19 October 2007

"Medieval" detail

In the end, the dark felt pieces didn't really cry out for more stitching. The lettering doesn't make real words, just gives a sense of an indecipherable language, lost traditions, that sort of thing. You can see that the "vellum" is made up of bits of gauze machine-stitched onto a backing (wadding). It's appropriate that the felt is made up of "hair" of the sheep, which would have been removed from the non-writing side of the skin when vellum was prepared. You can imagine that a lot of sheepskins would be needed for just one book. This is all in the days before the secret of papermaking came to the West - papermaking was one of the things needed for printed books.

1 comment:

Jane LaFazio said...

Your finishing touches are just perfect. What a wonderful piece!