Blind Tooling: A quick tutorial

Recently, a friend of mine asked me to show him how I do my blind tooling on my books. I figured I may as well write something up about it so others can learn, too.

Let me start by saying that I am still relatively new to blind tooling. I picked up a few brass tools at an auction, bought a few from a guy in Hungary, and ordered a handful of lengths of brass in various shapes. I know the principal, and I can make shapes on leather books. I'm still trying to work through how to use the different shapes to create extraordinary artwork. But I'm learning every time I use the tools.

Tools I use:

• Brass stamps
• They must be brass because they will be heated and brass conducts heat in the bet way for this process.
• Some of mine have wooden handles; some do not. I regularly burn myself on the ones without wooden handles. Do with that information what you will.
• Heat source
• I use a single burner hot plate because I can have some control over the amount of heat I'm using.
• Historically, the binder would have used a small brazier to heat the stamps.
• Complete leather-bound book
• The book should be completely done and the leather damp through but not soaking.
• If you try to blind tool the leather before it goes on the book, your designs will end up distorted and not inline with where you want them. Trust me on this.
• Oh, and the leather should be completely dyed before you put it on the book, but DON'T put the finishing wax on yet. That will impede the stamps.
• Scrap leather
• This is to test the leather before putting it directly to the book. Once you touch a hot stamp to damp leather, it will leave a mark. Make sure you know what that mark will look like before you do.
• Water and sponge
• The book should be damp, but not soaking. As it dries, you'll need to rewet it with the sponge.
• Metal 12" ruler
• This will be used to make sure that any lines of smaller stamps are straight. You can use a wooden ruler, but it's probably going to get scorched.
• Awl
• You're going to want to be careful with this because anything you mark on the cover is going to stay there. But I use it to put small dots to help me guide where I put the ruler to make lines of stamps.
• Design
• Seriously, have a rough idea of what you want on the book cover before you start. It doesn't have to be a detailed drawing, but at least know what stamps you're using, how, and where.

For this, I used just a wooden board with veg-tanned leather wrapped around it, much like it would be were it already a book. The "cover" was for practice and to show a few things. 

First things first, turn the heat source on and place your brass tools on/in it. While they're heating, run a sponge over the cover to make sure that it's damp. If you push a finger into it and water comes out, it's too wet. Let it dry a little before you use the stamps on it. 

Once the stamps are hot, try them on your scrap leather. The stamp should hiss a little when it touches the leather. Rock the stamp from side to side and back to front without lifting it to make sure the entire stamp touches the leather. 

Following your design, start with any straight lines you're using to frame the cover. I always start with the long, straight lines because that will help guide the rest. If it's not straight, you'll want to adjust the rest of your design to give the appearance of being straight even though it's not. Optical illusions are your friends here. After that, use your smaller line stamps to make all of the rest of the straight lines in your design.

After the long, frame lines, I will put in the lines of designs. For this, I will abut the same design, or alternate different stamps. Line the ruler up with the frame and hold it tightly. Put the stamp bottom against the edge of the ruler and rock it down onto the leather. If you're using the same stamp again, you can probably get a few impressions before it needs to be heated again. If you're alternating, you won't get quite as many as they will cool in between stamping.

And finally, put the decorative stamping that isn't aligned specifically with anything else, like finials in the corners. The ruler can help with this, too. 

Now time to flip the book over and do the back. For this, as I just used a single block so there isn't a back. In period, the back and front rarely looked the same, but by the Tudor period, binders used full plates instead of individual tools so the front and back are more likely to be the same.

This is when I add my mark on the inside back cover, a badger paw print. 

Once you're done stamping, let the leather dry completely, then put your leather wax on the whole book, pushing it into the imprinted designs, then buff it off with a soft cloth. When you buff, be very gentle on the stamping. For the most part, you won't be able to do any damage to them, but there's no reason to take a chance. Once the book is waxed, stamping won't work so you can't fix anything that gets flattened in the buffing.

A few things to think about

Leather dye stains. They stain your hands, your clothes, and your stamping tools. Make sure that you clean your stamps after every book. You do not want partially red stamps on your newly dyed blue book. Soap and water works for this, then rinse and rub with a soft cloth to make sure all of the dye is off. 

These stamps will be hot. Remember the slight hiss? Have a hot pad or thick work gloves nearby in case you drop a stamp or need to rearrange them while hot. They will also cause what's called a "shadow" if you lift the stamp and try to put it back down. The likelihood of it being exactly in the same place is pretty slim. I'm not saying don't redo a stamp that didn't turn out. I'm just saying that this is probably going to happen when you do it.

And finally, medieval books were not perfect. Of the hundreds of blind tooled covers I've seen, roughly half of them have a mistake or four on them. Your book isn't ruined if your lines aren't perfectly straight or you have a shadow or two. Of course we want to make it as perfect as we can, but don't beat yourself up if it's not. Those little mistakes are what makes the book special as a handmade piece of art.

15k, I'm on my way!

I went to a write-in at the library today, and despite much talk and revelry, I managed to make 15,008 words as of today. That's with having written a big fat ZERO yesterday.

I'd blame the election, but really I think I just needed a break. I'm exhausted from working so much, among all of the other stuff I've been doing. I really needed a Me Day. Oh, and I forgot. I also made nine (yes, count them, NINE) breakfast quiches for work. Given that I was jumping up and down like a jumping Jack, there's no way I'd have been able to concentrate on writing. It worked out best to just take the day off and make it up today, which I almost did.

Anyway, I went to the write-in thinking to get peace and quiet to write, but there was much chit-chat that took place. Even still, I hit 2739 words, pushing me over the 15,000 words I wanted. I'm still something like 1000 words behind, but I'll make it up tomorrow. It seems that 3000 words really isn't that hard to manage when I get the peace I need.

As for the story, it's going well. I introduced a new character, developed another one that's important but was glossed over earlier in the book, and am having fun building on the morals and ethics of the community Piper grew up in. It's a sad little place, really, but a lot of what's there is put in place to protect them in a very rough world. I like how it's coming along.

More tomorrow. I'm beat tonight. :(

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Non-writing day

Well, I blew my chance at getting any words written today, I think. While I was up at 5:40, I spent my time doing laundry, showering, and surfing the forums. Argh! And I only needed 850 words today, too. *sighs*

Well, I have about 15 minutes. Time for a word war, I guess. Maybe I can get 500 words in that time.

UPDATE: Made 619 words in 15 minutes. Word wars - even with yourself - rock!

No work for you

Well, I managed 10k in my first day of writing by the time I went to bed. It proves that I can do it when I have the time and the initiative.

Today, I wrote a whopping 50 words. Woot! Instead of writing, I spent the day cleaning (my house sparkles!), working (at the bookstore), and having a lovely Samhain party with about 15 people at my house. It started about an hour or so later than first planned, but it was still very nice and ended right on time. AND the house is still relatively clean since most of the party was held outside around a fire.

There's a reason I started so strong. Tomorrow I hope to write a bit before going to work, but at lunch I need to run and get a TB test, and I work at the bookstore tomorrow night. By the time I can write again (Tuesday), that 10k will seem a bit paltry. The good news is that next weekend is mine to do with as I will. I'll meet up with Misty Saturday morning to talk about the SCA and NaNoWriMo, and then I can write at will until Monday morning. I'll make up the word shortage by then, I'm sure. If I can get another 10,000 to 15,000 by a week from today, I'll feel pretty content with things.

Talk soon!

And it starts!!

At midnight last night, NaNoWriMo 2008 began! Woot!! I admit that I did not start right at midnight. Instead, I let the older two boys have the computers while I hovered for a bit, and then went to bed. Fifteen minutes later, I came back downstairs, sent the boys to bed, and then started the novel. Roughly 2500 words and an hour and a half later, I finally crawled into bed. I was up again at 7:45 in the morning, and by the time I walked away at 9:45, I'd added another 3k to my tally. It's not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, but then it's only day one. My goal is another 5k before I go to work tomorrow morning at 11:00. I'll hopefully get about 3k or so tonight, and then tomorrow will be easy sailing at 2k.

The story is coming together in a way that I really like. I'm sort of surprised at how it's working out, and in a good way. Before I'd always tried so hard to have everything planned out with an outline set almost in stone. I'm wondering if maybe that was my downfall. Of course, not having a deadline doesn't help much. Now that I know I can write more than 5000 words in one day, in fact in about three hours, there's no excuse not to write the story I've long dreamed of writing.

Of course, first I have to finish NaNo. :)

The rest of the family has a pathetic start. The twins have written no more than 500 words between them. My daughter has done nothing, and neither has my husband. My only child not doing NaNo has read what I wrote and is impressed. :D

Okay, off to work on the novel. The older boys have friends over tonight so I have to take advantage of whatever time I can get on the computer. Tomorrow is going to be a nightmare, but that's okay. There's always the early morning.

Catch up

Last night my friend Misty came over to the house so that we could work on outlines and other story ideas and stuff. We spent the majority of the time making and eating dinner (bacon & cheddar quiche with dark chocolate brownies), but we also got a bit done on the books. She works nights and had only had a few hours of sleep. I was exhausted because of stress at work. By 10:00, we called it quits, and I took her home.

Two of the kids worked while we did, and while Misty and I struggled to come up with bits and pieces, they flew through creating some neat things for their novels. I had to keep reminding Misty that their inner critics weren't fully developed yet, and it wasn't our fault. Neither of us felt better for that, though. *laughs*

The story. Well, it changes every time I try to figure out the whys and wherefores. Last night I came up with three major conflicts that take place as the story moves forward, and none of them are what I initially thought they'd be. The good news is that I think I've finally come up with the initial conflict that sends Piper away from the village. It's a bit of a cliche, but that can be tweaked later. In the end, none of it may be what I think it is now, but at least I have ideas to work with.

I've also done a good bit of research on caves and caverns so I won't be completely lost on what it looks like inside one. Given how claustrophobic I am, I can't imagine doing personal research, but luckily, I don't have to. Thank you, Google.com!! :D

At one point this week, I set up an Excel spreadsheet to chart the number of words that I want to write per day, how many I have written per day, and what I need to write to catch up. According to the schedule, the novel will actually be 75k words at the end of the month, based on what I think I will have time to write each day. I'm going to keep that schedule for now because I may need that 50% padding come mid-November. I don't think so - I'm really pretty sure I can do this - but just in case life gets in the way....

Oh, and I'm also working on making a few items for my NaNo care-package partner. I'm kind of excited at the stuff that I'm going to send to her. She's out of the country until Friday, so I have time still, and I think I'm going to take it to make sure that her box is filled to the brim with fun goodies and treats. It's just such a fun idea that I want to make sure that my box lives up to the hype. :)

Okay, off to shower so that I can go to Panera to write for a bit. Misty may meet me there if she's awake yet, but if not, I still plan to get a few character sketches done. Ta-ta for now!

Word Wars!

So I did my first word war today. How, you might wonder, could I possibly do that when it's not even November 1st yet! Well, I wanted to see how many words I could write in 30 minutes, so I wrote up a prologue for my NaNo novel. I wanted something on Medwina.

I managed to type up a very well-written (I think) 1,002 word prologue for her. Yay! Even I'M intrigued by her!! And I think that in typing up the prologue I've come up with my ending, too. I'm not 100% positive about that, but it's certainly possible.

Anyway, if I can keep up that pace, that means that for only an hour a day, I should be able to easily do 50k words this coming month. The hard part is that I wrote a beginning, middle and end in 1000 words. What if I do that every day? Does that mean that there won't be any ongoing story to follow? I don't know. Or am I overthinking things again? Nah.. couldn't be! Not me!

This is really going to be fun, though I think my kids are going to kill me before it's all over. To do just that 30-minute stunt I yelled at them to just be quiet so I could get something done. It worked - they shut up - but will it every night for a month? Maybe once they start writing, too. I guess we'll find out then, won't we?