Change of plans for the next week! A modern full leather binding with hundreds of onlays and a tight schedule!

I've embarked on the journey of putting together a fine binding for a bookbinding competition with way less time than ideal until deadline. I spent most of last Sunday and early Monday traveling back home from London, got to bed at 6am, and at Monday noon I was delivered the pages for this book, and got to work. The deadline for the Elizabet Soutar Bookbinding Competition is on November 7th, leaving me just about until next Thursday to get this book in the mail. Thankfully the tight schedule has, by now, also served as a motivator (can't second guess all my decisions endlessly!) and inspired me to take a less conventional route structure-wise. And I'm actually very excited by all my decisions so far!

As I really ought to be binding this book and not writing about making it, I'm just going to leave you with some photos I've taken of the process so far.

Binary code plays a big role in my overall design, inside and out... Above I'm typing up endpapers (with several typos, but c'est la vie) - below, a sample plaquette in the making. Sorry about the lighting in the photos, I've been working mostly without a hint of daylight...

Trusty old Schärf- Fix is in use again! Last night I pared leather for onlays and spine liners. Today I ought to be finishing that spine.

I will be posting about this project on my Instagram account, so, make sure to follow me to get frequent updates! I will naturally share the finished book - and maybe some wip photos - here eventually, but in case you're curious or impatient, Instagram is the place to be...