A Set of Hinged Covers

I’m pleased to have created a first product using the lattice hinges: a laser engraved, hand printed A5 sketchbook for Red-Violet Made.

They use a pair of lattice hinges gives a double fold that operates like a normal hard back book, with a flat spine instead of curved like other booklets. Using such a small radius corner with the lattice hinges means only having a small number of torsional links, so there must be more clearance than a single laser cut between each link so the hinge doesn’t bind at maximum bending deflection.

To lower the stiffness of the hinge and make it soft enough to open and close, this booklet uses long, thin torsional links. However, the increased link gap with the lower stiffness links means the hinge needs to be supported on the inside to stop any extension and perform normally.

The inner liner is screen-printed by hand, as well as a pocket on each side that holds the card cover of the sketchbook. The sketchbook inside is held by the pocket, so it can be replaced to refill the wooden cover. A ribbon on each side can be used to tie the book closed, though the softness of the hinge means it will stay closed without it.

The front covers are engraved by laser with original hand-drawn artwork from Jennifer Fenner (under the studio name Red-Violet Made) that are scanned and resized to cover the whole area. Using laser etching gives a consistent depth of etch and allows very fine detail in the wood, while also picking up some of the grain detail and a fine striated pattern where material is removed, caused by the repeated close scanning of the laser beam.

This first run of booklets were presented for sale at the Bluecoat Artist’s Book Fair. Of the seven manufactured, only three remain unsold, and we’ve been asked to present the remainder for sale in our online shop — with only a short time before the last posting dates for Christmas!

More detail of the manufacturing procedure is shown below.