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Hello, my name is Richard Norman
For nearly 20 years my wife Margaret & I ran the Eden Workshops a system of craft workshops devoted to the exploration of the Book Arts.
During that time we worked in almost total isolation and seclusion in the grounds of a very private monastery in rural England. We developed four book related skills; hand book binding, paper marbling
and book edge marbling, printing & box making and took those skills to high levels of excellence. In 1997 after nearly 20 years running the Eden Workshops we were voted a National Living Treasure
by Country Life magazine for our contribution to the Book Arts.
In 2004 we decided to close our workshops and move out here to Southern France, I now concern myself with teaching and have the time to concentrate on aspects of the book arts that interest me. I have been approached by several people who have asked me to advise them with regard a starters
pack for novice and aspiring binders, I am only to happy to provide this service, just ask. I also provide a block making service to book binders at prices about four times lower than that
charged for making blocks in brass.
I have published several manuals concerned with the book arts and will be releasing more very shortly, all these manuals can be found on my website and are free to download, here is a list of current and
forthcoming manuals free to download from http://www.edenworkshops.com
If you are interested in gilding in particular please do check out our new website at: http://www.gold-vault.com
Sterling Silver Book Clasps
Being concerned largely with liturgical binding, I have been asked many times to fit book clasps to anything from small devotional books to large Family bibles.
This book clasp is a development of a very old idea; you will find it useful for any type of book that has a board thickness of 3mm or more. You will not need special tools, pliers, a hand drill, hammer and a
soldering iron are the basic requirements plus a scalpel and a couple of sanding blocks fitted with a coarse and fine abrasive paper. You will find it useful if you have a nipping press, but this is not
essential.
Of necessity this is quite a long tutorial, in order to make it fail proof, a picture of
every step of the process is supplied, but when you have made a pair of clasps or two you may well find that you will not need to lean on this tutorial so much.
Just for your interest’s sake, if you are a professional binder, costs will be a very important consideration. This method of producing a set of bespoke book clasps adds about 2 hours labour plus
Ok, we start assuming that you have completed the sewing of the book to be fitted with clasps. It is best by far to use millboard for the boards of the book, millboard is tougher than greyboard. The shoulders of the book determine what thickness of board to use, in this case the shoulders were 4mm
high, so two pairs of 2mm boards were cut exactly to the final size of the book. We need a pair of boards because we are going to sandwich the silver fittings between them.
Taking a pair of the boards, draw a line about 3/4 of an inch down the side, then
measure in from each end about 2 inches and draw two lines 1/2 an inch apart, as shown in the illustration.
Taking the silver wire, cut two lengths 3 inches long, and with a pair of pliers bend the wire to the shape shown above. The wire that is pressed together in two strands should be about 1/2 an inch in
Take one of the boards and place the board over the bent silver wire as shown in the top picture. The tip of the wire should hang over the edge of the board by about 3/16 of an inch. Then, using masking
tape, stick the wires into the position shown above.
Taking another board and making sure that the two marry up perfectly, tape them in position with masking tape.
Place the boards between two pressing boards and either put them in a nipping press, or clamp the pressing boards together with "G" clamps and tighten the press/clamps as much as you can...we need
Boards in the nipping press or....
Pressed together with "G" clamps, if using clamps as above, place the clamps right over the silver wire, so that as much pressure as possible is bought to bear where it is needed.
Leave the boards overnight. The next day take them out of the press and after removing the masking tape used to hold the boards together, separate the boards and mark the silver wires "A" and
Remove the silver wire and you should see on both boards a clear impression of where the wire was on the board.
Taking your scalpel, carefully cut around the outline of the impression, ultimately we are going to cut a recess for the wire to lay in so we want it to be a snug fit. Millboard being as tough as it is will blunt a scalpel blade quickly, unless you are in the habit of re-sharpening you blades you will tend to
When you have cut around the outline of the wire on both boards, using the tip of your scalpel pick out a layer of board a little less than a millimeter deep, as shown above.
Now take the other board and sandwich the two together, make sure that the edges of the boards marry up as perfectly as possible, and then tape the edges as shown to hold the boards together. Place in a nipping press or clamp using boards and "G" clamps and put the board under moderate pressure, make sure the boards do not slide due to the effect of clamping, leave to dry overnight.
After the boards are dry we then think about "cushioning" the outer edges of the boards, boards which are of a considerable thickness can appear overly thick and crude when covered in leather, to
make them appear more elegant we reduce the thickness of the outer edges, by first cutting a bevel with a scalpel and then sanding to form a curved edge, begin the bevel with a scalpel as shown
Use a new scalpel blade as needed, take off about a 1/4 of an inch wide strip and reduce the thickness of the board by about 3/32 of an inch.
When a 1/4 of an inch strip has been removed, lower the angle of the scalpel slightly and shave off another strip a further 1/8 of an inch wide.
Having worked your way along the front edge of the board we now turn our attention to the sides of the board.
Note: When beveling the sides of the board, take care to begin the cut about 1/16 of an inch in from the end, see the top left
hand corner of the illustration.
When you have completed beveling all three edges of the board, take a sanding
block fitted with a coarse abrasive, and, working from the middle of the board outwards and pulling the block, not pushing it...round off the beveled edge.
Note: For some books, in particular Bibles, you may choose to leave the edge with a bevel on it rather than round it off.
After you have finished sanding the edges they should have a profile something like this. Something I often do after I have finished profiling the boards is to make up some stiff starch paste
and using my fingers rub a little paste all over the board, when it is dry I then gently sand over the board with a fine abrasive block, this gives an extremely smooth finish to the board, and also acts as a
"key" for the leather when covering.
Now we come to the other pair of boards. Glue them together with PVA glue, tape the edges together, press and allow to dry. When dry, remove the tape as before and using a scalpel cut around the shaded area to a depth of about 3/32 of an inch.
Using the tip of the scalpel, or any thin flat edged tool, gently lever out the two pieces of board with the shaded area as shown above. Note: Make sure you identify each piece so you know which slot it came from and retain the pieces of
board for later.
Using a chisel, bring the flat edge right up to the back edge of the slot as shown
above, place on a wooden board or piece of waste greyboard and with a hammer cut right through to the waste board below.
Turn the chisel round so that the bevel edge of the chisel is facing towards the back as shown and move back about 1/16 of an inch from the first cut, again, using
a hammer cut right through to the waste board below.
When you have made the two cuts with the chisel, using your scalpel cut through the sides of the 1/16 of an inch strip you have exposed and remove the strip
This is what you should be looking at after removing the strip of board with a scalpel.
Turn the board over, and from the sides of the slot draw a rectangle as shown about 1.5 inches long. Note: We are going to use these pieces of board later, so make sure you identify them so you know which is which. Then using your scalpel,
Again, using your scalpel or any thin flat bladed tool, pick out the two rectangles as shown above.
Next, using a hand drill and a 1/16 of an inch drill bit, drill a hole through the board in the position shown above.
Drill three more holes as illustrated, you may find that where the drill bites through the other side of the board that he edges of the hole are a little ragged, if that is the
case, trim across the top of the hole with your scalpel or sand smooth with fine abrasive paper.
Once again we are going to bevel the edges of the board and then sand smooth. Begin the bevel about 1/16 of an inch in from the slot,
Here I am beveling the far edge of the board, notice again how I start the bevel about 1/16 of an inch in from the edge of the slot.
When you have finished beveling the edges of the board, sand the edges into a smooth curved profile.
Turn the board over and mark out an area about 1/8 of an inch long and as wide as the hole that has been drilled. Cut around the marked out area with a scalpel to a
depth of about 1/8 of an inch.
Using a scalpel, pick out the pieces of board you have cut around as shown above. Ok...that has taken care of the preparation of the boards, check them over, look at the profiles and make sure you are satisfied with the finish you have obtained, you
can also feel a little pleased with your self at this stage, this is precision craft engineering after all!
I recommend the idea of rubbing paste into the boards and after drying, sanding with fine abrasive paper, the paste soaks into the surface of the board a little, dries hard, and allows you to get a very
Now we turn our attention to the rest of the silver fittings. What determines the size of these fittings is the size of the book, we will look at plaiting with three and four strands later on, the book I am binding is about 2 inches thick and a three plait
is plenty for this size of book. We are therefore trying to get fittings forming a triangle, the width of each side being the width of the three strands of vellum placed side by side...how wide your strands of vellum are will again depend upon
the size of the book you are making clasps for, for this book I opted for strands about 1.8 of an inch wide, thus the sides of the triangular fittings are 3/8 of an inch wide. Try to make sure that the ends of the silver fitting are touching each other, or
at least very close to one another.
Next, we have to solder the two ends of the fitting together...most general purpose soldering irons come in a 15watt size, this wattage soldering iron is perfect for this job, I use ordinary solder for this but you can if you wish use silver solder which is
The solder should naturally flow into a smooth cylindrical shape and leave no rough edges, if for whatever reason your soldered joint does have rough edges, either re-make the joint or sand the joint smooth with a fine file. It is important that
the joint is smooth so that it does not chafe the edges of the vellum thongs and wear through them.
Next we are going to form the silver staples that provide reinforcement and also add a very professional finish to the clasp. You will need a hard metal surface; I am using a piece of printer’s furniture, and a small hammer. Make sure that the hard metal surface you are using is as flat and as
smooth as possible, the hammered surface will have hammered marks in it, this is not a problem as this surface will be hidden, but the other surface will be exposed, so make sure you choose something which is hard, flat and smooth. You are going to need two pieces about 1 and a half
inches long, the silver is quite soft, but you will still need to strike the silver firmly with the hammer, work your way along the wire, hammering as you go, we are looking to take the round out
of the wire and get a flat ribbon...you can buy silver ribbon, but you would then have to purchase it separately and it would increase the cost of the project. Flatten the wire until it is about three
times as wide as it is thick. When you have hammered out your silver wire and formed it into a ribbon, cut two pieces 1 and a half inches long and place them to one side.
Now we want to put a fine polish to our silver fittings. I suggest using a wooden block onto which has been stuck a piece of dense grained leather such as goatskin,
Onto the leather pour a little brass or silver polish, and give the fittings a really good rub, I take a little time over this, the
ribbon which has been hammered out sometimes has slight marks on the surface which can be polished out using this method, buff the fittings with a cotton cloth occasionally and examine them for
blemishes, if you do not, be certain your customer will!
OK...we should now have our boards formed and sanded smooth, our fittings made and polished till they glow.
Next we move on to cutting the vellum for plaiting into strips. As I mentioned, the size of the fittings will depend upon the size of the book, in this case I decided that the strips should be 1/8 of an inch wide, the vellum when cut into strips like this should be in length,
four times the thickness of the book.
Here you can see that the three vellum strips equal the width of the silver fitting, sometimes, when working with plaits consisting of four, five or even six strands, for the sake of elegance we may want
to keep the size of the fittings on the small side, in which case it is perfectly ok to place the strands one on top of the other and not lay
them side by side, as long as the appearance of the clasp is not adversely affected you can please your self.
Glue out the strips of vellum on one side and just over half the length, thread the strands through the fitting and gently rub down the vellum so that it sticks, I keep a small pot of pva glue that I have
allowed to become thick by allowing some of the water in it to evaporate, this is perfect for this job, you want an adhesive with a high tack.
Place the fittings, with the threaded strands of vellum fitted and glued, and place them between boards, give them a gentle press and allow them to dry.
When dry, remove from between the boards and plait the three strands together, I think everyone knows how to plait three strands don't they? Vellum is a stiff and difficult material to work with when
dry, it may be necessary to tape the ends together with masking tape to stop them from unraveling.
Next, take a sponge and run it under a warm tap...squeeze most of the water out, and then gently run the sponge down each face of the plait, do this two or thee times, that will be sufficient, we are just
trying to introduce a little dampness into the vellum. Too much moisture will result in parts of the pressed vellum becoming almost
Leave the vellum for a minute or two, and then stretch it between your fingers, pull it quite tight.
After you have stretched the vellum thongs, place them between a pair of clean smooth boards and put them under moderate pressure, leave overnight until dry.
When binding books that are to be bound in full thickness leather, it is the custom to fit what are called "stretchers" to the inside of the boards, these consist of, typically, brown ribbed craft paper
which has been thoroughly wetted so as to allow the fibers of the paper to soak up water and expand, then most of the excess water is blotted from the paper, and while still damp the paper is
stuck to the back of the boards using paste/pva. They have the effect of counteracting the "pull" of drying leather, so that the boards do not end up becoming convex, or bowed, on a large book more than one stretcher may have to be applied, this after the first has dried properly ...First the
stretchers are cut over size.
Having been thoroughly wetted and now damp, the stretchers are pasted out and stuck to the back of the boards. (To "wet" the kraft paper it is best to spray the paper first with a 50/50 solution of Industrial Methylated Sprits...IMS...and water, this will break the surface tension of the paper and allow water to soak straight in to the fibre structure of the paper, if you do not have IMS, ordinary Methylated spirit will do at a pinch, or put the kraft paper into very hot water, this will have the
same effect, After "wetting" the kraft paper should be blotted to get most of the moisture out of the paper)
The board is turned over and the paper rubbed well down with the heel of the hand, at the same time the paper should be smoothed outwards from the center,
this has the effect of stretching the paper over the board, so that when dry the stretcher will have the effect of pulling the board inwards slightly, this will counteract the effect of the drying leather which will want to pull the board in the
opposite direction.
When the stretcher is dry, the paper is cut out to leave the recessed parts of the boards exposed as shown above. The board having had a stretcher applied should
be very slightly concave now. The result should be a board which when covered with leather, is at least flat and ideally very slightly concave, if necessary; another stretcher can be added to
facilitate this.The boards of the book would now be laced on to the text block, and now be ready for covering in leather, the next stage involves the book having had the leather
prepared for covering and drawn over the book, the head and tail of the book having been turned in, we are now dealing with the front edges of the boards and
how they effect us.
Here you can see the book as it is being covered in leather, the cusp of the clasp will have to pass through the front edge of the leather after it has been turned over the front board, using your scalpel, note where the cusp protrudes from the edge of the board and measure out from the edge by that amount and make a small slit for
Turn in the leather and feed the cusp through the slit, then, using a bone folder, gently push the leather back to the edges from around the cusp, take care, when
damp, leather is rather unforgiving and it can mark very easily.
Again using a bone folder, gently accentuate the carved edges of the board, later when the leather is very nearly dry these areas can
be gone over with a warm single line pallet or fillet to emphasize these parts of the board.
On the back board, where the leather passes over the recessed areas, press the leather down firmly. Normally I place several sheets of thick blotting paper under
the boards of the book and allow it to dry, in our normally damp climate I find that overnight is sufficient drying time, I like for their to be just a little dampness in the
leather when it comes to doing any blind tooling, when a hot tool comes into contact with slightly damp leather, the tooled area darken nicely.
Using the pieces of board which you have kept, place them into the recesses on the back board and gently press them into place, then taking care to set the joints*
before closing, place blotting paper under the boards of the book and also several sheets on the top and bottom, place between boards and put under a gentle
pressure, a couple of house bricks covered in buckram does this very well. *When I teach this method to my students, we go into the subject of setting joints
in some detail, if you are uncertain what this involves, look at any decent bookbinding manual for instructions as to what this involves....in another tutorial...Step by Step Fine Binding, I go into this in depth, as it is of crucial
After drying overnight, gently open the book, it may be a good idea to damp the outer joints with water and allow the leather to soften a little before doing this, using a scalpel, cut the leather away from the areas which we have recessed to
accept the silver staples.
Remove the pieces of board which by now will have nicely accentuated the recessed areas on the back board, and, using a scalpel cut a slit through which the vellum thong will pass, and cut two small slits which will allow the staples to pass
Now, take the silver wire which has been hammered into a ribbon and polished...the silver is gleaming and free from marks yes? Of course it is...bend down the two legs of the staple so that they match the width of the slots cut into the board; with wire
snips trim the ends of the staple to a point as shown above.
Now take the vellum thongs and pass them through the slits you have previously cut.
Close the book, the vellum thongs should be a tight fit through the slits and their should be plenty of friction to hold them in place, pull them through and close the clasp as shown, we do want a tight fit at this stage, their are several factors which could be mentioned here
as leather joints which are fitted later will cause the clasps to be tighter than they appear now, also hidden cloth joints will affect the
tightness of the clasps, for this exercise it is sufficient to mention these factors in passing. In another tutorial "The Thousand Year
Binding" I go into these factors in detail.
When you are happy that the clasps fit tightly, use pieces of masking tape to hold the vellum thongs in position as shown above.
Now open the book and using a scalpel cut the vellum exactly where it meets the edge of the board.
Fill the recessed area with pva glue, not right to the top, as we are going to replace the pieces of board we cut out and kept to blank this area off, but it is important to put plenty of glue in here as you can see, effectively this is what will be holding the vellum thong in place, I have toyed with the idea of putting a silver stud through the
board and thus riveting the thong in place but this seems to me to be a case of over engineering in the extreme.
Take the piece of board we have previously removed and press it down firmly into the recess, wipe away any glue that is pushed up from around the edges, allow to dry. Note that it is not the object to push this piece of board down flush with the board itself, perhaps 1/16 of an inch will stick up proud of the board, that's fine.
When dry, using your scalpel pressed flush with the board, trim away the proud edges as shown above.
Using a pair of pliers, bend the legs of the staple over as shown, you may find that you have to snip them to size, you will not be able to bend them over a right angles owing to the "give" in the leather and board, but bend them over as far as they will go.
Using a punch or an old drill bit gently hammer the edges of the staple down into the recess as shown above.
Next, cut pieces of grey board to fit on top of the staple legs and glue them in position as shown.
Next, cut a piece of thick blotting paper or thin greyboard 1/4 of an inch smaller than three edges of
the board and with just a spot of pva on the back, glue it into position, we will want to remove this later,
Using your scalpel cut through the card and the leather about 1/16 of an inch in around all three edges, firm pressure on the scalpel
needed for this.
Remove the card liner, and also remove the surplus leather leaving an area into which the card can then be glued into place, this neatly
covers all the working underneath and also ensures that the liner is a perfect fit. Do the same to the other board.
And there you have it...close the boards of the book and allow the liners to dry, and then fit your endpapers or
doublures and pastedowns.
You can now run a single line fillet or pallet around the raised areas of board to add a finishing touch.
not stretch any more, on the contrary as they dry Having damped and stretched the thongs they will they will tend to shrink just a little bit, if necessary
you can bend the cusps slightly upwards to ensure that the clasp does not inadvertently come undone.
3 & 4 strand plaits plus variations.
Here are some 3 and 4 plait ideas for you, you can of course consider extending the plaited vellum thong across the whole of the board, lacing it up and over the board
as you go, some very intriguing designs can be obtained by doing this.
A simple four way plait using two double strands.
A method of joining a four way plait.
A method of joining a four way plait.
Suppliers of Materials.
Drawn sterling silver wire in round and ribbon forms among others, can be obtained online from this link. You can also find other useful fittings in both
sterling silver and 9 carat gold here. http://www.gouldsjewellers.co.uk/ This contact will supply you with vellum off cuts. William Cowley, Parchment Works, 97 Caldecote Street Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire,MK16 0DB, England
Tel:(44) 01908 610038 FAX:(44) 1908 611071 http://www.williamcowley.co.uk/
………
I hope you have found this manual of interest, check out www.edenworkshops.com for some good bargains with regard bookbinding papers and gilding materials.
Richard Norman
Finish
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Is now available can be downloaded for free.In this manual are the complete instructions for each of the kits we supply. The manual is free to download here.
Hello, my name is Richard Norman
For nearly 20 years my wife Margaret & I ran the Eden Workshops a system of craft workshops devoted
During that time we worked in almost total isolation and seclusion in the grounds of a very private m
In 1997 after nearly 20 years running the Eden Workshops we were voted a National Living Treasure by to the exploration of the Book Arts.
onastery in rural England. We developed four book related skills; hand book binding, paper marbling and book edge marbling, printing & box making and took those skills to high levels of excellence.
Country Life magazine for our contribution to the Book Arts.
In 2004 we decided to close our workshops and move out here to Southern France, I now concern myself
I have been approached by several people who have asked me to advise them with regard a starters pack
I also provide a block making service to book binders at prices about four times lower than that charged
I have published several manuals concerned with the book arts and will be releasing more very shortly, with teaching and have the time to concentrate on aspects of the book arts that interest me.
for novice and aspiring binders, I am only to happy to provide this service, just ask.
for making blocks in brass.
all these manuals can be found on my website and are free to download, here is a list of current and forthcoming manuals free to download from http://www.edenworkshops.com
Marbling -Tricks of the trade learned over 20 years
If you feel that you may suffer from the particular illness that causes people to pursue the Art of
It was not so long ago that the secrets which underlined successful marbling were just that, secret. Now
h Y
Right at the start let me explain that we with acrylic colours...why?
cu
pa n
Marbling with acrylics differs from marbling with gouache or artists water colour pigments in several t
t
In times gone b e
b l
asking
But....there is another way...and when I found out about it I never looked at ox-gall again! The secret is...Fairy Liquid! Yes, believe it or not good old Fairy Liquid will d
For those living outside of Europe who do not household liquid detergent used for
You must use a spreading agent with gouache or water colour pigment, but with acrylics things are a
lit s
Marbling, then I hope that the material contained here may be of some small use to you.
you may enter "marbling" as a search term in Google and come up with hundreds of pages, many of which give the authors own ideas and experiences, but it should be noted at the start, that everyone's
situation is going to be different, the climate in which one lives, the variations in temperature and umidity, will all play a part in how your papers turn out. Perseverance will pay off, I spent more than a year just experimenting before I began to get the results I wanted, but then I learnt by trial and error. ou, it is to be hoped will benefit from these experiments and they may lead you to making short cuts to
the desired result.
will be talking about marbling
Because I got fed up with the characteristics of ordinary gouache or artists water colour, when you rubbed the sheets, loose pigment would come off on your fingers, you had to treat the papers with
beeswax in order to make the colours fast, and even then the colours would still come off on the stomers hands when the book was handled extensively. With acrylic colours the result is not only a per whose colours are absolutely fast, but the use of such colours makes the sheet damp proof, you ca
wipe them over with a damp cloth with no ill effect.
ways. With gouache or water colours, it is necessary to add a spreading agent to the colours to make hem spread on the surface of the size...If you were to drop a small amount of gouache or water colour on the size without this spreading agent, the drop of colour would simply sink straight to the bottom of he tank, with a drop or two of spreading agent added instead of sinking, the spreading agent breaks the surface tension of the size allowing the colour to spread on the surface. The more spreading agent...the
more the colour spreads and the less pigment their will be in a given area, and the paler the colour will appear, thus giving you control over how intense or pale your colours are.
y this spreading agent used to be ox-gall, I used to use it, and you can to, it can b ought, or if you are feeling heroic you can make your own. However this involves going to your loca
slaughterhouse and
for the gall bladders of cattle or calves (eek) having collected your galls in a plastic bucket, they then have to be burst and the flesh separated from the raw gall, next the gall needs to be-fatted by straining through a column of rock salt, after which it is allowed to stand and when two distinct layers form (oil or fat on top) it is decanted and the fat or oil is discarded...this process is repeated until all the
fat or oil has been removed....if that were not enough...the gall then has to be mixed with a strong alcohol, about 20%, so that the gall does not go off...It gets better (stronger) the older it gets.
o the job just as well....to get a working strength mix 20 parts of water with one of Fairy Liquid.
know Fairy Liquid it is a
washing dishes, it is the detergent that causes the effect we want so any quality brand liquid should work as well, though you may need to experiment before you get the working strength you need.
tle different....acrylic colour has it's own spreading agents embodied in the colours itself...some colour (white) spread on their own and need no spreading agent, while black needs quite a bit, critics of acrylic
colours point to this anomaly and suggest that working ust because of this characteristic, I would say that if you
not matter, you have to learn one system or the other, and the advantages of acrylics over gouache or water colours is distinct.
with acrylics is difficult j are starting out it does
Experiment...try it and see.
I experienced quite a few problems obtaining good materials for marbling, carrageen moss is available in
If you have any specific problems, please do not hesitate to contact me. Email [email protected]
powered form but neither myself nor others I know, have had much success with it. The very best moss I have found is available from Ireland, details of this contact are given at the end of this book. Also, Alum used to be available in small quantities from chemists but mine stopped supplying it years ago, an up to date contact for this essential ingredient can also be found at the end of the book together with links to
other sites which may be of interest.
I found that the acrylic colours manufactured by Windsor & Newton under the name "Galleria" are very a
Whilst on the subject of water it should be noted that the water used for mixing the colours and for p
f
suitable for use in marbling, they are quite economically priced, have plenty of pigment and opacity and re widely available in this country (UK) and abroad. You will need to dilute these colours for use, I found
that an ideal consistency could be found my mixing the colours 5:1 with water.
reparing the size should be soft water...if you live in a hard water area, obtain water softener tablets rom the supermarket and add 1 tablet for every 3 gallons of water or one tablespoon of water softener
I found it useful to keep an accurate record of colour recipes. In order to make repeat patterns you will need all the help you can get, and keeping accurate records of the colour you obtain is one step towards
this.Any laboratory supply company can fit you up with all the plastic containers you will need, particularly useful are the calibrated measuring
cylinders in the picture. Details of such a supply company can be found at the end of the book.
One critically important step in the process consists of sponging the paper that you use with Alum. This has the effect of making the paper "Mordant" or receptive to the colours, without it after marbling your sheets the colours will just slide off the sheet, which can be a little disheartening. I found after some
experimentation, that 100g of Alum to a pint of water worked well.
Take care to add the Alum to cold water not hot, then slowly heat and stir the solution until all the Alum has dissolved. An ideal applicator I found to be the replaceable sponges of the type that are fitted to floor
cleaners. I found a good way to treat the paper was to dip the sponge into the hot Alum solution and squeeze a little out, then wipe over the whole sheet of paper quickly making sure that the sheet gets
saturated in the process, then I squeezed the sponge out and wiped away the surplus solution. Build up a pile of perhaps 20 sheets of paper, and turn them over, thus you will have face upwards the first sheet that you treated and the water will have soaked right through the paper, the sheet should be damp rather
than wet. Taking care to remember which face of the paper has been applied with Alum, lay each sheet down and smooth it out flat, carry on until you have used up all the sheets. If you require more...then
carry out this process a sufficient number of times.
Now we come to rendering down the carrageen moss. You can see the size of container I used for this, we lived in a hard water area, so I added one tablet of water softener to the container which held about
five gallons, the water can be boiling when you add the moss, I used to bring the water to the boil and then go and treat a pile of paper with Alum and then come back when the water was boiling. I found that
for three gallons of water one should add 8 ounces of carrageen, when the moss has been added, turn down the heat and simmer for half an hour stirring occasionally.
When the moss has been rendered down it has to be strained into a suitable container, obviously if you are marbling a lot of paper this has to be of some decent size, but for small quantities a bucket should suffice. Note: After straining the bucket of size, another bucket of soft water should be poured through the strained moss otherwise the size will be much to thick to use. The right consistency should be about
that of single cream and a pale gold colour. If you follow the amounts of water and moss that I use you will automatically come to this correct thickness of size. Perhaps I should mention at this point that the smell of carrageen moss being rendered down is very much an acquired taste...dogs have been known to
run from the room after smelling it! And one other point concerning the size, being organic it will go off quite quickly...a day or two in warm weather...then the smell will affect even the hardiest of souls. One solution is to add a capful of Formaldehyde to the size, but be warned this substance is very hazardous and should be used with the utmost care....and never, never add Formaldehyde to warm size or the fumes
will overpower you...always add to cold size, and even then wear a face mask...I never did like using it, but some people do because it allows the size to stay workable for several days longer.
The tank that you use to marble paper can be made of wood, stainless steel or plastic, in fact anything that is large enough and deep enough will do the job. The tank should be bigger than the sheet of paper
you are using by about 2 inches all the way round.
Notice at the right end of the tank is a piece of metal set at an angle. After marbling your sheet of paper, a piece of card is drawn across the size to skim off the colours that remain, this card is then scraped up
and over this metal and the waste colours fall into a reservoir. I am using dropper bottles to apply the colour to the size, but colours can also be thrown on with brushes. Using dropper bottles means that you
can apply the colours in a disciplined way and it allows you to repeat certain patterns with comparative ease. All the plastic containers used are available from the laboratory supplies company listed at the end
of the book.
Another essential part of the equipment consists of a range of combs, the principle is quite simple, for some of the simpler patterns you do not need combs, the colours are simply thrown on with a brush and
not combed at all, however for many patterns combs are indispensable. The principle is quite simple, after the colours have been dropped onto the surface of the size, they are combed horizontally and then
vertically until the desired pattern is arrived at. The first comb to be used needs to be able to draw the colours into horizontal bands, to do this you will need a comb which causes plenty of movement, see the
combs at the bottom of the picture, they are made from 1/4 inch wooden dowel and are widely spaced, these are perfect for the first combing, and if a very fine pattern is desired, they can also be used for the
second vertical comb. Thereafter, combs made from piano wire are used with varying spaces between the comb points.
Here you can see the first comb in action, see how this comb causes so much movement in the colours, and how the colours are being drawn out into bands.
The colours, having been combed vertically and horizontally with the thick dowel combs, are now being combed using the thin piano wire combs, these thin wire combs add the final touches to the pattern,
Having manipulated the colours into the desired pattern, now comes the somewhat delicate task of laying down the sheet of paper to take the print. By now your pile of paper should have become thoroughly
damp, damp not wet!
Making sure that you pick up the sheet in such a way that the face of the paper which has been sponged with Alum is facing downwards, take the sheet at each corner, notice that I am resting one hand on the corner of the tank, it allows me to keep the sheet steady and in one place as I slowly lower the rest of the
sheet down onto the size.
Carry on lowering the sheet carefully until the whole sheet is laying on the surface of the size. The sheet is then lifted clear of the size and draped across a stick...a bamboo garden stick is fine for this...the size will then begin to drip of the edges of the sheet so this is best carried out on some sort of rack made for
Note: Some marblers do not bother to wash of the surplus as they believe that the size as it dries gives the paper a little more strength. I have no strong feelings one way or the other on this point. The sheets
should be left at least overnight to dry, they can then be placed in a pile and pressed with a wooden board covering them with a brick or two placed on top.
A lot of people wonder how this is done, actually it is quite simple, but care is needed as it is the last thing that is done to a book before sewing headbands and covering, a lot of work can be wasted if you
ruin the edge at this stage.
After the book has been sewn, cut boards that are exactly the same size as the text block, and clamp them in position as shown in the picture, I always do the front edge of the book first as it is the most
difficult, the top and bottom edges are simple, after sponging the edges with Alum and letting the edges dry, each edge is dipped into the size, it is that simple.
Take care not to dip the edges too far into the size, really the edge should just kiss the surface and the pattern
will be transferred to the edge. However the front edge presents a problem, usually the front edge is concave due to the action of rounding and backing, if you were to simply dip the front edge into the size an air bubble would form in the concave trough of the edge and the pattern would be ruined, causing you
to have to let the
book dry and then prepare the edges all over again...tedious!
To get around this problem the book, having been clamped, is held at an angle above the size as shown in the illustration above. Note: It is important that the book is firmly clamped for this operation.
The book is then gently lowered into the size, keeping the angle shown in the illustration, thus any bubble that forms will slide up the edge and dissipate at the top, just lower the book into the size
sufficiently that the pattern covers the entire front of the edge.
As you can see, the bottom edge has to go down quite deep into the size, as much as an inch or more...so it is worth repeating that the boards should be clamped very firmly. The pattern will be transferred to
part of the bottom edge, this can be simply wiped off, and when the bottom edge is marbled it will cover any marks left after doing the front edge. After marbling, leave the book(s) under a weight to dry
thoroughly, the edges may then be given a light coating of beeswax and the edges burnished. Our workshops were one of the last to regularly carry out book edge marbling and we obtained a lot of
useful work from being able to do it. Practice in this case will make perfect.
After marbling, the headbands can be sewn, boards laced on and you are then ready for covering! The thing I really liked about edge marbling is that unlike gilt edges, which can be reasonably faked, a
marbled edge can never be obtained by any other means than real skill, and the effect is much appreciated by customers.
………
Most of the combs used to make the well known designs in marbling are very simple to make and the design straightforward to produce. Below and on following pages you will see examples of combs,
particular designs and how they are obtained.
Here is a selection of combs that you would need if you intended to produce all of the designs shown here. Note that it would be advisable to have combs of each type shown which are as long as the bath
you are using, and also a set which is as wide as the bath you are using, so two sets of combs of different lengths.
The top comb I made from a strip of wood and inserted 1/4 inch wooden dowels to form the pins. With most combed designs you will need to draw out the colours into bands and to do this you need a comb which will cause a lot of movement in the size, when it comes to the finer points of the design you will
use a finer comb.
To obtain many of the patterns you will need to apply the colours in quite a disciplined way, something like the diagram below for example, I used dropper bottles to drop on the colours, using them you can
achieve a high degree of regularity in the placement of the colours.
Here you can see me applying the drops of colour, in this case I applied a lot of yellow to act as a background colour, by the time all the other colours are dropped on much less yellow will be visible. Of
By using the comb with the thick wooden pins, the first time you comb through the colours you will achieve a lot of movement, what you are trying to do is draw out the colours into long bands, something
like the above effect.
Here you can see me using this comb and also see how the colours are being drawn out into bands. There is nothing like experience as a teacher, experiment by drawing out the colours using different combinations of combs, the conditions in your area will affect how things work out, don't be frightened of
To obtain this pattern and others which are similar you need to follow the combing formula shown below. With all these patterns I am going to assume that you start by applying the colours using dropper bottles
as shown previously.
This pattern is a variation of the one above, to produce it, comb the colours out until you obtain the pattern above from the directions shown, then apply one more comb as shown in the picture below. Draw
This is yet another variation on the original pattern we explored, this time construct the pattern as we originally did using the method shown below.
Lastly using comb d) starting at the top of the tray and at about 2 inch intervals, make a series of twists rather like the letter 6 as shown in the picture below.
Lastly we come to a very attractive design known by various names, such as "Peacock Curl" or "Peacock Fan". Depending on which direction you apply the final comb you will get one or other of the patterns
Above is an illustration of the comb we want to make, I used piano wire for the pins of all my combs with the exception of the one with thick wooden pins.
You want two rows of pins about .75" apart and 1.5" between each pin. Obtain the original pattern using the method shown below.
Then apply the comb shown above in a zigzag pattern down the length of the tray as shown below.
This lovely pattern is obtained by creating the peacock fan design and then taking your sheet of paper to be marbled, you hold one corner of the paper steady on the corner of the tray, and in contact with the
size. Then with the other hand gently flap the sheet of paper as you lay it down onto the size, done correctly the design above will be obtained, but even the ones that don't work correctly will be interesting. The pattern is obtained by the peaks and troughs that form underneath the paper as it is being laid down, the peak of the wave is where the colours become stretched out and thin, the troughs
are where the colours are forced together and you get a much denser colour, interesting isn't it. There are many other patterns which can be obtained using the combs mentioned, just have fun and experiment, many of the simpler "stone" patterns do not need combs at all, the colours are just thrown
on in an irregular manner and whatever pattern forms is what you get, something like the one shown below for example.
Material Sources & Useful links
Finding sources of materials can be a problem, especially when it comes to finding good carrageen moss, I have tried powdered carrageen but I had no luck with it, by far the best moss is fresh of the
beach
and dried. This moss can be obtained from the company below, they are prepared to ship worldwide and in small quantities (1 or 2 kg)
Carabay Seaweed Health Products Kylebroughlan
Moycullen Galway, Ireland
Tel: (From UK) 00353 91 773370 Email: [email protected]
Alum is another item which I found hard to get hold of, it used to be available in chemists in 100g boxes,
but chemists in my area (Bath/Bristol) stopped supplying it several years ago. It can be obtained by
J.M.Loveridge PLC Southbrook Road
A paper which is ideal for marbling can be found for sale on our website at: www.edenworkshops
Here are some links to suppliers in the UK. Alum can be purchased here.
Tel: (UK) 023 8022 8411
Website: http://www.jmloveridge.com
Dropper bottles at the company below. Lab3 Laboratory Supplies
Tel: 0870 4445553 Email: mailto:[email protected]
Since the advent of the internet it is now possible to find out a great deal about marblers and marbling, I suggest doing a search for marbling on Google, you will find out a wealth of information on the subject and also be able to read about other peoples experiences having tried to master this wayward artform.
Finish
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Applying gesso and obtaining distressed finishes like these is quite simple, we look at this technique in depth and show you that you do not need expensive equipment or materials to achieve these finishes.
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Hello, my name is Richard Norman
For nearly 20 years my wife Margaret & I ran the Eden Workshops a system of craft workshops devoted to the exploration of the Book Arts.
During that time we worked in almost total isolation and seclusion in the grounds of a very private monastery in rural England. We developed four book related skills; hand book binding, paper marbling
and book edge marbling, printing & box making and took those skills to high levels of excellence. In 1997 after nearly 20 years running the Eden Workshops we were voted a National Living Treasure by
Country Life magazine for our contribution to the Book Arts.
In 2004 we decided to close our workshops and move out here to Southern France, I now concern myself with teaching and have the time to concentrate on aspects of the book arts that interest me. I have been approached by several people who have asked me to advise them with regard a starters pack
for novice and aspiring binders, I am only to happy to provide this service, just ask.
I also provide a block making service to book binders at prices about four times lower than that charged for making blocks in brass.
I have published several manuals concerned with the book arts and will be releasing more very shortly, all these manuals can be found on my website and are free to download, here is a list of current and
A Simple Step by Step Method of Gilding onto Leather.
I would greatly appreciate any feedback with regard this manual please do tell me if it has been of help, or if you think anything could be added that would be of help to other would be gilders.
Gilding, to the uninitiated, can seem at best a complicated affair and at worst an impossible skill to master. I bit my teeth on the English method of gilding which was made complicated by paste washes and the mixing of egg albumen glair. The person who taught me was a distinguished expert, I have taken
all he taught me and tried to simplify the process so that a novice will have a reasonable chance of getting a good result.
I have come to use composition gold leaf and this is used throughout this tutorial, composition leaf looks very much like gold leaf but costs a fraction of the price, and also look far more convincing than regular
gold foil.
Composition gold leaf comes in a variety of shades, I use and sell the one that is closest in appearance to 23 carat gold leaf.
Below is a picture showing what equipment you will need.
1 Finishing Stove
2 Gilders Cushion & Gilders Knife
3 Gold Leaf
(Note I am using composition leaf)4 BS Glair
(see note concerning glair)5 Pumice powder
6 Lint Free Cotton Wool
7 White Spirit or Turpentine
8 Thin Lacquer
(Bookbinders varnish is fine)9 Vaseline
10 All books to be gilded
11 Finishing Press
A few words about the equipment needed.
A proper finishing stove is ideal, but you can also use a simple single electric hotplate with a thermostat, these are available from many hardware stores, I have also used a paraffin stove with a long metal
chimney and rested the tools on the top, this works fine too.
A gilders pad is made from a piece of good quality thick (3mm) leather stretched over a wooden block, underneath the leather is a pad of cotton wool about 1/4 of an inch thick. A gilders knife can be an old kitchen knife with the front of the blade ground off at an angle, it should not have a razor like edge,
I use composition leaf for many bindings, I use it instead of gold leaf on cheaper books, you do need to give the gilded areas a thin coat of shellac to seal it so that it does not tarnish with age, but it is so much
cheaper than 23 carat leaf and looks just as convincing...as you will see. Note Concerning Glaire
You have two choices when it comes to the glair (adhesive) you use when gilding onto leather. The first is the method of beating up the whites of eggs in order to extract the egg albumen used for gilding, you can
also purchase dried egg albumen.
Or you can use a shellac based adhesive, there are two currently on the market, one is known as BS glaire and is spirit based, the other is JHS glaire and is water based, the JHS glair has the advantage of being
free from fumes which irritate some people.
Both types of shellac size have the advantages of being easy to apply with a brush or cotton wool pad, I am currently using the JHS glaire and it is this glaire that is available from the site.
Most book binders develop a preference for one sort of size or another, I did use egg albumen for many years but went over to a shellac based size due to it’s more flexible attributes.
You can obtain this glaire at my website by clicking here.
Pumice powder is used to degrease the gilders cushion and the gilders knife, a material called Bath Brick used to be used for this but I believe it is no longer available.
A finishing press, or some small wooden press is needed to hold the
books to be gilded. There are some excellent quality press’s which can be found at; http://www.edenworkshops.com
I have found that the best time to gild (for me) is first thing in the morning, you need to be fresh and alert, make sure you have time enough to do the job properly, when successful, gilding is extremely
satisfying, when it fails you can feel pretty frustrated, so give yourself the best chance of success.
Using the gilders knife, scoop out a little of the pumice powder and deposit it on the cushion. Binders used to use a type of brick which they scraped powder from to degrease the cushion, but this type of brick is now either impossible to find or very expensive indeed, thus I have used fine grade pumice
powder for many years as an inexpensive substitute.
Next, spread the pumice over the face of the cushion, and wiping the knife back and forth distribute the pumice over the cushion, making sure that the knife gets wiped several times to remove any traces of
grease from it; then with the knife, brush of all the surplus pumice.
Having gathered all the books together that you wish to gild, take one and place it in the finishing press with about an inch of the book sticking out of the press as shown above.
Using a small pad of cotton wool, dip the pad into the glair and gently wipe over the areas of the book that you wish to gild. If you are too vigorous in this, the glair may froth a little causing small bubbles to form, not really a problem as they will disperse soon enough. Now, and this is very important, leave the book for 24 hours before you start gilding, this is necessary whether you use the glair I make or use any other spirit based glair, act too soon after applying the glair and you will get inferior results, or it will not
work at all. Remember...leave for 24 hours after applying the glair.
No need to leave the book in the press, after applying the glaire it can be removed while you glaire up other books or use the press for some other job. One of the nice things about this glaire is that you can
come back long after applying the glaire and work with it straight away, it does not deteriorate over months at a time.
When you are ready to gild, place the book of leaf on the cushion, open the book and slide your grease free knife under the middle of a leaf as shown above.
Turning the knife upwards, carefully lift the leaf up the leaf so that it drapes over the edge of the blade. Note that the slightest draft will send your leaf floating across the room, so close all the windows, put the
Lay the sheet of leaf down onto the cushion and using the knife, cut the leaf up into squares wide enough to fit over the spine of the book, (if you are tooling the whole spine, if not, then cut the leaf up
into pieces big enough to cover the parts of the book you intend to gild) Watch your breathing at this stage, just a puff of breath will send these pieces of leaf flying in all directions.
Place a little Vaseline on the back of your hand and using the pad with a circular motion distribute the Vaseline over the back of your hand, the idea being to get a pad with an even thin coating of Vaseline on
it.
Using the pad, carefully wipe over the areas of the book you wish to gild, making sure that only a thin coat is applied, you do not want to see any concentrations of Vaseline on the book. If you are not careful, concentrations of Vaseline can accumulate around the bands, make sure you avoid this. The Vaseline will cause the leaf to adhere to the area to be gilded so only a thin film is required, any more than that and it
Now, using a clean pad of cotton wool, wipe it down the side of your nose, across your forehead or through your hair, the idea is to pick up a little grease, not as much as is on the book, but just enough so
that when you touch one of the pieces of leaf the slight amount of grease will cause the leaf to stick to the pad as shown above. If you have dry, non greasy skin or you are for example bald, then you could...with care...apply just a trace of Vaseline to the cotton wool pad. The basic idea is to have enough grease on the pad so that it picks up the leaf, but that your have more on the book, so that the leaf when
applied to the book will stick to it, rather than to the pad.
Still watching out for drafts of air, transfer the piece of leaf on the cotton wool pad to the area of the book to be gilded and gently lay the leaf down and press lightly, if you press too hard, or move the pad as
you are laying the leaf down you run the risk of the leaf breaking up on the book, in which case you will have to lay more leaf over the broken areas...not a disaster, just more work and more leaf, you can lay
one layer of leaf upon another without any problem, but not too many layers please. Care will give the best results in the first place.
All things being equal, the leaf should adhere to the book as the book has more grease on it than the pad had, remove the pad and the leaf should be stuck in place, as shown above.
Continue to pick up pieces of leaf and stick them to the areas to be gilded until you have covered all the areas that you wish to gild.
Here you can see the spine of the book completely covered in leaf. I plan to do a full gilt back on this book, so I have covered the entire spine in leaf, obviously if you wished to just include center designs between the panels of the spine and gilt lines across the back you would not need to lay leaf over the
whole of the spine, just those particular areas you wished to gild.
Ensuring your lettering is square on a curved spine can be a problem; here is a tip that will help you with this factor of gilding.
Here you can see the spine of a book which has had the leaf applied to the area to be lettered.
Cut yourself a length of thin twine, cotton thread is ideal, I am using a thicker thread for the purposes of illustration. Wind the twine around your fingers as shown in the picture below and use your other fingers
Try sliding your fingers up and down the sides of the book for practice, the thread should stay square to the spine of the book, do this a few times to give you the feel of this exercise, then slide the thread over
to where the leaf has been laid.
Sight the thread so that it is where you would like the top of your letters to be and then pull the thread down onto the leaf, give a slight sideways pull and you will find that the thread cuts through the leaf
