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Binding • 29 x 20.5 x 3
Bound in grey oasis morocco formed over textured
boards, with bevelled inner edges, evocative of the
graining and layering of slate; the leather doublures
smoothed with a polishing iron, and deeply blinded
and gold tooled squares are asymmetrically placed on
outer and inner surfaces. The spine is of folded, compressed
leather, indicating stacked slates. The endpapers
are textured with impressions of the outer boards
coloured with acrylics. Head has the original gilding
of the casebound edition. Silk head and tail bands
blend with either end.
Container • 33.5 x 24.7 x 4.2
A 'clam' type box with leather jointing at spine, constructed
from laminates of millboard stained with
acrylic paints; the outer layers of stained paper. Title
'stone' uses the letter forms of the book and is apparently
chalked on the top cover. Lined in suede, with a
petersham ribbon lift; thumb space at foredge tooled
as 'iron pyrites' in gold and palladium.
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Concept
The shores of Seil Island are lined with depths of slate
fragments from the deserted slate quarry of Belnahua
in the Firth of Lome, all but reclaimed by the sea. The
rough sheets have been rounded and smoothed, the
lustrous greys studded with fool's gold and pitted with
cuboid hollows. The slates of the local houses acquire
a beautiful patina as they age, and meld with the background
of tall cliffs and shoreline. The idea for this
binding came from the layered nature of the slates and
their versatile practical and decorative applications -
including the old school slate that suggested the treatment
of the title on the container, which could also be
preparation for letter cutting. The box was based on
stacks of our old roof slates that sadly had to be
replaced.
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