Catching up with the Books.

My book binding course has been continuing but I haven’t written a post for a while. This is a lot to do with the fact I have been extremely busy, not just in work but doing fun things like attending the Doughnut Day at the American Museum and biking to Bath to see a friends MA Print show. However I have still been attending and making books.

During one of the missed weeks we learnt how to make cases for our books. The important point from this lesson was to make each box to fit an individual book, to ensure your joints are square and to sand your edges before covering the box to ensure a clean finish. While I liked the boxes and the approach to making them, with each side made out of an individual bit of card (my instinct would have been to make it out a strip) I’m not sure how much I’ll use it.

The following week was much more interesting for me as we moved onto craft books, in this case a travel journal made out of soft kid leather. The stitching shows through the leather with it starting from inside the signatures rather than the outside. It is important to use a template to pierce your holes in the kid first as it is quite tough and ensure enough of an overlap for the kid to wrap around. Use a leather punch to cut the holes that hold the thong that is used to close the journal. 

This week we looked at copic binding, a technique I had seen mentioned in some of the bookbinding books I had been browsing. This also leaves the stitching exposed at the spine with the signatures sewn directly to the covering boards. This method allows you to greater variety in your stitching but for a good finish means that you have to get the tension right.

Over the last few weeks I have also been making some presents for friends. I’ve listed these below with a brief description of how they were made.
Redcar Map Book: French bound square backed book with original Ordnance Survey maps covering the Redcar and Cleveland region. Buckram cover. 

A6 notebook with multicoloured signatures, wallpaper sample paper cover and buckram spine, French bound.

Square concertina book containing lyrics to first verse of ‘Little Boxes” Cover made from rubber stamp printed cloth and red embroidary thread.

Square albums with mixture of card and paper signatures. French bound with mixed material covers including buttons and stitching. Both intended as baby albums. (Second image to follow)

Thin notebook with double thickness paper covered boards, stab bound with embroidery thread. 

A5 french bound notebook will wallpaper sample paper and stitched buckram cover.