Gold Tooled E-Textile Circuits on Bookcloth

Gold tooling is the process of applying gold leaf to the bookcloth or leather of a book's cover and is a long established technique within the book arts, an artistic field that encompasses a vast array of works, both practical and expressive, each centred around the book. Experimentation found that applied gold leaf has sufficiently low resistance (0.24 Ω / □) to be used for electrical interconnection. While soldering proved difficult, conductive epoxy combined with an adhesive underfill was electrically and mechanically sufficient for mounting components. This introduces the possibility of adding interactive elements to a discipline in which novel forms and functionality are common themes.