Bookbinding - Practice Makes Perfect

So last week I completed my first rounded spine book, not with total success. This week I was going to have another go 

I hadn’t completed any other books over the weekend because I’d spent most of Sunday playing with my rubber stamps and ink. This had left me with a number of printed papers which I was hoping to use as end papers.

 Unfortunately I learnt a valuable lesson when it comes to these prints. One they take a very long time to dry. Days, if not weeks, for the thicker ones. Secondly, if they are not completely dry then they will smudge and mark, especially when dampened through the process of gluing in the end papers. Therefore after using these prints I have found that they have smudged slightly due to the pressure of the the nipping process and the friction caused through opening and closing the book. However the printing I had done on the front of last weeks books seems to have dried OK and doesn't smudge so I am more confident about using these prints to cover books. I might also try having photocopies made of the originals in order to get round the problem of smudging. 

However the first process with this weeks book was to trim and round the spine of the block I was currently working on. With a better understanding of the process I took much more care measuring out my guidelines for the rounding. I had also French bound the block in order to make it looser, and therefore easier to round. 

I made the decision, because I wanted to protect the end papers, to leave attaching these until after the block had been rounded and although the end result was still not perfect I think this helped protect the prints to some extent. It made no difference to the finished book which apart from the smudged end covers has a much more symmetrical rounding and overall a much nicer finish when compared to last weeks book. 

I have found that I have struggled with cutting the buckram at the corners of the boards - especially in regards to leaving the right amount of cloth to sufficiently cover the boards. I seem to leave to little or too much and can’t get the balance right. This week I trimmed too much on one side so that the grey boards just show through. However it doesn’t show to much on the closed book and the overall it looks good. Certainly the spine is much more symmetrical. 

Next week we are going to make slip cases for these books and then we are going to finish off the course by making some leather books using a non traditional binding technique. 

Bookbinding - Week 4 and a Few Experiments.

Week 3 and it was time to try and salvage my rounded spine notebook. Last week I’d sort of achieved the rounded spine and applied the scrim and paper strip to hold the shape and support it. This week we were going to apply the cover. 

The process is slightly different than for a square spine book. First you don’t need the spine strip, just two boards for the covers. Make sure you have a square edge on these and then fit them into the lip you have created. Mark out the covers making them 3-4 mm bigger than your block. Ensure your cover corners are square (the block may no longer be ‘true’) and repeat for the other cover. (Your covers may not necessarily be identical, depending on how symmetrical your spine is so make sure you know which is the front and back.)

Next cut a piece of stiff paper the same width as the circumference of your spine and the same height of your covers. This will support the spine as it is not glued to the block. Use a scrap piece of paper to mark the necessary gap for your spine (in the same way as you did for the square book but measuring between the top of each’ ‘lip’) Lay out your boards on your bookcloth and cut out an appropriate section, leaving at least 3cm overlap. Glue the entire cloth. Then fit the boards into the block ensuring they fit snugly into the lips created for for them. Carefully place onto the glued cloth and then holding boards in place fold the cloth over the top. Unfold and remove the block. Lay your support strip in place and then fold in the excess edges as for a regular book, ensuring you ‘tuck’ your corners in. (A technique I am yet to master!) Then, as for a regular book paste up your end papers and attach to the cover, ensuring the cloth fits snugly round the spine. Give a final press in the nipping press and you are done. 

Unfortunately the finished book fell victim to the printing studio and the lovely bright cover ended up marked with ink. This gave me the perfect opportunity to get out my rubber stamps and experiment with my new printing ink. I’m quite please the result - even if I am still waiting for it to dry. The major issue with it is that the spine really isn’t that round, which is why I’m going to have another attempt. Apparently the secret is to ensure your sewing isn’t too tight so I’m going to be careful with my next block.  

I also sewed some blocks over the week, the nicest being this multi-coloured one. I’m yet to decide how to finish it although I’m thinking music for the end papers.

I’d also bought a cheap vintage Penguin from Oxfam and wanted to do something with it. Because I couldn’t trim the edges of a block over the weekend I tried using a rustic torn effect. I didn’t like this in the finished product and ended up removing the block - I plan to replace it with a vertical notepad type arrangement at some point because I do like the cover.

The cover is created slightly differently to a regular book. The Penguin cover is too thick to fold around boards successfully and trying to do so would have made the final cover too small. So the cover is trimmed flush with the edge of boards and stuck down firmly. The spine is created using a strip of buckram laid flush with the paper cover. It helped that I was using cream mount board which makes the finish cleaner - grey board would have been to visible at the edges. 

The block is then attached using the end papers as normal. I’m not sure how sturdy this will be long term and if you don’t mind the shiny finish some sticky back plastic would probably provide a protective finish. (Don’t worry, I have a Blue Peter badge so I’m qualified to use sticky back plastic unsupervised!)

I’d also picked up a Ladybird Easy-Reading book called The Story of Football. These books are interesting because they have lovely colourful covers with thick boards that adapt well into a notebook. I removed the original pages, used the title page and one of the illustrations to create the end papers and finished the spine area with a strip of buckram. 

The block itself is sewn as normal and then an end paper is added to the top only. I glued an illustration to the top end paper and then glued this to the second half  to create a slightly thicker ‘cover’. The spine was covered and strengthened with a strip of buckram and then the whole thing is glued vertically onto the inside of the covers. 

The technique needs perfecting. For example, I should have attached the end papers onto the buckram spine strip first and folded the edges over before attaching to the book covers.  The ‘cover’ of the paper block could also have been finished better  as I had to improvise to cover the scrim and ribbons. However the end result is fun, if possibly not very practical. 

Book Binding Week 3 - Hammer Time!

Last week we had finished our first books - in my case a cloth bound A4 book, very similar to an artist's sketchpad. This week were going to repeat the process again in order to embed the skills, but this time with a twist. We were going to make rounded spine books, a process which gives the spine edge a convex curve and the opposite, loose page side, a concave finish. 

Rounded spine books work best when the book is thicker, in fact mainy antique books will have a rounded spice. To this end we needed to sew more paper to make our blocks, in my case 7 blocks of 4 pages, using fairly thick paper. 

One trick I learnt at this point was that you could take a piece of A3, fold it twice to form a A5 block and then sew it as normal. The folded edges don’t matter because they will be trimmed off later in the process. 

Once the blocks were sewn and trimmed on the lay you need to glue the spine as before but this time without the scrim. Before the glue is totally dry you then need to attack your book with a hammer, literally. 

Holding the open side hit the spine on the top edge repeatedly up and down it’s length. You are aiming to force the spine into a curve shape. Once your curve has started to form use your fingers to maintain the shape on the open end, flip over and continue hitting the spine on the other side. Repeat this process until you have built up a decent curve. You will find this more difficult if, as was the case with mine, your sewing has pulled the spine too tight and it is uneven. Therefore while I had a decent ‘concave’ side, my spine curve was fairly poor. 

Once you are happy with your curve place the book in the ‘book backers’ These are two wooden boards with brass top edges, similar but smoother to the metal strips used to hold down carpet in doorways, that are clamped in a press.  The idea is that the book is placed  between them so the spine stands a couple of mm clear. You then attack it with your hammer again, aiming to create a mushroom shape with two lips that your book covers will sit into, create a smooth round finish at the spine. 

The final verdict on mine was ‘more practice needed’ but I at last ended up with two, fairly equal lips that my covers would sit against. However I was so engrossed with this, and my other books that I forgot to take any pictures and the end of the session came round very quickly. 

One of the reasons why I was so busy was because I was also trying to fit in trimming a couple of finished blocks I had sewn over the weekend. Trimming with the proper tools gives you a really professional finish and not one easily achieved by hand, so while I can improvise for other functions, for example using a charity shop flower press to clamp the blocks, the trimming is something I have to do at the college. 

The blocks were sewn for practice and I forgot the ribbon on one. Even though it is very small (the green A6) I learnt a lesson that the ribbon makes a big difference to the stability of the book and its absence can be seen in the finish product. 

Once trimmed I was able to take these blocks home and finish them off. On both I experimented on the end papers, One, in which I recycled a 1950s map, worked really well, the exisiting folds on the map fitted nicely with the A5 size notebook and thickness of the old style ‘linen’ paper provided a good base for the glue. This one I finished with some black buckram and the end product, while not perfect looks pretty smart. 

The second one, in which I was using a photocopy of a montage of images from a 1960s football association rule book, didn’t work quite as well. The paper, which was very smooth didn’t glue well and was probably too thin. This was also the book without the ribbons and as a consequence the whole thing didn’t seem very secure. I did like the little ‘pocket’ I put at the back although again the paper is too thin for it to stand much wear and tear. As I knew by this point that I wouldn’t be able to do anything with this book I covered it in a green buckram (I have several colours of ‘offcuts’ I got off ebay) that I was least keen on. 

Later in the week I had another practice and learnt an important lesson about using lined paper. If the finished product is to look good you have to make sure the lines are absolutely horizontal and lie straight with your end papers. This is really difficult if you are trimming the book. I made two different books from some lined paper and neither are perfect. The pink I finished with some flock wallpaper and the smaller one I used some leaves pressed under tissue for the end papers. The pink one has a simple pocket at the back - mainly to hide a tear in the end paper. The leaves had been found in the flower press I mentioned previously and  I quite liked the serendipity of using them in a book. 

  

Bookbinding Week 2 (Or How Not to Use a Scalpel)

Last week we had got to the point where we had nearly finished the central block of pages. We started this week by adding the small, decorative headers to the each end of the page block at the spine. You don't get these headers on all books but they provide a nice finish and look decorative. This is done by sticking them to the spine so that they just overlap the edge, standing very sightly proud. At this point the spine is also reinforced with a folder piece of brown paper glued on the inside. 

Once this is done you can trim the mesh and tape so that they are equal, angling the edges to ensure that they don’t show on the finished book. This is your pages block complete.

Next you need to cut your boards and spine. On a board lightly larger than your block find, or create a true corner. Use this to measure out your cover. The cover edge should be located 3-4mm in from the spine and there should be an over lap of 3-4mm round the other three edges. It can be smaller depending on how much bigger you want your cover to be than the block of pages. Cut out one cover and then use it as a template to cut an identical one. Your spine should be the same height and the width of your page block plus the thickness of 1 board. 

You need to make a template so that you know how the spine will sit. This allows you to accurately cut out the cover. Sandwich your block with your two boards and then position on a table with the spine slightly off. Position the spine and then wrap a length of paper around it. Mark on this the position of the spine and the edges of the covers. Use these marks to make a spine template on some stiff scrap paper. 

Next cut out your cover on buckram or book cloth. It was at this point that, despite years of working with scalpels, I managed to slice my thumb. However a quick bit of first aid and a few illegally acquired plasters (because of course first aid kits don't have plasters in them anymore) and I was ready to go again.

After clearing up any blood splatters, position the two boards with your template in between and cut out the cover with a 3-4cm border. PVA one side and position the 1st board. PVA the other side and lay out the spine template and other board. Use a ruler to make sure everything is aligned and then remove the template and stick the spine in its place.

Cut of the corners at 45 degrees of your buckram leaving a 2mm gap from the board. This is to ensure the board is not visible.  Now foldin the borders starting at the top and bottom, make sure you stretch it equally. Use a bone folder to smooth the edges and then still using the bone folder create a pleat at the corder, tucking in the loose triangle. It's a bit like an inverted origami fold. Do this at all four corners and then fold in the end borders. 

Put under something flat to dry. 

Now you need to attach everything. Position your block in the cover as you want it to appear finally. Sandwich scrap paper between the end papers to protect them. Starting at the mesh and tapes PVA one of the end papers. Holding the block in position, otherwise it’ll shift out, fold over the cover and press lightly. Open and check that the block is still aligned and then starting at the spine smooth out the end papers with a clean rag. Flip over and repeat with the other side, again making sure everything is still aligned before finishing off with the rag. 

Use a bone folder to define the spine and if you have one use a nipping press to give it a quick press. You now have a finished book!

Book Binding - Week 1

Even before I'd moved to Bath, in fact even before I had a roof over my head I had plans to do the bookbinding course at City of Bath College. It's something I dabbled with briefly while studying my first degree and an area that is intrinsically linked with my work, both in terms of my employment and the art I have created.

I'd had very little information on the course so I wasn't sure what it would entail. I certainly didn't expect for everyone else present to have their own projects they wanted to work on. I'm on the course to create books, to make something new. It seems that the majority, with one other exception, are there to learn how to repair existing books.

Maybe it was this discovery that made me give my employment as the reason I was on the course. The some reason I felt uncomfortable explaining that I worked with books as art, probably destroying books they would seek to repair, and that I wanted to learn new skills that would help me create with books. Saying I was a librarian just seemed a simpler explanation.

That aside the first week was interesting, with us diving straight into creating a simple notebook.

•  First we learnt about grain and the importance of folding with it so that both pages and the end plates would turn and lie well. This means that the grain has to run vertically though out the book. The same also applies to the board used for the book ends. It's amazing that in all the time I have worked with books I had never considered this simple issue.
•  Next we learnt about some basic tools. A bone folder to ensure a sharp, even crease on the folds. Linen sewing tape, to strengthen the blocks, needle and thick, waxed thread to sew the blocks together and finally scrim to cover the spine and again strengthen the final set of blocks. A block incidentally is a set of folded paper making up one section within the book.
• To make your blocks fold and crease 2-5 pages of paper (number depends on thickness) and insert inside each other. We were using thick cartridge paper, almost card, so we ended up with 5 sets of pairs. This was enough for about a 1cm book.
• Next you need to mark them up for the tape and sewing. Line up the folded edges and sandwich between your board to protect it then clamp everything together.
•  Make your first guide lines 2-3cm in from the ends. Then, depending on the size of the book you will need 2-3 further pairs of holes. (Pairs because they will sit either side of the strips of linen tape) Measure these out and use a hack saw of very sharp knife to mark their position. Unclamp and finish holes with needle, making sure you put your blocks back together the right way round so that all the holes line up.
•  Stick you linen tape to a board using the hacksaw marks as guides, line up your first block with the tape and then starting at one end sew the book. After the second block remember to knot it to the first and then after the third block make a kettle stitch under the stitch on the block below. Ensure you pull the thread tight and when stitching over the tape loop the thread under the block before. This will ensure the blocks are firmly fixed together.

•  Once all our blocks are all sewed together make a double kettle stitch and reclamp the block between the boards. Ensure the tape is not trapped, it should be loose. PVA the spine, smoothing in any loose threads and then apply the scrim to THE END only. Leave to dry.
•  While drying prepare your end papers. Remember the grain must still run vertically. Cut two pieces, slightly higher than your blocks and twice as long as they are wide. Then fold each and glue to the blocks using a narrow strip of glue at the spine. Ensure you glue the end papers under the scrim and tape, these should remain free.
•  Using the spine as the straight edge use a set square to mark the 'true' edges of your book. Then either using a professional cutter, electronic guillotine, or for very small books, clamps and a very sharp knife, trim the edge. A professional printers should be able to do this for a for a small charge.

And that's as far as we got. Next week we are going to add the board 'ends' and cover them with decorative paper. I can tell that nearly everyone else is itching to start on their own projects, one person had already brought in a bible he wanted to repair and another person, who attended the course previously, was already working on a book he was repairing for a friend. I on the other hand can't wait to start experimenting with different types of covers and binding techniques which hopefully won't be too much at odds with what everyone else wants to do.

I also hope that the aren't going to be be too horrified when I start working with recycled books as I plan to do. I'm thinking that maps, music and vintage covers will make excellent book ends and covers for small notebooks. Not very original but  a good use of my time while I practice my skills. In fact I already have a map which I think can be transformed into a lovely notebook for someone as well as a few other ideas involving specific books and titles.

This course for me is about learning skills, skills I will probably rework and adapt to create things as far from a 19th Century bible as you can imagine. I probably shouldn't tell the owner of that bible that I'd be as likely to turn it into an origami flower as try and repair the missing pages. But then they are probably going to find that out for themselves eventually.