Epoch

To date, this has – by far – been my favorite book of this style that I have made.

It encompasses nearly everything I want in a book in terms of textures, color, material, proportion, and physical experience. The book looks and feels like a part of “me” in book form and is a solid manifestation of one of my design styles.

I named the book “Epoch” because it felt like I finally got to a point in my bookbinding journey where I found my “brand” or “identity”. It was also literally a very memorable point in time and beginning of a new era in my craftsmanship.

To bind this book, I used a modified, modern application of medieval binding, sewing the signatures onto hemp cord. I created head and tail bands by sewing indigo-dyed silk over hemp cords. The fly leaf is Japanese washi with a printed, deep indigo pattern. I added a navy ribbon marker from another older notebook that was being up cycled. This ribbon marker does extend from the bottom to the top as to note where I am in the book but not rub across a surface (opposite of how they usually are). Endpapers are made from thin washi layered in triplicate with coreopsis petals laid between each layer, and on the top layer. I picked the coreopsis petals from my garden over the years, so there are petals dating back to 2022 contained this book but largely from 2024/2025. Of course, the covers are protea wood sculpted into a mostly flat outer facing and a curved inner facing to meet the curve of the fore edge when viewed from the front and top/bottom. For the spine, I applied 1.2oz goat skin leather in a mangosteen color. Finally, the cover and spine were adorned with a Sterling silver plate and my Teardrop maker’s mark, respectively.

The finishing touch, was adding a date of completion, signature and my maker’s seal, which means “teardrop/tear” in Japanese. The kanji for this word was typographically adapted to be a hanko.

This has now become the model for which I want the rest of my books to follow (for now).