Every Hocus needs his Holy Book

This is mine...


Welcome to my Psychic Maelstrom

That is amazing.

Did you make it?  Could you discuss the process?

I'm with Judd, that is all kinds of fantastic! Please share how you created the cover of that notebook?

Thanks, This is actually a re-bindind of the game book. The cover is leather and then I hand embossed and stained it.

This is something I do with all the games I really like, all of Vincent's games have been rebound. :)

Magnificent!  Are you Italian?  I saw a similar treatment of Dogs in the Vineyard when I was in Lucca...

WHAT.

terrible & beautiful.

BAD. ASS.

Only half Italian, but I have done about 4 DiTV covers one of which I put into the charity Auction at Gencon. If anyone is interested here is my flicker account with other covers I have done.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46326225@N00/sets/72157624703711501/

I am a better book binder than photographer so sorry for the sub par photo quality. 

Someone is whispering "cottage industry" in my brain. Would you do this to people's books for money?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46326225@N00/sets/72157624703711501/

I am a better book binder than photographer so sorry for the sub par photo quality.

Amazing work. How well do the books hold up in those fancy hardcover custom bindings? Do you actually just put the book as is in the middle of the new cover (it looks like this from the pictures), or do you print your own from PDFs and then bind them?

They definitely look hot enough to generate some extra income, if you wanted to take custom orders from people, but my guess is that they would come at a hefty price.

In general the bindings holdup fairly well. I play with most of my bindings and have not had to make a repair yet. Anything with a stitch or Japanese binding holds up extremely well.

Some are PDF print outs others are just replacements of the original covers. The Hunter book I did was a reprint of the book in digest form so it is half the size of the original. Typically Japanese bindings work better with print outs rather than cutting the spine off the original.

On rare occasions I have done a commission or two in the past but mostly it is a hobby and I often give them as gifts to friends and families. I don't want to use this forum to discuss commerce but if anyone wants to they can reach out to me via email 32rohoe@gmail.com to talk in more detail.

What is a "Japanese binding?"

Also called a stab binding it involves drilling a series of holes through that cover and pages (text block), then stitching it together with one continuous tread.

Not my video but if you can get past the funky elevator music this demonstrates the technique pretty well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XHfwe_VfbM

So I'll jump on the drool band wagon (it's slippery on there).

Do you have any links to tutorials on hand embossing leather? And the dying process? I loves me some rebinding books, but I'm not very experienced and haven't done anything cool with the covers ever.

Those are exquisite!