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Simplicity combined with luxury - handmade paper, leather and goatskin vellum.

These have been crafted entirely by hand in our workshop - the machinery for shaping the covers, paper and the case are hand powered, the holes are drilled by hand. 

Forty sides of our beautiful handmade paper are sandwiched between hand embossed, thick, chocolate brown leather, and housed in a simple, folded case made from one of life's most luxurious and rarely used natural materials, vellum.

We wanted to make something practical and simple using the best materials available so that you can experience the joy of using some of the most wonderful paper, whilst protecting your work with a traditional, hard wearing, leather cover.

THE PAPER INSIDE

VPCo Handmade is a paper for us and for people like us - an all-rounder, for printing, painting and drawing. 

It's made from a 60/40 blend of cotton and linen and works with every type of media we've tried it with - paints, inks, pencils, etc. 

The colour is a creamy white with a slight surface texture and the weight is 220gsm, nice and thick. We rounded the corners because it's a great way to protect the paper when in transit - squared corners can catch and deform in a pocket or a bag, rounded corners less so. 

You can read more about VPCo Handmade Paper here.

THE BINDING

We've made this series of books as simply as we possibly could and so we gathered the paper, drilled holes and sandwiched it between two pieces of leather and joined it up with a single screwpost to the corner.

The book fans open rather than unfolding open. 

The leather is a thick, vegetable tanned cow hide in chocolate brown, each piece about 4mm thick. The front covers are embossed with our logo.

The screw post is removable. To take out a drawing to give away, sell or frame, all you have to do is unscrew the post, take out the paper and reassemble the binding. It takes about 30 seconds max.

The Travel Sketcher is pocket friendly in both size and structure. It's a 4-inch square book and much like a wallet, when in a side or back trouser pocket, it's flexible so very comfortable 

THE CASE

Like leather, vellum (aka parchment) is an animal skin product but it's processed differently to give a refined, smooth, papery finish.

At VPCo we have a huge stock holding of vellum, and here is some of it. A beautiful material to use in many crafts from bookbinding, watercolour painting, printing and furniture making, musical instrument parts etc. 

In ancient times, vellum was the predecessor to paper and was only used for precious things - illuminated religious texts, and maps. It wasn't used by "normal" people - it was the material of monarchs, bishops and society's hierarchy.

Here is a whole goatskin vellum, as used for the VPCo Travel Sketchbook case. On close inspection you can see a grain and and the colour can graduate from white to grey to buttery yellow.

Today vellum is still an eye wateringly expensive material, and as such is rarely used for things like travel sketchbook cases but we're a bit daft and thought why not? We can harvest about 4 of these cases per skin and use the left overs for other upcoming projects.  

The case is cut into a single shape, creased, folded and held together with a single Sam Brown stud.  The book slips right into it.

A word of warning - vellum is incredibly strong and when treated carefully will outlast leather and paper but it shares many of paper's characteristics - it will crease, and it can be marked with grubby fingers, inks, coffee etc, so if you're taking it out in the field, it'll likely show signs of wear and tear so bear that in mind! 

We think this is the perfect companion for artists on the go who value best quality paper.

SUMMARY

Paper - VPCo Handmade, 220gsm, 20 sheets (40 sides)

Binding - Leather covers, bound with a removable screw post.

Case - Goatskin vellum

Size - 4 x 4 inch, 101 x 101 mm.

SHIPPING RATES

UK £5.50, USA, CAN, AUS, NZ £16.50, EUROPE £12

Sent via Royal Mail as a small parcel with tracking.  

PLEASE NOTE - Orders placed combinding other products such as printed paper can increase shipping charges and we may have to contact you to ask for a separate shipping payment.