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.

Gold Foil: Imitation or Genuine?

If you've been at the craft for very long, chances are you've picked up a few unidentified rolls of gold foil. Cloth bindings aren't very particular; they like cheap foil as much as the real thing. If you use imitation gold on leather, however, it doesn't take very long before the fake gold loses its luster and turns a corroded green.

In February, I took a box of unidentified foil and stamped a sample card with each one. In just a few months, I had proof of which foils were imitation and, as an added bonus, had a sample card to help choose between different shades of the real stuff. In the picture, stamps 1 through A are from February, with 1, 6, 7 & 8 being fake. The photo doesn't really capture this well. The imitation foils are now black, which can be rubbed off with a thumbnail to reveal a dull metallic underneath. The genuine foil is bright and crisp and with a variety of shades from almost white through a reddish-orange tint.

I tested a second batch (B-H) on December 16th. C and H look dark in the photo, but that's just from the flash. Pretty slow and very low tech, but time reveals true character! (Insert wise proverb here...)