21.6 x 17.7 x 2.3 cm
Lined springback book with full bookcalf covering. Covers imprinted with sycamore leaves from the Pont de L'Arn house, picked out in brown wax polish. Covers blind tooled with wax polish accents. Endsheets of hand-decorated paste paper, with exposed leather joints.
I bound this book for my in-laws to use as a guest journal in their new house in France. While visiting the house this autumn, I was particularly struck by the sycamore tree in the back garden, and decided to base the cover on that. After using a Christmas photo album to experiment on, I was ready to use the actual leaves from the tree to imprint vein patterns on the leather.
I reckoned without the bookcalf I chose, though; it was not prepared to meekly accept the leaf prints. It had its own woody grain to contribute to the design, making an even woodier, even more sensual book than I had intended.
