A Try at Tooling with Silver Leaf

One of my most recent books is a little journal bound in goatskin and tooled with silver. Since it's my first attempt to gild with silver I've shot some of my time working on the forwarding and finishing of the journal.

Even though I still need a lot of practice to make things perfect, the end result was most pleasing and left me feeling quite motivated for my next projects.

In the video I attach the leather to the covers and lay the journal on the finishing press for the bands to dry properly.

Next, the leather is folded on the corners and is ready for decoration when dried.

As silver leaf is quite thin and fragile, you can't touch it with you fingers because it sticks to them and is practically destroyed. It is laid on a leather pillow of sorts and cut into manageable pieces. I tap a piece of cotton on my forehead, for it to collect just a tiny amount of oil. The cotton picks up the silver piece and I can put it where needed.

Tooling is done over the leaf, repeating the stamps already made on the leather. A heat activated adhesive is applied to the stamps for the silver to stick.

Later when finished, the silver tooling is coated in shellac to prevent damage and tarnishing.

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Видео A Try at Tooling with Silver Leaf канала Stopan