I have a hot foil printing press, which I use to print my own bellows papers. I also occasionally sell sets of papers to people who want to decorate their own instrument. Drop me an email via the contact page if you are interested in purchasing a set.
Although most of the pictures below are gold foil, I also have silver and rose gold foil in stock and other colours are available to order.
Several of the instruments I’ve made have had special custom designs, designed in collaboration with or provided by my client.
Geometric Designs
I made two variations on this Japanese wave pattern paper while experimenting with line widths, and I don’t think anybody has ordered it yet.
I also made a simple pattern of five pointed stars that hasn’t yet been used on an instrument:
A Pictish key pattern that I used on No. 10:
I also used the same pattern on No. 6 printed with silver foil instead of gold. A strange reaction happened with the brush-on lacquer I used on this set that gave the foil a shimmery bluish tint that was only visible at certain angles. I thought it was actually quite beautiful, though unintentional.
Leaves
No. 5 has a sycamore leaf and seed pod design, made in collaboration with my client:
I made a complementary elm leaf design for the same client’s second instrument. Note that these are meant for a 7″ wide baritone Anglo and might not fit on standard-size bellows. They are 86.5mm wide by 25mm tall.
Dragon
The dragon bellows papers on No. 8 were designed by Sue Mason, a mutual friend of the client and myself. The design has exceptionally fine details so I had the printing plates etched in copper.
Pictish Beast
No. 9 has a Pictish beast design provided by the client, based on a design licensed from a third party:
Hand Colouring
The fanciest bellows papers I’ve made were for No. 7. It has two designs; a pair of roses and a butterfly. I drew the patterns in collaboration with the client. The designs were printed in rose gold foil on ivory paper, then hand coloured with watercolour paint and a brush. The wings of the butterflies appear to fly as you play the instrument. The paint is deliberately slightly imperfect and inconsistent to add more variation and visual interest.
Imitation Leather
I also sometimes make bellows with plain black imitation leather papers like on No. 12:
I ran out of the imitation leather paper I used on earlier instruments and have since switched to a different brand that has a smoother texture, as seen on No. 14 below. One disadvantage of the new imitation leather paper is that is actually white paper with a black coating on the surface, so I have to run a black pen around the edge of each paper to avoid a visible white line.
Printing on Imitation Leather
I have experimented with foil printing on the new imitation leather paper. The resulting papers look quite different from my usual matt black paper: the black parts are darker and glossier and the foil parts are denser and more reflective, but with a bit less fine detail. Note that in the example below I sprayed a satin varnish onto the paper on the right, which also makes the foil look less bright.
A static photo doesn’t quite show the difference in how the light catches the two options, so I recorded a quick video clip with a moving light source:
Real Leather
I also sometimes make real leather ‘papers’ so that the bellows are fully covered in leather, like on No. 15.
