Another project for the MAAP program with Jennifer McQuistion, who painted the wooden boards. Bound in brown morocco, tooled in blind and gold, brass bosses.

Sermons on Job

Outside cover tooled very simply in blind.

Jen painting the inner wood panels

Cutting flowers

Leather borders on and adding leather onlays. The flowers are first tooled in gold, very thin leather applied over the gold, and then tooled again in blind and then gold.

Leather onlays tooled

Front Panel finished and inset into front board. Turn-ins tooled in gold.

The finished rear panel

Rear panel inset into rear board, turn-ins tooled in gold.

Rear panel again

Closeup of rear panel.

We've just finished a copy of John Calvin's Sermons on Job, a facsimile of the 1574 folio edition published by Banner of Truth Trust. The Tennessee Association of Craft Artists has teamed me with Nashville book artist Jennifer Mcquistion for a Master/Apprentice program and this is one of our projects. We've bound the book in alum-tawed leather over raised bands and tooled the outside very simply in blind. Jen does wood burning and painting and she created the wood panels that were laid into a recessed panel on the inside of each cover. A black leather border was added to the paintings and then I've added floral leather onlays in white and red and many hours of gold tooling to fill in. It's currently in the Tennessee Arts Commission gallery in Nashville for a September-November show.

Blue Morocco

11" by 15" springback ledger. Guestbook with several pages of text and 500 blank pages. Bound in blue morocco and tooled in blind and gold.

ESV Study Bible in Dark Brown Morocco

ESV Study Bible rebound in dark brown morocco, leather floral onlays (red and green) on front cover. Cloth inner joints, marbled endpapers, Scripture verse tooled around inner dentelles. "The Delight Of His Eyes" reference is from Ezekiel and is used in describing his wife.

Modern Fine Bindings

This ESV Study Bible was commissioned by the publishers. Created as a presentation piece, the goal was simply to use elements of the published design (top photo) while creating something exquisite. It arrived as an uncovered textblock and was bound in heavily grained morocco with beveled and rounded boards, double-core headband in three colors, leather inner joints, and hand marbled endpapers. The lettering design of the spine was taken from the original, as was the use of the triangle as a design element. A marbled triangle is inlaid into the front cover , recessed below the leather, and the triangle theme is repeated in the gold tooling around the inner dentelles. A velvet-lined box was built to house the book and uses black morocco, wooden sides, and matching marbled paper. The publisher's logo is worked into its rounded spine. Several photos of a second copy commissioned at the same time follow.