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Article
"Fips" and His Eels: Fish Skin in Bookbinding
Book Arts arts du livre Canada (2019)
  • Peter D Verheyen
Abstract
While fish skin, generally tanned, has been used in binding for decorative elements such as in- or on-lays and to create protective wrappers for books, it has a long history of use for clothing, sword handles, objets d’art, and other applications, as well. Plentiful, strong, and visually quite interesting, its preparation can take the form of drying (parchment) or various tanning methods. Geographically, its use has been most prevalent in northern climes where the skins are less likely to rot because of lower temperatures. Most common have been oceanic species. This article provides an overview of fish skin as a binding material, provides instructions on making parchment from fish, how to work with the material, and shares other resources.
Keywords
  • Fish,
  • Parchment,
  • Leather,
  • bookbinding
Publication Date
Fall 2019
Citation Information
Peter D Verheyen. ""Fips" and His Eels: Fish Skin in Bookbinding" Book Arts arts du livre Canada Vol. 10 Iss. 2 (2019) p. 5 - 16
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/peter_verheyen/52/
Creative Commons license
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-SA International License.