Multi-color dyed leather books

I have been dying leather using water based dyes and have experimented with mixing the colors to create unique leather book covers.  

One day I saw a video on using using Rit all-purpose powder dye to tie-dye teeshirts (https://www.ritdye.com/techniques/ice-dye/).  Rit dye has long been used to dye leather shoes and purses, so I decided to try the ice technique to dye some leather book covers.   

Besides the dye and ice you need a large container, something to support the leather above the bottom of the container and gloves to keep your hands from being stained too.

The vegetable tanned leather is cut to the desired book cover size.  The cut leather is placed on top a white expandable storage shelf that is inside a large plastic container. Using this setup I can dye two large book covers at a time. 

Crushed ice is piled on top of the leather, covering all of the surface to about 1.5 inches deep.  Various colors of Rite dye are sprinkled on top of the ice.  I do this outside, so depending on the temperature, it takes 1 to 3 hours for the ice to totally melt. 

As the ice melts the dye dissolves and runs down on to the leather.  The colors mix making puddles of colors that, as more ice melt, drip of the edge of the leather into the plastic container.  This process creates unpredictable swirls of mixtures of colors. I let the leather sit over night to dry.  

Once the leather is dry I can add freehand ink drawings or stamps to the surface.  The final step is to apply a sealant to the leather. Below are three finished books.  I found a multi-colored skull button that is the perfect finishing touch.

 

Unexpected find

We spent a long weekend Camping.  We had a nice spot under the tress that shaded our camper.  We did some hiking, swimming and star gazing.  We took the opportunity to visit nearby towns to taste some local beer and food.  We walked around town checking out some local shops.  We were not looking for anything in particular, and I was totally surprised to fined a small press.  Needles to say this heavy cast iron press came home with me. 

A copy press is a small press that can be used to apply equal pressure for a variety of bookbinding purposes.  A Copy press is similar to a nipping presses.  Copy presses were used to make copies of freshly written documents.  The fresh ink of the document was transferred to damp tissue paper using the pressure of the copy press.  The copy printed on the tissue paper is the reverse of the original document.  Tissue paper was used so the reader could read the through the paper.

I plan on using my copy press to compress book signatures and to print linocuts.