This first photo is mostly for my friend B. Haro, whose kind comments and support of my bookbinding has been a great inspiration to me. Here we are running some tests on the Kwikprint Model 86. I kid you not, I did a sort of hopping/flailing happy dance after getting an impression right. Temperature and pressure are the kings of hot foil stamping, but you may as well give it up if you haven’t got the right machine. The Model 86 is a relic of the days when American goods were made to last. This thing probably hadn’t been fired up in a decade. We turned it on and it worked. The Model 86 is so good that the design has never been changed. And no, I am not being paid by Kwikprint to say these things. They are just that good and I am so very glad to have this one in my kitchen.

I love how you can just about see the brass plate reflected in the silver foil. Sadly, in this photo you can’t very well see the imprint that plate made. 350 degrees fahrenheit seemed to do it for the leather. On paper (we stamped book plates as well) it took at about 200. The result of all of this stamping and dancing was the final touch on The Book of Paramazda, a full leather bound edition made entirely by hand. Okay so I didn’t make the paper, but I cut and folded every sheet with scalpel and bone and that counts.