More than a journal or a book, a grimoire is meant to harvest, compile, channel, or even seal a magic power.
Object of many fantasies, it represents a treasure of occult knowledge, and a main accessory of witchcraft and sorcery.

They usually take the aspect of the spells they contain, their covers being deformed by what hides within their pages.

A grimoire can be a perfect companion to an adventurer willing to show off their experience to their peers ;
a reliable confident to a hermit seeking a refuge for their toughts and drawings ;
an extravagant shrine for a tale dear to a connoisseur exhibiting their collection.

Crafting different Grimoires

Crafting grimoires is what brought me into bookbinding in the first place.
I found it to be a way of making something grand and meaningful -a book- and giving it an even bigger aura ; an object that draws attention, that tells a story even before reading its first page.

My starting point, when imagining a totally new kind of book, is to think of it as something that lived, was used, loved and lost.
In that fantasy world, who would have bound this book? What material would they have, what would have been their priorities?
Exploring those stories helps me a lot when prototyping grimoires.

The first few iterations won't usually be as viable as I wished tough, but that is fine. That means we are already in the second step, during which solving structural problems would guide and evolve parts of the design. While hitting many walls can be frustrating, it is absolutely essential to reaching a final aspect that looks authentic.
Those difficulties make the grimoires feel real, distant from the clichés that inevitably accompany their concept.

Sometimes, a few limitations persist on a type of grimoire that is otherwise functional, robust and appealing.
Those limitations mean two things to me: first, they contribute to a feeling of authenticity ; and second, I will keep thinking about them, improving my craft, and maybe even find a way to circumvent them some future day.

I put just as much effort in crafting each of them, as I take pride when I see the stars in peoples' eyes.
If you like my style, please commission me!

Inspired by undead monsters of fantasy, this grimoire is meant to rule crypts and cemeteries, hanging at the belt of a gloomy necromancer.

It is a slender ribcage of wood maintained by tendrils of rope. Underneath its skin of leather lies a flesh of cotton rag.
A bookmark of thin leather rests among its pages.
On the outside, two phalanxes of rope crawl out of its spine, eager to hang at a necromancer's belt.

Through withstanding lifetimes of seclusion and relinquishment, its cover has been torn apart on each and every layer.
Its leather and cloth both have surrendered their efforts to fully contain the wooden boards of the cover, which in turn leaks glimpses of pages it can harbor no longuer.

Inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy, this grimoire is meant to walk the deck of some warship, hanging at the belt of a fierce captain.

Its pages are of cotton rag paper, bound in leather and sheltered in a hull of wood.
The cover is intertwined in cords, reinforced by rivets and nails.
A sturdy rope is anchored to the back cover through two heavy buckles, and locks the book by circling the fore edge and looping around a hardened leather toggle on the front cover.
Finally, its spine secures two robust buckles, to firmly hook it to a belt.