I admit, I watch a fair piece of TV, but a recent episode of “Dirty Jobs” on the Discovery Channel called “Vellum Maker” was helpfully brought to my attention.  I’m still looking for a copy of the full episode, but in the meantime, these clips will have to suffice.

I came face to face with the nasty process of vellum making for the first time when I met Jack Thompson in Portland, Oregon.  He welcomed me into his backyard for an impromptu visit and led me straight away to a vat filled with milky-looking liquid from which he lifted a half soaked deer skin with a rough stick.

“Bleh! What’s that?”

“Future vellum.”

It did not look nice.  It did not smell nice.  I can’t imagine that it was something I ever wanted to touch.  And after watching these clips, I think I’ll leave this work to the professionals (especially the last vid: I promise you, it is not for the faint of heart).  The professionals in this case are the folks at Pergamena Handmade Parchment.  I think I’m going to splurge for their sample book so I can fantasize about future projects while fondling the pages.

Now that we know how vellum is made, how is it used?  I found a few neat sites showing historical uses, as well as modern techniques.  This first one is a flash animation in French from the Bibliotheque National de France showing the preparation of folios for illumination from hides.  Next a lovely gallery of Limp Vellum Bindings from the British Library gathered together by Douglas Rice.  Signature Bindery has a neat step-by-step photo gallery of a vellum-bound copy of Lord of the Rings.  And finally, a detailed how-to manual put together (in pdf format) by Peter Verheyen on vellum binding.

I’ve seen vellum-bound material do some wacky things here in our super-dry climate of Montana.  Several large volumes of fairy tales illustrated by Arthur Rackham irreversibly flared out because of a nasty one-two punch of poor storage and arid climate.  Vellum doesn’t like the opposite end of the humidity spectrum either.  So, remember: treat your hide-bound books like the critters they came from.  Not to hot, and not too cold, not too damp and not too dry.  Juuuust right.

Tell me, what are your experiences using this tricky material?