For many of us, the notebook is a valuable object as a personal recorder of our thoughts. The Moleskine has brought together these sketchbook lovers’ in a community where members share and exchange about their contents but also their notebooks customization including its cover with very aesthetic laser engraved illustration. A customization service that had to stop as Moleskine covers contain PVC which is toxic for laser engravers when laser burnt. But I may have found an alternative …
I met the Molecover organization on twitter @molecover. I was immediately captivated by their covers made in finest quality natural leather and handmade by leather artisans in the San Francisco area.
From experience, I know that leather is a perfect material to be personalized by laser engraving. So I ordered one of this Molecover and selected an illustration file to custom’ the cover that will protect my future books to come.
The size of the leather cover and its plane surface is very easy to position on the table of CO2 laser engraving machine :
Cover positioned on the laser engraving machine table
The result is stunning! On the beige book, the color contrast produced by the laser beam is a perfect black, so that we could think it is ink printing but with more permanence and without the constraints of implementation relating to the ink that requires a minimum set to cushion the production.
Here the customization is really unitary and precision and finesse of the laser beam makes possible some of the customization with very small sizes characters that allow me to add contacts of its owner in case of loss of the book. Furthermore the personnalisation process is very fast as shown with this video of the etching process :
This first prototype is really good.
So I will continue this investigation for customization of this leather cover of a notebook by ordering more blankets for testing with other colors and machine settings to play on the depths and nuances of the laser engraving.
In the meantime you can find the prototype and my coming attempts on an Etsy shop.
And you are welcome send me your files if you want me to show-off your illustrations applied to the customization of a notebook.
