First up, I wanted to
practice using Coptic binding to get a better feel for it as it’s a technique
I’ve never done before. The first few attempts proved that I needed to take
more time on it as I, for some reason, kept threading the needle back through the
first loop creating a book that falls apart. Later attempts had the pattern
down right although I sometime forgot what direction I was using and would have
a few loops that stuck out compared to other examples. On all of them though
the book was a bit droopy so more stitches are needed between each kettle stitch.
In terms of stone, the
Cumbrian green slate was hard to come by, I couldn’t find any without being the
size of a table. While I was back home in Liverpool though, I went looking in
reclaim sites to hopefully find an alternative an as it happens I found a bunch
of old slate roof tiles that where perfect. At a size of 245mmx560mm it gave me
loads of leeway to cut them down, plus there are pre drilled holes in one end
that could be utilised in the binding of the book. bringing these back to
university, I went to get the opinion of the metal//wood work tutors about the
cutting methods I was considering and they agreed on using a glass cutter as
there is one on site and the outcome will be much cleaner. Before getting it
cut, I decided on wat size the book should be, firstly I wanted to have it as a
245mmx280mm so it could show of images to a larger scale but due to the weight
of the slate would be too much. So I compromised by having it as 245mmx200mm so
it was big enough to showcase the images and was small enough to hold in one
hand without straining. It also meant the slate was less likely to break
increasing the books durability. Sand blasting it was a little trickier that
the Cambrian green slate as that one had a smooth finish and a varnish that
allowed the vinyl to be stuck on with ease whereas the normal slate had itself
a natural finish that was tricky to get the text to be straight. Once done
though, the outcome came out better that I had expected as the text has been
engraved deeper that the test piece.
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