This was a request from my buddy Matt for his wife. The hardest part was finding a picture of a unicorn that I didn’t hate and that would translate well to the medium. This one is derived from DeviantArt user Ludendorf’s “Unicorn Icons“:
I took the basic lines and simplified it a little, traced out the lines, and cut and tooled. The core design is almost mechanical; I tried to keep that feel as much as possible. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any shots prior to this point in the tooling.
…and then hit with a liberal dash of Eco-Flo Gold Frost Hi-Lite Color Stain, which makes it uber-sparkly in the light. This, unfortunately, is just about impossible to capture with my camera skills.
For comparison, here’s the original (which was oriented horizontally):
Another attempt (in vain) to get the richness of the colors to show. I messed with all sorts of settings, trying to get it, but it just wasn’t happening. Otherwise, it’s a conventional cover (for me, at least): black pigskin lining, brown waxed thread saddle stitching (which contrasts nicely), and a ribbon bookmark sewn behind the lining.
Of course, Matt clearly needed his own notebook cover (his work uses the same ugly green Office Depot notebooks as mine), so that was the next project.
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