#rainbow leather

[theinfamousdoctorf]

You want some super soft leather for your badass crafts? You know you fucking do!

Check my supplies section-

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PatchworkLaboratory

[buildingbooks]

False Rainbow

So yeah, I’m kinda missing that Rainbow. Sure, the work I got from Aurora was nice and all, but it wasn’t exactly a Rainbow. I must confess that the Rainbow was on my mind when I started working on this piece.

I started off by printing out some lined paper with a nice celtic design for a border. I printed off enough for two books, feeling that I could sell one and keep the other once I was done.

Next I sat down and designed a nice geometric pattern for the end pages. But something wasn’t right with it. I mean, the pattern was gorgeous just by itself but it was just... lacking. I mused on it for a bit, randomly colouring it in different colours. Then the, “Oh Duh!” moment struck and I swept over the pattern with a Rainbow gradient. Perfect!

I know I don’t often do this, but since it was fairly thick I decided to give the spines a few good whacks with a hammer after they were rounded.

I happily started to assemble the first cover. Naturally the design for the covers had to match the end pages.

I lined the spine with some mull and glued the hinges and the tapes to a piece of stuff paper. I’d found in the past that glueing paper to the cloth hinges makes it much easier to glue on the covers. To save time, I attached a thin sheet of stiff board to act as a proto-cover. That would protect the book guts from damage as I sewed the headbands. The actual patterned cover would simply glue onto the proto-cover at a later date.

It was then I realised that one of my books were somehow not trimmed up straight! I tried to correct this when the absolute worst thing happened! I cut waaaaaaaay too close to the border pattern. So close, in fact that it was ruined beyond saving. I was disheartened, but my daughter really appreciated having a new partial book to scribble in.

Self appreciating rainbow headband shot! I had been practicing with the technique of changing the colour of the headband threads so I felt I had best give it a shot on this. Happily complete I went to attach the covers on. That was when I discovered another setback.

Curses! Something is against my build of this for sure! I somehow measured wrong when assembling the previous covers, resulting in something quire unusable! There was nothing for it but to cut the pattern anew!

This time I was going to use the same pattern on both the front and back. I laboured into the night, freeing the almost fully cut pattern from the board.

Ah, here we have some success. It is quite pleasing to see your work taking form as it should.

The headband cores were trimmed. I realised that I was getting to the real detail of the build. Soon I’d need to cover it with something....

I padded out the recessed sections of the spine with some indian cotton. I felt this would give me a good base on which to build the spine.

This time I used solely 180gsm kraft paper for both the spine and the hollow under it. Because it was thicker it was a lot less hassle than using easel or cartridge paper.

I must admit I’m still happy with how it looks so far. False raised bands and all. So gorgeous. Now what? I didn’t have any Rainbow leather. 

I tried to make my own with some oil based leather dyes but it just wasn’t the same!

My heart ached, but it was all I had to use. It would have to do. I’m sorry, Rainbow... I couldn’t match you.

I had forgotten something. A book this size deserves a ribbon. I couldn’t put it on the spine. It was far too late for that. So I attached it to the front cover. Then it was just a case of glueing down the end pages. But something wasn’t quite right with it still.

The design was lost in the colours. In attempting to make a rainbow as colourful as the real thing, I made a clash of colours too harsh to make out the pattern underneath. Something needed to be done.

I picked out my best permanent marker and traced the pattern. Filling in the recesses.

The only problem with that was that the marker made it look like it’d been coloured in with a... well... marker.

So I brushed on some black ink. The kind used for art. I don’t believe it was alcohol based but it still did the trick of smoothing out the lines.

Then... I was done.

I’m sorry, Rainbow. I know I said at the very start that you were Evil and that you had to be stopped... but you can produce a rare beauty. I can’t believe it took me until trying to replicate it myself to see that. I’m going to find you, Rainbow. I’m going to find you and ask for your help.

This is going to end up appearing on my Made-it Page so if you’re interested in owning a book from the Rainbow saga, head on over. Also, if you’re interested in seeing some extra content on upcoming projects, you might want to fist-bump that like button on my Facebook page. Thanks for reading. It’s much appreciated.