Tips for aging pages of a book without making them wet.

[TomVDJ]

OK guys, I need some out of the box thinking here. I have a book where the pages are very white / new. I like to give the pages that slightly yellow / brown color of an old book that's still in good condition. So I don't want to use coffee or tea, because first of all it will curl the pages and there is a too high risk of not having an even "tan", let's say. Any ideas of other "dry" methods for aging pages in a book? Leaving it in the sun is a possiblilty, but the book has many pages that all need to have the same treatment... So this will be VERY time consuming. Also putting it in an oven is not an option, because the book is bound in leather.

So this is the look I want:

Rather than this:

 

[McFlyte]

You could try 'chalking' but for a whole book that could be very time consuming.

Maybe a heat gun/hair dryer with the cover protected?

I don't suppose you can remove the binding?

 

[lmgill]

While you say you do not want to wet the paper because of curling, you could experiment with alcohol. I use alcohol based dyes to age paper often. The alcohol evaporates quickly, not affecting the paper the same way water does.

 

[TomVDJ]

The binding indeed can not be undone / removed. Mmm, the alcohol is an interesting suggestion. I might experiment with that on some sheets of paper. You think it would be possible to dissolve some instant coffee in alcohol and use that?

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Alcohol will 'stain' the paper in itself if it goes on too heavily, so I would suggest using a fine-mist flower spray bottle with the tea or coffee solution to spread it evenly. The different surface tension of the alcohol should give you smaller droplets too!

 

[epoxinator]

I would not necessarily expect tea or coffee to dissolve in alcohol. That would be my first experiment. If it doesn't, perhaps some sort of wood stain thinned in paint thinner would work similarly. I would be a bit wary of accidentally turning the book into a solid lump of paper.

 

[TomVDJ]

I'm not going to apply any method directly to the book, off course. I'll first try it out on separate sheets of paper of the same type as the book, and see how things work out on those pages. I still would prefer some method with no liquids at all to be honest...

To give some more background: it's a Ninth Gate book from Kalkamel I want to age a bit more on the inside. It's way too white now, but in the movie the books are lightly yellowed, but still in great shape. So I don't want to keep the aging of the pages subtle.

 

[Mechanized]

Weathering powders would be my suggestion. It’ll be tedious but it’ll do the job w/ each page having a unique look of its own.

 

[brandomack]

Airbrush it.

 

[kalkamel]

I've been told a wood varnish/alcohol mixture applied in a spray bottle would be a fast dry method, although I've never tried it myself since I weather my pages prior to binding.

 

[Collektor]

I'd go with artists pastels ground into powder and lightly applied with a cotton ball. You can use a kneaded rubber eraser to lift pastel off the paper if you find you've added too much or want to lighten an area. Once you have it looking how you want hit it with a pass of fixative spray which will seal the pastels to the paper. The fixative spray wont wet the paper either. We used to use that method to seal charcoal and pastel drawings when I was in school.

 

[lmgill]

The binding indeed can not be undone / removed. Mmm, the alcohol is an interesting suggestion. I might experiment with that on some sheets of paper. You think it would be possible to dissolve some instant coffee in alcohol and use that?

I'm not sure if the coffee or tea is what you want. You just need the correct color. Leather dye is a good color base. Add tiny amounts of dye to the alcohol and it can be sprayed on with an atomizer (spray bottle). The more dye you add, the denser / more intense the color will be. If you use a small amount of dye, you can add layers to increase the density of color. By using different settings on the atomizer, you can also simulate foxing and staining in addition to aging the entire page.

 

[JMO]

I would try wearing a pair of those soft white cotton gloves and with whichever powder medium you chose, "dirty up" the gloves. Then handle the book, fan the pages etc. just like what would cause the discoloring. More on the edges and corners that normally get touched more than others, less in others. Start off with a light dusting to see that it is working then increase gradually with different tones so that you get yellowing, browning and dirtier spots from years of hands picking up and leafing.

 

[Friendly flyer]

I would not necessarily expect tea or coffee to dissolve in alcohol. That would be my first experiment. If it doesn't, perhaps some sort of wood stain thinned in paint thinner would work similarly. I would be a bit wary of accidentally turning the book into a solid lump of paper.

I've done some staining with alcohol-based stain. Wood stain works fine, but leather stain is surprisingly good and a good del cheaper.

 

[robstyle]

iron oxide powders will do wonders on paper.