WIP - Blackpool (See the finished book here)
Preparations for tooling
For this one I decided to try some edge tooling and tooling on the squares. While the tooling the squares does not need any further preparation, the tooling the edges does!
The problem is, that the board can split, if you apply pressure with a narrow tool like, let's say a line tool.
To avoid that, one has to glue something on top, I went with a thicker card stock (not quite board yet, but not that far from 1mm). I glued it all around, let dry and covered the case as usually. In hindsight I could have left a bit uncovered on the front edge and go for a different way of how to make the corners. That might have been easier, well, next time.
I started out with the cover tooling before I went to the edges. Ever since the book was covered in leather I worked on it on a felted surface so it wouldn't scuff and get scratches. This also helped to keep it in place for the tooling without having the press leave a mark on the leather. First I blind tooled the line to get a guide. (That below is the line tool, I love the asymmetrical shape)
Then I went over it with the foil on top. The first times I used a wider sheet of foil, but that made it really hard to see the edge. So I cut narrow strips from it that were much easier to handle while also allowing me to see what I was doing. The grove previously blind tooled kept the tool in place and only at the ends (when I thought I'd need to be extra careful) I wobbled away from it.
The lesson learned with this mistake is: Next time, tool the front edge first, then tool head and tail edge and START AT THE LINE YOU ALREADY HAVE! I have no idea what made me think I would be able to tool from spine to front and on head and tail first and then magically manage to connect both ends on the front edge...
Last were the squares. I marked them up, tooled and only after all was tooled glued in the paste down (this really was the very last tooling, so I wouldn't need to handle the book anymore and could it let dry weighed down). Overall this went really well. I adjusted the paste down a little cutting it more narrow so it fitted better but I had planned for that from the beginning. Again a few wobbles of the line, but overall the order of steps worked fine for me.
The cover tooling was a bit wonky, I'll have to figure out how to better mark my cover to align the patterns. I did some test tooling to figure out pressure and check if I was able to get an even coverage. But the trouble started when I could not think of how to mark up the cover properly. I found some dots I could impress on the leather to have some guidance, but by now I'm nearly convinced I'd better had eye-balled it completely... or perhaps used the foil to mark the design on the backside and then just not lift it at all before I'm done. I did no blind tooling for the stamps and only one pass with the foil, when the coverage was only somewhat satisfying. No blind tooling and just one pass with foil is not ideal, but I did not want to ruin it so I leaned into that more or less 'used' look it has now. The cover tooling was a bit wonky, I'll have to figure out how to better mark my cover to align the patterns. I did some test tooling to figure out pressure and check if I was able to get an even coverage. But the trouble started when I could not think of how to mark up the cover properly. I found some dots I could impress on the leather to have some guidance, but by now I'm nearly convinced I'd better had eye-balled it completely... or perhaps used the foil to mark the design on the backside and then just not lift it at all before I'm done. I did no blind tooling for the stamps and only one pass with the foil, when the coverage was only somewhat satisfying. No blind tooling and just one pass with foil is not ideal, but I did not want to ruin it so I leaned into that more or less 'used' look it has now.
I also went with the simplest design, but here are a few more ideas I toyed around with. (I just used the tools and an ink pad to better visualise them). The amount of dots and alignment issues waiting to happen were the reason why I stopped when I did XD