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Flock of crows

Crows are probably my favorite birds in the countryside. City crows are mostly annoying. So I hope we can agree that these live next to some old, gray barn.

The books are coptic bound, sewn with natural linen thread, and the boards are covered with blue linen. Crows are made with acrylics and hand-cut stencils.


My crows first appeared about a year and a half ago in this book:
It was made for Finnish Literature Society's bookbinding contest and got an honorable mention. I won the other category with a huge art history book, but I'll skip the bragging and get back to this book. So this "Pieni lintukirja" is in fact a small bird book as it's Finnish name says. It's a book about bird-related phrases and beliefs in Finland. Sorry, I have only this crappy picture so I can't show you the beautiful pages or the hand-painted top edge.
This is a full leather binding with tight joint and hollow back. Covers are laced in. The title and the crows are back-pared leather on-lays. All this bookbinding terminology probably doesn't make any sense, but I'm writing it just in case a fellow bookbinder stops by.

Six more coptics are on their way to the blog any day now, and three new ones are in preparation. The new ones are different from these in many ways and making them requires, among other things, chopping an old Finnish school botany. What kind of a bookbinder am I?