I got into bookbinding because I had some time to kill when my wife was on holiday, and I saw a wonderful YouTube series from Four Keys Book Arts on their rebind of Dune. Please go check it out, the videography and bookbinding skill are through the roof.
Needless to say, I love the book, and I was planning to do a rebind too, but the hardback I purchased was printed with the wrong grain direction, and was disappointingly cheaply made. So, I bought a digital copy of the book, and typeset it myself.
I decided to use a good few different selections of leather to make the sand dune patterns for the front of the book, and I shamelessly copied the idea of using magnets and an islamic style of case from four keys.
Things I'd change here are using stronger magnets, and spend more time paring the leather, so I could overlap the leather onto each other, rather than backing them side by side onto paper.
I'd also look at reducing the size of the book by lessening the amount of whitespace per paragraph.
The book is a statement piece for my early bookbinding days, and it's currently on display with a few others in my living room. It's a lovely, slightly flawed piece, and the first I've made that I'm proud of.
