River Song's book from Doctor Who

Yeah, it's vegetable tanned leather hide, which is used specifically for tooling.

The patterns are are hand stamped using Tandy tools. I'm pretty sure the original is pressed, which is the route Risu is taking, but I've no clue how to do that :lol

I need to get a narrower bevelling tool for the panels, as the outer square indentations are currently too wide.

The colouring process is a pain, too. All of the dyes I've tried have been too dark. In order to get the colour above, I had to paint the covers with white acrylic first, then apply Tandy arylic Ecoflow dye. What is really tricky, is that all the indented parts need to be left unpainted, or you lose the natural darkening of all the embossed parts, that results when the dye hits the leather (if that makes sense?)

Next time, I'm gonna try hitting it with Tandy Sky Blue Hi-Lite, rather than dye, as Risu thinks that's probably the way to go.

The final stage is applying Fiebing wax finish, which seals it all and gives it a subtle but nice sheen.

Glad you like it :)
 
Looks good, I like the cracked spine and the pages. How did you age them?

The hi-lite is definitely the way to go. There are multiple ways of applying it, and I think I've figured out the exact way to do it properly.
 
Yeah, it's vegetable tanned leather hide, which is used specifically for tooling.

The patterns are are hand stamped using Tandy tools. I'm pretty sure the original is pressed, which is the route Risu is taking, but I've no clue how to do that :lol

I need to get a narrower bevelling tool for the panels, as the outer square indentations are currently too wide.

The colouring process is a pain, too. All of the dyes I've tried have been too dark. In order to get the colour above, I had to paint the covers with white acrylic first, then apply Tandy arylic Ecoflow dye. What is really tricky, is that all the indented parts need to be left unpainted, or you lose the natural darkening of all the embossed parts, that results when the dye hits the leather (if that makes sense?)

Next time, I'm gonna try hitting it with Tandy Sky Blue Hi-Lite, rather than dye, as Risu thinks that's probably the way to go.

The final stage is applying Fiebing wax finish, which seals it all and gives it a subtle but nice sheen.

Glad you like it :)

I love it!

Probably the only tiniest suggestions I'd make is that the joint isn't large enough the flex in and the tears look a little too on purpose. The one on the prop is very thin, I think no more than leather and fabric hot ironed with something akin to photo mount sheets. I'm not sure if we all are going to have to try to get more of a inward flex in that joint area. I couldn't really get this to work with mine because it's all cardboard, not leather. ;)

Did you cut those 'tears'? I'm wondering if weakening the areas with a Dremel grinder disk from the back and then after try ripping the tear more might make it more organic looking? Or maybe using say like a Dremel engraving tool? I keep imagining ways to do it in my head and I'm thinking like if I ever get around to leather, maybe pre-perforating the area the 'tear' will be in with a needle till it's like a zigging/zagging perforation like between postage stamps. Honestly never having tried to do it these are just wild ideas.

The area on yours probably can be improved with a little sanding along the tear to make it even more realistic, that area between the cover and spine. Maybe pick at the tear with a razor or craft knife Xacto to chip away at the grain and make the edges more frayed? It's hard to tell detail in the picture here.

More overall sanding in some more distress with a variety of sand paper grits will make it more aged I suspect. I think the square indents are really just fine, but yeah slightly smaller would be even better. I'd pick at the outer corners maybe too, make it look like it's been handled, dropped, rattled around in the rucksack or bag. If I had a paint mixer I'd put mine in a can with a couple of dollars in change and let 'em mix!

Suggestions aside, I think it's awesome if I were you I'd carry it everywhere on holiday and see how many people recognize you as a fellow Whovian! I mean mine is crummy next to yours and in a coffee shop this last week I got comments from two 20-something Whovians that made me grin. I imagine yours will cause flocks of people to want to handle it.

Happy holiday too BTW
 
How did you age them?

One word: teabags! :lol

Elvisgump, the tears were actually done by dremelling the joint from the front with a sanding drum to distress the whole area, then doing the same from the back until the tears appear. It looks better than just cutting it, which I did on my first (unpictured) attempt, but yeah, I think some more experimenting on that area is called for.
 
Before. Its a lot quicker to do full sheets than to have to keep turning pages, which are probably gonna stick together.
 
Yea, I made a grail diary for a customer once and he decided after it was finished that he wanted it distressed. 3 weeks and a spray bottle of coffee later and the job was done. It's been 2 years, but sometimes when I smell coffee I still cringe.
 
Hi ive been working on this for about 3 months ive made 6 versions so far as im creating the content as an on going thing the lastest version now has over 50 pages... most is digitally created then hand finished inked painted ; )
diarymontage-1.jpg
 
Wow, I love the pages you made! The distressing looks good as well. Any chance you'll be selling or distributing a PDF of the pages at some point?
 
Very nice pages indeed! Only problem is until the entire series is over you'll never know what the proper order is for the book! :lol
 
A friend of mine has one of those he bought on Ebay. The pages are brilliant, well detailed with great illustrations and text, but the cover really really lets it down as it is awful. It is like two thick boards stuck onto the front and back of a regular book as an afterthought. Which I suppose ,to be fair, that is what it is.
 
I wasn't going to say anything, but yea. They're for sale on ebay, huh? I'll have to look into that.

Nope, no luck there.
 
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