New Technique: Laminate Paper Cover

Since most of my experiments use cheap, composition notebooks I don't worry about completely wasting the materials involved. I try and use the cheapest materials to see if the idea will work first and then, once the theory has been proven, try it with better quality materials.

A new technique in creating covers occurred to me and I wanted to try it out. The technique involves covering the boards of the book with multiple layers of thin paper, building it up with washes of glue to fill in the nooks and crannies. The idea, shown right, creates folds and imperfections in the cover which I think add to the overall look. The more of those folds and things the better.

I didn't go crazy with the folds but I could have spent an hour crimping and roughing the paper to make the new texture more pronounced.

 Once I had two layers down and let it dry for a while, I came back and started adding paint to cover over the original material and so that the composition cover couldn't be seen through it.

I will be going over the black layer with lighter and lighter shades of paint to highlight the folds and new texture of the cover.

Pics to follow.

The first layer of black paint to give it a good base.

Sponge-painted, the cover starts to look less like composition notebooks and more like a real book.

 Once I had the book painted and sealed with a layer of pva (polyvinyl acetate) I wanted to add a closure to it. Unfortunately the only ribbon I had was blue but I don't think it looks too bad.

The cover is set with a raised 'picture window' where the author could place a title or subject card to tell what the contents of the book were.

As this was an experimental book I didn't get too fancy with the shape of the title box but it doesn't look too bad; almost like an old lab manual.