Packed Cord Mini-Tome

packed cord mini-tome

12.1 x 9 x 1.5 cm

Small notebook in black and gold calf, sewn on 3 raised leather cords with gold thread packed cord stitching. Pages of cream laid paper with deckle edges stained with tea. Covers attached with additional packed cord stitching.

coverThe main point of interest in this notebook is the structure. Rather than being hidden, the three black leather cords that form the supports for the signatures are on the surface for their entire length.

The spine sewing is a fairly conventional packed cord structure, where additional twists of the embroidery thread between signatures serve to cover the entire support. The additional interest comes in that, instead of lacing the cord into the covering boards, or attaching the cords fairly close to the spine edge of the covers, I drew them across the front and back covers all the way to the fore edge. They are anchored with periodic stripes of the same gold embroidery thread used to do the packed cord sewing and the headbands.

I actually attached the cords and boards before covering the volume in leather. The gold and black strips abut the leather cord, and are tucked underneath it between the stripes. I then pasted the endpapers down over the threads connecting the anchoring stripes.

As an experiment, this book is fine, but I would get bored if I tried to do this sort of thing over and over again.