Brown Leather Notebook

This blank book is another of many examples of material experimentation. The cover is upholstery leather (faux leather, really), which is quite thin, but not thin enough to turn in at the corners as neatly as I'd like. It may see some future use as an inlay or quarter-binding material. The page edges are colored with a red wax crayon, worked in by hand to an even matte finish.

The foil strips on the spine are inspired by traditional leather binding, which often has raised bars across the spine, which were not originally decorative; they covered cords that the text block was sewn to for structural reinforcement, and labeling on the spine was put between these ridges for protection from accidental damage. At this point the visual language is more prevalent than the construction methods it stemmed from, and the silver bars on this book are a reference to that tradition.