In the studio: How we created a custom guest book

The complete project! Please see below for more images of the complete book.

This book was created for friends of ours as a comment and photograph book for their wedding.

The theme is derived based on their heritage and one of their shared passions; guitars and music.

We began the project by designing, cutting, engraving, tooling and applying the first coat of dye on

the leather. With the metal we began and finished the etching process, shaped the guitar pick closure

and sanded the item. Here is the remaining steps of the project.

The back of the guitar pick closure. We made a large jump ring and soldered it with silver solder to the back of the closure (there is currently no perfect match for soldering copper so we use the same solder as in our silver jewelry). The metal has some firescale (the purple and red stains), we descaled it with a warm pickle liquor bath.

After washing and drying the guitar pick, Tanner sanded the back and front in preparation for oxidation.

After the pickle bath the metal has a matte film on it. At this point it could have been washed and put in a tumbler for a high shine but since we let it cool down without quenching it in water it maintained its work hardened state without tumbling.

Pictured here; oxidizing the guitar pick and a selection of Templar cross shield pendants including a new style of shield. The metal was then washed and sanded to its final antiqued matte finish.

Favourite tool from this project:

The GRS Third-Hand with Soldering Station.

This item can twist, rotate and bend

in all directions. The GRS

Soldering Station combines

Third-Hands with durable

non-asbestos solder boards.

The max operating temperature

is 600°F (316°C).

Three coats of dye were used on the outside of the book and two on the inside with a total drying period of 24 hours. The leather is now ready to finish with a sealant.

handmade guitar leather bound journal tutorial

Tanner buffing the front of the book with lambswool.

Tanner buffing the back of the book with lambswool.

Amy preparing the custom signatures for the book.

Amy hand painting the knot work with gold leather paint.

The finished hand painted item. Tanner then went over all the gold with a sealant. We tried a different sealant and a the gold ended up a copper colour instead!