In my last article I wrote about how to write in Elvish, so now it’s time to make a prop that actually uses Elvish writing. This project is going to be a leather bound journal that belonged to a traveling Elf that contains records of his adventures. Of course if you decide to make something like this, you can fill it with any kind of writing that you want, to suit your game.
Having a physical object that you can hand to your players when they come across something in-game is a really good way to add to the immersion of your game, and it doesn’t take that much time to make something like a book or a journal. It should take at most 2 days, but most of that time is for letting the glue dry. For this project, you will need:
- Paper for the pages
- Card stock for the covers (Unless you don’t want to make a hardcover)
- Leather
- Thread
- A bone folder (or just something hard and smooth)
- A paper cutter or sharp knife
- PVA Glue (Wood glue)
- A ruler
- A pencil or marker
- An awl (or anything that will poke through paper)
Step 1: Choose the Paper
The first thing that you need to decide is what kind of paper to use. If you’re in a medieval fantasy setting, then you might want to use a paper that is slightly off-white or even tan, because most paper in medieval times wasn’t pure white. It might make sense to use white paper though if your prop is meant to belong to an upper class individual, because white paper was much more expensive back then.
It helps to get paper that is already in rectangular sheets, usually around 8 by 11 inches or so. That way when you fold each piece in half to make the pages, they will come out with the right proportions for a book or journal. If you start with square sheets of paper, then when you fold them in half your pages will be too narrow.
One thing to be aware of is that all paper has a grain to it. This is the direction that most of the wood fibers are aligned, and it makes it easier to fold with the grain and harder against the grain. If you can, try to find paper that has the grain running parallel to the shorter length of the sheet. This will make it easier to fold the pages in half the way we want to, and they’ll stay flatter after you fold them.
I made the mistake of not checking the grain pattern of my paper before I bought it, and noticed after I started folding them that I was working against the grain. It’s not a huge problem, but just something to be aware of.
For my journal I decided to use a tan toned sketch paper, for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s a bit on the thicker side, so I can use less paper and have my journal still look thick. Secondly, the tan color fits the medieval style. Thirdly, the sketch paper doesn’t let the ink from my fountain bleed through to the other side, which happens a lot with other thinner paper.
Step 2: Make the Signatures
Now that you’ve chosen your paper, the next step is to make the signatures, which are groups of pages. Each signature can be made of anywhere from 3 to 6 pieces of paper usually. Fold each one in half and then place them all together into a little group. If your paper is thicker, then you can use fewer sheets per signature, otherwise they can become too thick and not lay flat.
It helps to use something hard and smooth to flatten out the folds, instead of just using your hands. A lot of book binders will use a bone folder, but if you don’t have one of those or don’t want to get one, then there are a lot of other things that you can use. The sides of pens or pencils work well, as do popsicle sticks. I used the handle of my Swiss army knife and it worked just fine. Basically it just helps to have something to really flatten the folds and make them as crisp as possible.
You’ll have to decide how many pages you want in your prop. If you’re making a book prop that’s meant to have writing on every page, then you might want to have fewer pages to save yourself some work of filling it in. If you’re making a journal prop like me, then remember that not every page has to be filled. It makes sense for a journal to have been partially written in and then perhaps the owner lost it, or they met their untimely demise.
Step 3: Trim Things Up
Because I bought a sketchbook to use for my pages, I had to trim some of the perforated edges off of my sheets of paper. If you tore your pages out of a book in a similar way, then you’ll probably need to do this as well. Leaving the perforated edges would look sloppy, and it definitely looks out of place in a medieval setting.
To trim my pages all to the same length, I made a reference sheet so that I could trace the outline of the reference page onto my signatures. That way they all came out the same size. I also trimmed a bit off of the outer side, because as the signatures are formed, some pages stick out farther than others. Trimming the outer side flat makes it look more uniform, but you could leave them untrimmed if you want it to look a bit less refined.
If you have a paper cutter then would be the best thing to use, but not everyone has a dedicated paper cutter. I don’t have one, so I just used a metal ruler and a sharp knife. You could use a pen knife or a box cutter, or any sharp knife really. Having a ruler to cut along helps to keep things straight, and if it’s metal then it’s harder to cut into the edge, unlike with a wood or plastic ruler.
I think that it’s easier to trim the signatures one at a time before you sew them together, as long as you’re careful to cut each one to exactly the same measurements. If you try and cut them when they are sewn together, then it becomes harder to keep them all perfectly aligned and one mistake can ruin the whole text block.
Step 4: Punch the Holes
Once you have all your signatures, it’s time to punch the holes that we’ll use to sew the whole thing together. You can make a reference sheet to show you where to punch the holes, or you can measure them out onto each signature one at a time. I find that it’s easier to make a reference sheet, then you can just line it up and easily mark where the holes will go.
If you have an awl then those work great, but you can use anything sharp that will poke through the paper. I’ve heard some people use thumb tacks or pushpins. Whatever you use, just be careful not to poke yourself. I have an awl that I use for my leather work, but it works just as well for paper.
How many holes and the spacing between them depends on how you want to stitch your book together. There are many ways to stitch the signatures together, and you might want to use a different method than me. For reference, here’s the link to the video tutorial that I followed to sew my signatures together.
Step 5: Sew the Signatures Together
This is the step that I spent the most time on, just from researching all the different ways that you can bind a book. Some methods need glue, others don’t. Some use multiple signatures, some just use one big signature. Then there’s all the different ways to sew the pages together. It’s really an art that you could spend a lifetime learning and mastering.
For the sake of time, what I did was find a good tutorial on Youtube that shows how to make the kind of book that I want my project to end up looking like. If you have a different idea of how you want your prop to look, then I suggest you try to find a video tutorial of how to make that specific style of book. For instance, if you want your book to have an exposed spine instead of being covered, like mine, then you could search for something like “exposed spine bookbinding methods.”
Video is really the easiest and most efficient way to learn something like this, as opposed to trying to show it through pictures and written explanations. With that in mind, I won’t go too in depth in this article about the sewing method that I used for my journal prop. I know it will be easier for you to understand if you just watch the video, and you might want to use an entirely different method.
The method I chose to use is a variation of what’s called a “kettle stitch.” It uses one long thread that weaves in and out of the holes in the signatures, then into the next signature. The thread interlocks with the thread on the previous signature, and in that way it locks the signatures together. Again, here’s the link to the video tutorial that I followed.
Try not to sew your text block too tightly. It can be easy to put too much tension on the thread, which is what I did for my book. This made it harder to open the book fully once it’s done. Use enough tension to keep it secure, but don’t tighten it all the way.
Step 6: Glue the Spine
The next step is to apply glue over the spine. This reinforces the spine and makes it stronger than it would be with just the thread holding it together. Without glue, the signatures could still slide between each other. If you want to put a cover around your book like mine, that extends a bit past the pages, then you need to glue the spine or the pages will sag when you store the book upright.
The best glue to use for this is PVA glue, also known as wood glue, or white glue. There are many different brands that make this kind of glue, and I’m not really an expert on which one is the best. You can find PVA glue that is specifically labeled for use in bookbinding, but I’m not sure how different it is from other PVA glues. For my project I used regular wood glue because that’s what I already had. I think that any kind of PVA glue will work fine, but some might last longer than others, or some might become more brittle over time.
Once you have your glue, just make sure to carefully align your block of signatures so that they are exactly how you want them to be. You can make the spine curved or flat, but I went with flat because it seemed easier. If you have a book press, then this is the time to use it. If not, you can just put some heavy objects on top of your text block to hold it in place, like I did. You could also use clamps if you have them, but you should probably use some boards to distribute the pressure, instead of just clamping straight onto the paper.
Once everything is secured and aligned, you can apply the glue to the spine. You can use a bristle brush, or a foam brush, or even your hands to apply the glue. PVA glue washes off with water quite easily, so it’s not difficult to wash it off your hands.
If you want to reinforce the spine even more, then you can add a strip of cloth over the glue, and then apply more glue over that to saturate the cloth. Non-stretchy fabric would probably work best, so something like muslin is a good choice. It’s very cheap and only stretches diagonal to the grain, so make sure not to glue it on diagonally.
Leave the spine to dry overnight to make sure that it dries completely, and leave it in whatever press or clamped position that you had it in to make sure that it dries in that shape. If you unclamp it before it dries, then it could become misaligned.
Step 7: Glue the Cover
To make a hardcover book, you generally need to use some kind of thick card stock, which you then wrap with whatever cover you want to use. The thicker the card material you use, the stronger and more durable your book cover will be. You can even use pieces of wood if you want to.
If you don’t have any thick card stock or you don’t want to buy any, then you might be able to find some lying around your house. Things like old binders, spiral notebooks, or boxes can sometimes have thick enough cardboard that you can use. I don’t recommend that you try to use corrugated cardboard though, even if that’s all you have, because it will easily get bent. The backs of spiral notebooks are sometimes thick enough to use for book covers. In my case I used the back of the sketchbook that I bought for my pages. The back cover is made of a 1/16th inch thick card stock, which is good enough for what I’m doing.
I cut out pieces of the board that were a bit larger than my pages, so that there would be some overhang. For reference, the measurements came from this video tutorial. The only difference is that I used leather instead of cloth, and I decided that I wanted my journal to have a soft spine. If you want your prop to have a hard spine, you would cut out another strip of cardboard for the spine.
The leather that I used to wrap the cover is probably too thick, but it’s what I had on hand. If you want to make a leather bound book for your project, I recommend that you use a much thinner leather, like a 2 oz weight or maybe even thinner.
If you’re like me and only have thicker leather, then you can still use it, but it helps to thin down the edges. To do this you can use a skiving knife if you have one, or just any sharp knife. Carefully cut the leather at a low angle so that it makes the edge as thin as possible. This will help it to lay flat when you fold it over the cardboard and glue it down. This YouTube video shows pretty well how to do this. She talks about the leather at around 7 minutes and 30 seconds into the video.
Once I had the leather all cut to length and the edges thinned out, I glued the cardboard down to the leather where it needed to be. I left enough room in between the boards to wrap around the spine. Then I folded the leather over the edges of the boards and carefully made sure that it folded correctly at the corners.
For my journal, because the leather would not stay down after I folded it, I had to put weights on it to keep it in place until it dried. With a more flexible cover material you could probably glue the cover and then continue to the next step without waiting for it to dry.
Step 8: Glue the Cover to the Text Block
Now for the final step of the assembly, to glue the cover to the actual pages. This is a fairly simple step, but it pays to take it slow and be very careful so that everything is aligned properly.
To attach the cover to the text block, you need 2 more pieces of paper. You can use the same color of paper as the rest of your pages, or a different color for style. Fold these papers in half just like the pages, and glue each one to either side of your text block. Just a quarter inch strip of glue on the top page next to the spine is enough. Carefully make sure that these pages line up with the rest of your text block.
Once you have the cover pages attached to the text block, you can apply glue all over the outer side of the top page and glue it to the cover. Make sure that you leave a uniform gap all around the edge of the cover. Then do the same with the back cover page, making that everything is aligned properly. Make sure to smooth out the paper so that there aren’t any air bubbles.
If you have a hard spine cover on your book then make sure that it’s in the right place. If your book has a soft spine like mine that you won’t have to worry about that. Again, this video shows how to glue everything together.
Once everything is glued together, leave it in a press or under weights overnight for everything to dry. If you’re worried about glue seeping out onto the rest of the pages, then you can slide larger pieces of paper under the cover pages to protect the rest of the book. In the morning your book will be fully dry and ready to use.
Step 9: The Writing
To complete my prop, I filled it with Elvish writing that describes the journeys of its former owner. I used a fountain pen with a medium flat nib, otherwise known as an italic nib or a cursive nib. This gives the writing some variation in line thickness that looks like medieval writing.
Step 10: Decorations
I decided to leave my journal plain, but there are many ways that you can decorate your book to suit your game or story. You might want to add some straps around the cover, or apply some metal corners. You could carve or paint some words onto the cover, or even put something between the cardboard and the leather so that it stands out like embossing after you glue it. The options are pretty much endless for how you can customize your book prop.