(un)Guiltily Going Giddy Over Gilt Fore-edge Painting - Kabuteng P.Ink K.'s Blog

You know how it is sometimes when someone shows you something so remarkable that you just "ooh" and "ahh"? 

Just the other day, my sister excitedly showed me something amazing!! She had asked me if I have ever encountered "fore-edge painting"... at first I wasn't sure what she meant by that-- I wasn't even sure what it was... apparently this pertains to the part of the book (oopsy, I wasn't familiar with what that was called!)... there's the top, the bottom and the fore-edge.... and she asked me if I ever encountered gilt books before (sidenote here-- *blush* I didn't know what "gilt"/"gilded" meant until I was in college-- this was one of those words that for some reason, just hit me bad when I knew what it meant, hmm most likely 'coz it ate at me that I didn't figure it out even with the context/ root clues she gave-- yeah I am silly this way; gilded and brethren are two of those words. doiinks.)

Anyhow, going back... she shared with me these YouTube videos and in a word, it's just magical. Basically, fore-edge painting is the painting on the edges of the pages of the book and when this becomes hidden when the pages are gilt. Once the pages are fanned out, the painting would be revealed! Love the idea of this! Martin Frost, a fore-edge painter, of course explains it much better than I do... I hope this beautiful artform becomes more known; I think it would be fun to explore and experiment on this though

Makes me think just how there is so much hidden wonder in so many aspects in our lives-- be it in books, or yes, in poetry. In poetry, I always get much added satisfaction whenever I "hide" something in my writes. It's like this hidden treasure that you bury and wait if somebody gets to uncover it and in turn, if you get lucky-- others would find other treasures in it that you didn't hide yourself but because they have different viewpoints, get to find additional gems. Just like in those fore-edge paintings.

I'll just stop babbling here and let you view the videos and I hope you get as amazed by it as I was (or if you already knew about it, that you be just awed again with people's creativity)