Posting at Last

I've finally downloaded my pictures from Book Binding III and I'm ready to post them.  It was such a busy class that I'm ashamed to say that I didn't take as many pictures as I hoped to.  I got so involved in what I was doing that I didn't remember to take pictures as I went along so I didn't document the steps as well as I wanted to.  That's because Dan is such an interesting teacher.  I should have my camera ready when he demonstrates, rather than thinking that I'll take pictures of my work in stages.  I should just know by now that I never remember to do that.

Well, any way, here goes.  We were making two books this time.  Both books were being sewn over cords.  One was sewn over flattened cords.

We used hemp cord that was untwisted and combed for our flattened cord.  I just taped mine to the litho stone I was using to pare my leather to hold them in place while I was sewing the signatures.  I used a diagonal pencil line to keep my signatures in order while I was sewing them.  There is a kettle stitch at the head and tail of the text block.

The signatures were held down with a brass weight during the sewing.

The second book was sewn on raised cords and I used a packed stitch for sewing the signatures over these cords.

The packed stitch is wrapped around the cord and goes back through the original hole in the signature.  Once again, there is a kettle stitch at the head and tail of the text block for stability.

These books were constructed with leather hinges that were attached to the endpapers that were hooked into the text block.

The burgundy is the endpaper for one of the books.  The turquoise is dyed goat leather.

The endpaper is also lined with a protection package so that the leather of the hinge does not emboss itself upon the endpaper leaving a ridge.  This will be removed before the hinge is pasted down.

These were the finished endpapers for the two books waiting to be sewn onto the text blocks.  The endpapers were coordinated with decorative papers that were going to be used for the covers.

I chose the burgundy to go with the marbled paper and the taupe to work with the metallic paper.  I'd never worked with a metallic paper before.  They require delicate handling when they are wet as some of the metallic pigment will flake at fold areas at that time.

Finished books:
The book sewn over flattened cords was given a ribbon attached to the spine.  The endband was hand sewn with linen thread in a conservation stitch over a hemp core.  The endcap was formed to cover the tube of the hollow spine.  The leather hinges provide easy opening of the covers of the book.

The book sewn over raised cords has a solid back.  The endband was sewn with two colours of silk, chosen to coordinate with the marbled cover paper, over a core of hemp.  The head of the text block was given a colour treatment of a light burgundy dye and sealed with wax.

The leather was worked around the raised cords so that their appearance would be pronounced.

The leather on the corners of both books was pared very thin and then pleated and mitred as it was glued to the board.  This reduces bulk and produces a neat, and if well executed (by a better hand than mine) almost invisible corner.  One of my corners almost reached that exalted state.

These bindings, unlike cased in books, are extremely strong and long wearing.  This is the type of binding that would be done with full leather in the Middle Ages.

It was a great class.