The 9th Gate

I like the movie, "The Ninth Gate", with Johnny Depp and Frank Langella. I like the simple and sedate, yet obviously malevolent, look of the book featured in it. This, of course, looks nothing like the book from the movie, but the reversed pentagram on the cover reminds me of it.

This is my latest in the "encyclopedia conversion" series of prop books. It features a mottled dark green vinyl cover, with embossed reptile skin pattern. The corner embellishments and the central pentagram are cast resin with an antique bronze finish. The spine plaque is chip board with raised glyphs made from hot glue. It is finished with acrylic paint and gold rub-n-buff.

The most unique thing about this piece (compared to similar tomes I have done in this series) is the locking mechanism. I used a solid brass security chain (like you would have on your front door) and cut it to length. I had to do some reshaping of the mounting plaque with the dremel and a hammer. Then I had to do some soldering, because I didn't realize that brass is easily work hardened and will crack if you try to un-bend it without annealing it first. The four rivet heads on the mounting plaque are brass nail heads that were cut off and super glued in place. I used the end which gets slid into the slot (and which got cut off when I shortened the chain) as the other half of the clasp to be mounted to the front cover of the book. It had a brass loop that was the perfect size to accommodate the little brass lock. I cut a recess hole in the front cover and glued the brass piece firmly in place.

If you are new to this blog, check out the posts for some of my other tomes from the encyclopedia conversion series, Baphomet Tomes and Rites of Azathoth,