I thought you might like to see the finished book that I created from the mirror Board inked using the Ranger Alcohol inks.
Coptic Stitched Book, covers decorated using Ranger Alcohol inks
I used Terracotta and Rust alcohol ink on gold mirror board and then stamped the boarder using Archival ink also from Ranger. The stamp was Crafty Individuals CI 147. The alcohol ink does not soak into the mirror board and although it does dry it is very suseptable to scratching off this surface. To prevent damage to the cover I painted over the boards with a diluted mix of PVA glue, this dried clear and does not show but does seal in the ink and prevent it scratching off.
Here is a close up of the spine of the book;
In the past I have only used six signatures for my coptic books, this was the first time I used eight. I think the more pages used the more effective this style of stitching is, so I’ll remember that for my future projects. That’s what I love about bookbinding, each new book teaches you something, not always what you hope or expect to learn, but every book is different and has something to show you.
Links
http://www.craftyindividuals.co.uk/cgi-bin/shop_category.cgi?ephemera5 Crafty Individuals
http://www.rangerink.com/ Ranger products
If you would like details of any useful books to help learn this style of binding, click on the ‘Bookbinding’ tab at the top of this blog. Stamp manufacturers and retailers are to be found on the ‘Rubber Stamping’ tab.
Best wishes and thanks for reading
Billie 
Beautiful!!!
That’s a very nice pattern/texture on the covers, very well done!
Thanks for the storage info, first of all! I would love to learn book binding…That and knitting socks are my goals for 2008…none of which have been realized, but I’m still thinking and working towards them. What is pva glue?
Hi Jersey Girl
I’d recommend a book to you, but we did that on the Stamping Mad forum didn’t we
Knitting socks sounds hard, I have tried to knit gloves years ago before my hands got bad and it was way hard!!
PVA is Polyvinyl acetate; it is an archival adhesive that is transparent when dry. It is like what we used at school white glue. There are various versions of this and some are better than others. I have found that the Craft PVA available from Hobbycraft stores is very good. I added water to thin it down to use it as a glaze to cover this book. Check out Falkiners Fine papers who now trade as Shepherds, in my Bookbinding lins section, they offer a mail order service and stock PVA too.
Thanks for your comment and good luck with the knitting, maybe start with something easy and work up to the socks
hugs
Billie xx
OMG this is VERY beautiful.