tooled leather cover

[Cloven]

I am learning a bit about book binding and trying it out, so that kind of dovetailed into this, learning and trying out leather tooling. I got the kit from Tandy's Leather, then tooled and dyed it myself. I designed the layout myself in photoshop, printed it out on paper, traced it onto the leather, then tooled it. The dye came out darker than I was expecting, and I did buff the top coat a bit shiny, so the picture on my tablet isn't exactly amazing, but I just wanted to get this thread started and preliminary picture up while I sew the signatures together and get them bound for putting in this leather cover.
I will have some pen pictures up before christmas hopefully, I ordered 3 faith/love/hope kits and 2 nautical kits from PSI, just waiting for them to be delivered.
This picture is pre-dye, while tooling

This picture is post dye and finishing

I'll add some more pictures after I get the pages installed.
And yes, that's my name on the front cover, not someone else's.
Cheers,
David.

 

[Cloven]

I meant for this cover to be refillable, in that when I run out of pages I just slip the ends out and put in a new stack of signatures. Consequently, the cover doesn't support the spine at all. Maybe the next go I will try japanese binding or the medieval sewing on cords style. I am happy with how it turned out, though, very personalized with the nautical theme.

 

[Band Saw Box]

That is very nice. You did a superb job witn the tooling and dying. You should be proud of the job you did.

 

[Charlie_W]

Wow! That is awesome! Looks like it came from a treasure chest!