A while ago I bought Sarednab's John W. Booth Diary to add to my National Treasure collection. I wanted to go for the less distressed version so I asked Sarednab not to tear the blue velvet of the "Tickets" and "Postage" pockets, and not to age the borders of the pocket diary (because it looked a bit too distressed on the pictures in the sales thread. I went along with the other distressing of the diary (the red leather on the inside, and the black leather on the outside.
When the Diary arrived, I was quite happy, but a few things bothered me:
1. The aging on the black outside cover was rather aggressive. A bit too much to my taste.
2. On the inside, the white sheet that had to hold the pocket diary in place, was almost plastic like. Due to the smooth surface, it was not possible for me to age it the way I liked using coffee or tea.
3. The borders of the pocket diary weren't even. I guess this had to do with the fact that I asked Sarednab not to touch the borders. Althoug this book is supposed to be from the 19th century, I do think that manufacturers of these pocket diaries would cut the pages even before they sell these, so I wanted the pages to be even too.
4. The picters of the women included in the diary weren't very high in quality. I wanted to replace these anyway (along with the picture of Lincoln).
Since I had some spare time today, I started addressing the issues with the Booth Diary. Starting with the outer cover: a bit of black shoe grease and a lot of patience, made that the aggressive aging was less noticable. The result was much more like I wanted it: used, but not completely distressed:
Next issue was the white "plastic sheet" on the inside of the diary. I decided to glue a piece of 300 grams paper on that sheet, so I had a surface that could be aged more easily. After that, I tried to age that piece exactly as much as the pocket diary itself. I think it came out pretty good. The picture doesn't show the subtility of the aging, but you get the idea. I didn't take pictures of the diary before the changes, but I know that people that own this diary, know what I'm talking about when I mention this white plastic-like sheet. Anyway, this is the result (the mentioned piece is completely to the left, where the pocket diary slides in:
I also sanded down the borders of the pocket diary to get them even, and give them a slightly frayed appearance. After that I aged the borders again with coffee and tea so the edges blend in nicely with the aging of the pages of the pocket diary.
I also thought the Diary could use some extra's, so I made a replica of the ticket of Ford's Theatre on the evening of the assasination (I used this picture as reference: http://www.shapell.org/Data/Uploads/214a-item-page.jpg
Color of the ticket in the picture below is paler than it is in real. Color in the picture above is more like the real ticket
So last thing to do is make better versions of the pictures of the women that were also in the original Booth Diary. For anybody who wants to do the same, you can find high res scans of the original pictures here: Found on Booth | BoothieBarn.
I also order the pin Sarednab offered in the past, to go with the diary. Once I receive this and have the pictures of the women ready, I'll post an update...
When the Diary arrived, I was quite happy, but a few things bothered me:
1. The aging on the black outside cover was rather aggressive. A bit too much to my taste.
2. On the inside, the white sheet that had to hold the pocket diary in place, was almost plastic like. Due to the smooth surface, it was not possible for me to age it the way I liked using coffee or tea.
3. The borders of the pocket diary weren't even. I guess this had to do with the fact that I asked Sarednab not to touch the borders. Althoug this book is supposed to be from the 19th century, I do think that manufacturers of these pocket diaries would cut the pages even before they sell these, so I wanted the pages to be even too.
4. The picters of the women included in the diary weren't very high in quality. I wanted to replace these anyway (along with the picture of Lincoln).
Since I had some spare time today, I started addressing the issues with the Booth Diary. Starting with the outer cover: a bit of black shoe grease and a lot of patience, made that the aggressive aging was less noticable. The result was much more like I wanted it: used, but not completely distressed:
Next issue was the white "plastic sheet" on the inside of the diary. I decided to glue a piece of 300 grams paper on that sheet, so I had a surface that could be aged more easily. After that, I tried to age that piece exactly as much as the pocket diary itself. I think it came out pretty good. The picture doesn't show the subtility of the aging, but you get the idea. I didn't take pictures of the diary before the changes, but I know that people that own this diary, know what I'm talking about when I mention this white plastic-like sheet. Anyway, this is the result (the mentioned piece is completely to the left, where the pocket diary slides in:
I also sanded down the borders of the pocket diary to get them even, and give them a slightly frayed appearance. After that I aged the borders again with coffee and tea so the edges blend in nicely with the aging of the pages of the pocket diary.
I also thought the Diary could use some extra's, so I made a replica of the ticket of Ford's Theatre on the evening of the assasination (I used this picture as reference: http://www.shapell.org/Data/Uploads/214a-item-page.jpg
Color of the ticket in the picture below is paler than it is in real. Color in the picture above is more like the real ticket
So last thing to do is make better versions of the pictures of the women that were also in the original Booth Diary. For anybody who wants to do the same, you can find high res scans of the original pictures here: Found on Booth | BoothieBarn.
I also order the pin Sarednab offered in the past, to go with the diary. Once I receive this and have the pictures of the women ready, I'll post an update...
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