Project Portfolio: Specialist Foiling

So, Peter is an author and traditional bookbinder. His request was seemingly simple: can we hot foil onto leather...

...However, it is not so straight forward as you may think. Here's a look at our process.

The Artwork

Peter provided us with an Illustrator file for the foiling. However, this had not been traced ready for output, and was actually in the negative. While we could have done an auto trace, the image would not have given us a nice clean foil transfer. Time to break out the Pen/Path Tool to create a "clean" version of the file.

The original artwork provided: image shows traditional arts & crafts style font in white text on a black background. It reads The Lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. It is worn like a vintage rubbing.

The cleaned up artwork traced by hand. The image shows the type in black on a white background, it has been significantly cleaned up and smoothed.

This is an interesting design to approach as you want to be sensitive to the original aesthetic but also mindful to the passage of time.

The Foiling

Once the artwork was ready for production, we got a sign off from the client. Interim approvals are a key part of our process. With approval given its time to foil.

Image description: The foiled pieces following application separated by protective cardstock.

The material: Peter provided leather he had prepared by hand to 1mm thick and backed with tissue. The shallowness of the material was interesting with how we needed to set up the nibs.

The nibs: we have three tips we can choose from for machine foiling (four for hand foiling). We tried with the bold tip first as a starting position before moving to the fine tip. The fine tip gives us a much more clean finish to the details. However, it does love to snag the foil - not much pressure can be applied.

Image description: The foiled leather panel applied as part of a leather book cover. The main book cover is a terracotta red with a strong leather texture. The foiled panel is navy with gold with a very fine texture. The book has been bound by Peter with the foil panel applied.

Image description: Book open and standing showing the William Morris endpapers in keeping with the design on the cover. A beautiful work of art by Peter.

I hope you've enjoyed this snapshot into one of the unusual projects we love to get involved with. Whether its purely digitisation, or full production, we are happy to help.