The first part in this series of blog posts about my first Booker Prize binding covered the forwarding of the book, how I came up with the design and how I worked on the sample board to test out this concept. You can read about it on my website here.
Part two covers the onlays and embroidery phase of the binding project. Onlays are thin pieces of coloured leather or other materials glued onto the surface of a book’s cover to create a decorative effect. I often use the onlays as base colour op top of which I then embroider extra detail, which was exactly how I worked on the cover for this binding.
Day 10 of 40: 3rd October 2025
The sample board worked well, time to scarf joint the large pieces of yellow and green goatskin together: edge pared both skins, applied PVA glue, stuck them together and rubbed down with Teflon folder. Kept the yellow skin large for extra stability, and trimmed off to size afterwards. Grey leather suede onlay strip for the ‘road’, stuck down with PVA, with long metal rule used as a guide to make sure it was straight.
Pared the corners, turn-ins and back of scarf joint with a paring knife to level it out and thin it in the correct areas.
Day 11 of 40: 4th October 2025
Back to the sample board! Keen to get the doublures sorted so I know what I am doing on the book in case I need to order any additional materials. The doublures are basketball, but how can I try and tie this in a bit with the cover design too, more than just using similar colours? Embroidery! How about I embroider the basketball hoop and net on the court outline I plan to use for the front doublure? That will add a textural detail too. Embroider it with really fine thread – paper is so much easier to tear when embroidering so must be really careful.
For sample board, will split the back so I can test out sections of both the green and orange paper doublures. The orange will have basketball outline on it, made up of thin black onlaid leather strips, glued in position. Perhaps have contrasting small orange paper circles stuck down to look like the bumps on the basketball? Could also use these orange paper dots on the front cover to create a link?
Main character has health issues, including heart palpitations so I’d like to include reference to this somewhere on the binding. Tested out also embroidering a heartbeat into the basketball line but don’t feel this works – basketball will look best with solid lines so perhaps try and move this somewhere else.
Traffic light also needs working on on main cover, will have to show more of it so that it is obvious what it is!
Day 13 of 40: 6th October 2025
Dust! I need dusty sky for the desert, let’s sand the skin to make it look a bit more interesting. Inspired by another binder who I worked with on a different project, she sanded a skin of leather over a rough piece of concrete to add some texture – I have tried this before and will do it again. Must make sure I move the leather around so that it gets a even coverage and no holes appear through the skin. The windowsill in my studio has a rough bit under the seat cushion – perfect for this process.
Time for the onlays now, this will be a great way to use all sorts of different colours of green I have stashed away. Will try and use a different colour for each cactus – some leather and some suede. Some of the suede pieces are particularly interesting as they have mottled areas and are less flat in colour. No exact template required for this book, I can freehand cut the cacti in small pieces which saves time. Use the cacti book as a reference but also use some artistic license! Stick onlays down with PVA glue and back-pare them.
Whilst looking at images on my computer of Vegas scenery, realise that I absolutely must include the iconic “Welcome to Vegas” sign!
The “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is an iconic 25-foot-tall landmark designed by Betty Willis in 1959, located on Las Vegas Boulevard South. It’s a popular photo spot for tourists, and the sign was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
But it won’t be a copy of the sign, I’ll adapt it so it just says WELCOME – a bit like you are being welcomed to the book as you will see this on the front cover as you open the box? Need to think about what colours to use – signs usually garish and neon but also need to make the colours work with the overall colour scheme. Go for a white centre and yellow surround – will add embroidered detail to this to embellish it (gold and yellow?).
Also decide to add a white leather onlaid line onto the cover, in order to tie this in visually with the same white onlaid lines used on the front doublure – perhaps I can make this white line meet one of the ones on the doublure so it flows around the book board and looks purposeful? Will check alignment once the covering leather is stuck to the book.
Day 15 to 28 of 40: 10th-21st October
It’s time to embroider! I am really excited about this bit, I can sit still and listen to audiobooks and the radio whilst whiling away the hours sewing. Find a suitable size shoe box in which to house everything I need for this project so I can embroider in different rooms of the house depending on what time of day it is (evenings are spent downstairs rather than in my studio upstairs!).
All the cacti onlays will have embroidered outlines so that is what I will work on first. Choose lots of different colours of green but also tones of yellow, orange and white. All thin sewing machine threads, sewn with a small quilting needle.
Use a needle pricker to pre-prick holes in leather then use different stitches to build up the texture and colour: Couching; Running stitch; Holbein stitch; and Whipped stitch all used for the outlines and the longer linear detail on the body of the cacti.
Must add detail to the flowers too, could also apply French knots here for extra detail.
Using goatskin for the cover of this book, which is supple enough to embroider through with relative ease (I also have tough fingers from years of hand embroidering on leather!). I don’t use an embroidery hoop as this wouldn’t work for the leather, instead I coil the leather and pinch it with bulldog clips at either end (the clips only pinch the turn-in area and therefore don’t mark the leather where it might be visible). I can then more easily hold the leather and get to the centre of the skin to embroider the elements there.
Vary the type of spikes on each cacti too. One of the large “Prickly Pears” on the front will have star-like spikes, sewn using a seed stitch (below right image).
The “Barrel Cacti” next to it has the same seed-stitch stars sewn on top of the segmented lines in pink thread.
The prickly pear on the back has different spikes sewn onto in in seed stitch – I think it looks weirdly hairy which I like! Always like to take a picture of the back of the embroidered leather as I go too, especially as this more abstract and I can use it on social media without giving too much away!
Time to move on and sew some signage. Firstly added a gold thread border and yellow stitches around the surrounding yellow leather. Then black thread around the circular lettering and the basketballs either end to make them pop out. “WELCOME” lettering then embroidered on the sign, also in black thread.
Need the “lights” around the sign too: add series of small yellow leather circles and then apply French knots tied from gold thread to add sparkle and texture. I’m going to try and do a video of this process using the armature I have to hold my phone, fun to add to a blog post!
The spine title panel still needs “lights” around the yellow arrow. Punch small circles in white leather with my Japanese hole punch and glue them around the edge. These are then sewn over the top with gold thread to make them sparkle.
Now we need the actual title! Selected a font I liked, printed to the right scale and then used as a template to prick holes through the leather. Sewn with black thread and I need to do one more of these for the box spine.
Day 29 of 40: 21st October 2025
The front of the sample board needs more on it, although already covered with the leather I want to add the “Welcome” sign too. I can do this!
It will look a bit different to the cover but I can do it all as onlays. The WELCOME letters are sewn on and the basketball outlined, then the outer yellow leather onlay is stuck down. Punch out gold leaf circles and glue then around the outside. Gold star added (no embroidery on this one) and I am really pleased with the addition.
Back of board also blind-tooled inside the basketball, so much better than using punched onlays which I tried earlier in the process.
The book is now ready to cover! The final part in the blog post will explain the covering of the book, infilling inside the boards and the making of the box. You can read it here.
You can also se completed images on this binding in the Fine Bindings section of my website here.