16 x 21.5 x 3.6 cm
Rose suede calf and distressed grey Chieftain goat photo album, bound using the intials LJL. Red and silver beaded headband. Flyleaves of handmade Nepalese Lokta paper with cornsilk; pastedowns of hand-decorated paste paper.
I continue to be fascinated by letter forms, and their use in book cover designs. This is a handy fascination when making books for people with interesting initials, like Lindsay and Andrew's baby daughter.
The rose-coloured calf suede is the same as that in Renske's book; it's the closest I can bear to come to binding in pink leather for baby girls. I wanted a dark colour to go with the rose, but felt that binding a baby's book in black might be a bit much. Grey seemed a good compromise, and I do have rather a lot of the stuff (those scraps from Hewit's come in handy.)
When I was sanding the nap back into the suede after pasting, the sandpaper brushed against the goatskin. I liked the distressed look that it gave the grey, which can otherwise look a bit drab and bland, so I did the entire book. The only disadvantage is that the sanding process highlights any unevennesses underneath the leather, such as the foldover at the head and tail of the spine.