it as well. I mainly ordered some of the Florentine prints from there because I've had a fascination with cord bound books lately, and they seem to look best if you stick to a more old fashioned look, as opposed to going more contemporary. Of course, if I had some different colors of leather to work with that might change as well. Right now I'm working with black and brown, which lend to the classic look of the book as a whole. I think I prefer it that way.

Well, I had better get back to work. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get another book up on my Etsy! The weather has been completely cloudy for about a week, so it's been hard to take decent pictures as well, since I'm using the natural light that comes through our living room window. Okay, I'm off to cover some more books. Toodlepip.