Thursday, October 6, 2011

Even more planning



I know, I know. Nothing much to see here. I have made bits and pieces of progress, but there's nothing to see yet. I've taken a few reference photographs of the kids for their miniature portraits and started writing the poetry. Well, I've put a few random words down on paper in forms that sort of vaguely resemble Petrarchan structure. It certainly isn't poetry at this point.

I'm trying to decide how crazy I want to be and if I want to weave the inkles (narrow strips of fabric) to attach the endbands of the book to. Its a late period method, but it was done and the bookbinding business was a big employer of the inkleweaver. It won't be seen, so it might be a good place for my unskilled weaving to be. It would add more authenticity, more handwork, and more things for me to babble about. Its also more work for no particular reason.

Other things to think about include the leather. Apparently goatskin was more common in Italian books than calfskin. I don't know how it would work with the cuir-cisele (water carving) I'm planning to use for the tooling of the cover though. There is this extant book box dated to 1475 from either Venice or Lombardia that is Italian, goatskin, and cuir-cisele so I'm probably safe but I have no experience with using goatskin leather so I'm nervous. I really love the central medallion on the book box though and it is causing me to consider changing my design to once again use the krin motif.

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