Five planets are seen gathering in the heavens like the gods themselves sitting down to a Wagnerian opus. Whispers of a people for whom Armageddon has already come wearing armor and speaking Spanish echo like words of the Hebrew Prophets against the polished marble of an American entertainment industry effete  and choking. JRR Bookworks binds one of the most sought after occult book sets of the 20th century. The year 2012 has proven to be what the ancient Chinese curse referred to when it stated , “ may you live in interesting times”.  It certainly seems “interesting” to some, myself included, and so too seems to blow an ill wind for many if the vernacular modes of news are accepted. But I am not so blind as to think that what is of note to some, we devotees versed in the language of those ancient masters hoary with age and wisdom or those chthonic prophets chanting names and sounds yet not even words, is of note to all. When what is considered  “interesting” to the public seems to be the newest technological piece of planned obsolescence or the Lupercalian howls of devouring beasts bursting forth from ill fitted wool coats who cry “ the end is near buy my preparation kit!”…well, I realize that to draw attention to things ancient, things considered of esoteric import, or things cyclical in nature is a Herculean task. Still, it is a task I am driven to and one in which I hope I will be viewed as herculean and not what Hercules must have viewed when bending over to inspect the floors of the Augean stables. Binding these books has been ….well …interesting, to say the least. To draw attention to them…to weave an image somehow appropriate to the content has indeed been a labor.

 If an actor can act by means of psychological empathy for a character so too can I bind by taking a psycho spiritual empathy with the egregore of a system of magickal philosophy. Of course to do so is to face the cthonic entities that reside just beyond the borders of this planar reality. Once you look at them….they of course will look back and when they do they are unblinking and enduring in their stares.

This set came to me in its black paper covered boards and I removed this lower class carcass and cut new boards  and leather for suits more fitting to the dark nature of the collection. Of course I added spine bands and rebacked each book. After mounting the leather I dyed it, many many ….many times. Colors, darker colors, deckles and spackles and marbles (oh my). Once a base coat was established I put a reverse stencil over the covers and dyed black and the deepest brown I could mix in order to define the edges of a central motif.

The designs for each were inspired on the spot and de profundis- a seminal cosmic swirl, a mothman Rorschach, a screaming flailing flame beast resplendent with eyes galore. This Spare-like somnambulistic design style was continued throughout the binding process especially for the drawings I executed for the main gold stamps. I was not familiar with the content of the books or the drawings within, only the dust jackets and many writings about the nature of Grants magickal system. I did not want to copy any copyrighted material so I read synopses of each book and then sat for drawing the images.  I was happy to see my drawings worked well with the content of the books.

Once the stencil shapes were dyed I then used a bone folder to press and burnish the leather around these shapes in order to push it down. Each book took hours to work. Once the shapes were made I pared pieces of leather down for a central onlay and mounted that…uesed hand cut brass stamps for the back covers and hand drawn images that had been made into gold stamps for the covers.

 I darkened, cajoled, oiled, waxed, smoothed until my hands cramped and my temper flared. I added innumerable tiny dots of gold and silver leaf, eye shaped dots, circles and any organic shape I could conjure.

Once the covers were done I added a design on the spines with onlays, burnishing, stamping, and dyes that is another squid cum root cum horned Rorschach image. This again took weeks to complete with each piece being hand pared paper-thin roughed base leahter-glue-bone folder-burnish…..ad nauseum.

The final set is a unique one of a kind hand bound goat skin, hand dyed, hand burnished and stamped set with three colors, three designs, and nine custom dies- three custom sigil stamps and too many hours to recall.

May you live in interesting times….

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