When posted the blog on Friday I thought the cover looked less interesting than the title page. But the decorative U on the Uncials of the title page made it hard to read an unfamiliar word like Uncials, so it wasn’t a good idea for the outer cover.
I toyed with giving the cover a bright lime green background, but I want this little book to be printed on nice paper and feel special, not to look like all the other paperbacks that lie around a child’s bedroom, so the cover will have folded foredges and be printed on off-white Zerkall Wavy.
But how could I resolve the way the pattern went straight across the cover onto the back cover? Perhaps I could add a vine onto a Celtic woven Celtic pedestal. The vine would tie in with my page on how to decorate capital letters. I did a rough draft and so far so good. Three hours later I had completed a painting of a vine. And I added it to the cover in the centre, straddling the spine. And with only half of it showing it looked terrible! The design was too busy and all over the place. It did not relate to anything.
My next solution only took 20 minutes to paint. An inkpot with a feather to match the monk, who I have named Brother Finbar.
And now it really really is complete.
I forgot to mention that this will also be on an early bird offer. You will receive your order as soon as possible once it is printed (2-3 weeks). Here are the specs:
We are only printing 200 ABC Uncials books and 200 Dance Books!
Visit the Limetrees Gift Shop:
ABC Uncials, a postcard sized book, 16 pages, handbound with a dustcover, high quality digital printing in full colour on lovely paper.
This includes the secret password for downloadable templates to trace and ruled lines.
Early Bird price: £7.00 before 15th October, (after that £8.00)
ABC Uncials with a mini-kit: So that the child can start writing immediately you could buy the book with a mini-kit which has walnut ink crystals, a balsa pen, 45gsm layout paper (1/2 A4 size) for tracing, how to do Celtic weaving on graph paper, nib-width ruler:
Early Bird price: £9.00, (after that £10.00)
To make this gift even more special, add an ivory box with black velvet lining. You can fit a speedball holder and the two required nibs in. You would order the Speedball holder and the two recommended nibs – Speedball C-0 and Brause Bandzug size 3 yourself from a calligraphy supplier. Box: £2.00. (This stays the same price)
The Book Dance is also on Early Bird offer, until 15th October when my exhibition opens. The date is extended because the printing was delayed but is happening this week and next week. Then lots of hand-binding to do!
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