The secret book isn't a secret anymore! I won the second prize in Otava bookbinding competition! The award ceremony and exhibition won't be until summer, but I'll share my photos with you right away. These really aren't the greatest quality, as they were taken on a sunny day. More photos of the finished book, and more importantly the working process, can be found on Flickr, where my friends only set has become public.

The book is generously illustrated Pyhät kuvat kalliossa, and it's about Finnish rock paintings, which more or less defined my color choices and the cover design.

The book is quite large, about 26x28x3cm, and it has 176 pages. I bound it in full leather, using wonderful Harmatan goatskin in terracotta and black. There's a relief panel on both covers, which is slightly sanded too, to give a little more structure and variety.
Hand sewn silk endbands. The book edges are hand cut, then bashed with a wire brush to give them texture and a little softness too.

The title is blind tooled by hand too. Most things were done by hand just because I can. And also because I don't have machines that would do the work for me :)

Wasn't this a bit different from what you've seen so far? Well, this is just something else I can do!

(And yes, my first day at work went just great. All the new things and places and people made me really tired though. Tomorrow will be easier I'm sure.)