Handmade wood albums and guest books from antique furniture.
Fragments of old furniture are base for all of our work. We transform the old, stable massive wood into unique handmade book covers and other beauties.
We live in Portugal and search for fragments of old furniture that are destined for decay or destruction. LACUNAwork gives the quality material new life as covers of albums, wedding albums or diaries but also create boxes, hangers or folders. We search to re-use all the charming old elements as keyholes, old sofa leather or broken clock interiors to create a new future for the material with so much memory.
It´s like a hunt to find old wood for our work - we have our places but many times we return with nothing. So when the lucky day comes we do not hesitate to jump into dumper or take hours to disassemble wardrobe torso. Later the wood needs to be cleaned from varnish cut and planed. Then comes the long sanding process always finished by careful hand finish using the very soft grain.
For the personalized engravings the drawings are made directly on the cover. In some cases, a specific design can be transferred on the wood. The engravings are made with small chisels, the wood is sanded and finally treated with beeswax. After the covers are finished, they are ready for the hand binding. The sheets need to be assembled into blocks - in case of the photo albums, we cannot forget to include spacers to allow the book close flat with photos. We use Coptis stitch and shoemaker cord for stable and resistant binding.
Old wood ready to be transformed.
Magnificent working space. We know!
Carving the design with small chisels. Low profile engravings for personalized covers.
Hand stitching photo album using coptic stitch.