A while back, I got an Ed Lee manuscript. It was hand corrected and the only one of it's kind. An amazing tale called Haunter of the Threshold. Anyway, the pile was just sitting on my bookshelf when I saw someone post about their own project they got bound by Chris Hedges. Me having seen his work in the past and knowing how amazing he was at similar projects, I began to wonder what if... So I sent him an email one night. He jumped on it. Sent me back an email saying he was interested etc. Anyway, here is his own post from a different forum, describing it...
"...Jonah, contacted me about an Ed Lee manuscript he purchased a while back. He wanted to get it bound and had a really good idea about the design he wanted. He picked up on some of the descriptions that Ed used about creepy, old door knockers at the thresholds of doorways. So he took that imagery and wanted to bring it to life in the binding...so I went to work.
Here's what we started with, a stack of paper--the manuscript that Ed Lee printed out--
Jonah went shopping for the perfect door knocker and came up with a winner. He found a solid brass, antique, creepy knocker. It's made in the image of a woman's face and when you manipulate the arm of the knocker the eyes move in her eye sockets. I couldn't have asked for anything better. That got mounted on the front cover of the traycase--
Creepy, huh?
So, now on to the meat and potatoes. I did an oversew on the manuscript, bound it in crimson goat skin and gold stamped the front cover and spine. Once the book was finished, I made a taycase with double thick boards. The cover is half bound with brown goat skin at the spine and papyrus for the front and back covers to give the look and texture of real, weathered wood--the idea here is to make it look like a door panel where you might find a creepy, old door knocker mounted. Here's what we ended up with--
The trays are lined with a reptilian patterned imprinted felt--
Tom Moran was nice enough to let us use his artwork that he did for the book and I incorporated it into the interior binding. What was originally the signature sheet, I used as a declaration page--
And the rest of the illustrations were bound into the back of the manuscript, printed on fine linen paper--
This is the certification page that Ed Lee typed up to state that this is the only authorized copy of this manuscript in existence--
And an example of the hand corrections made by Lee--
And that's it! That's how it turned out. I'm really, extremely happy with the outcome and I think this one may have just entered into the top spot of my favorite bindings that I've done to date.
Hope you guys like it too!!!!
~C"
I know I did!!
Let me know what you guys think.