Case Binding Video Tutorial

I get a lot of questions from people who are starting to do some bookbinding and I try to give easy answers; but, technique is something that is hard to describe in an email message. One question I get, is how to case in a textblock and keep the endpapers straight. First of all, practice many times. It's easier the hundredth time. I thought it might be helpful show a video, so here is a clip of me as I case in a text block. If this step is one that you struggle with, maybe you will see something helpful in my technique. No guarantees, though. Sometimes my endpapers are still crooked!

Bookbinding workshop in Kentville

Yesterday, Gaspereau Press held their 12th annual Wayzgoose in Kentville, Nova Scotia. As part of the event, they were offering a bookbinding workshop with Ruth Legge, a local conservator and bookbinder who I'd heard of but never met. I was looking forward to meeting her and taking part in the class. So I left home early and drove to Kentville for a 9am start.

It was a 10-person workshop, just the right size. Ruth provided a kit for each person, with pre-cut materials. This is a great time-saver, of course, when someone else does all that fiddly work in advance! We each made a blank book, with a basic case binding structure. Mine has six signatures sewn with a French link stitch and kettle stitch, sewn without supports. And, although I've done a tonne of case bindings over the years, I still learned many things from Ruth.

My finished book
First of all, I don't think I'd ever made a case binding with a paper spine before. She also showed me a new way of turning in corners, very simple and effective. The way she planned the placement of the cover boards and spine liner onto the spine covering, also different and very effective. She quickly mentioned her method of making wheat paste - which included an extra step that I'm going to try next time. I also learned about a Quebec paper marbler, Lucie Lapierre, whose marbled papers we were using on our books. There were a number of other little tidbits that I picked up as well; all great information. It was perfect way to spend the morning!

Everyone's books in the press

The Complete Wiki Shakespeare

The Bookbinding Etsy Street Team is having a challenge to create a book for World Book Day. One of the things marked by this day is the anniversary of Shakespeare's death. So my book for this challenge is all about him. I intended to do something using a list of all his plays. So I visited Wikipedia, selected the complete list of plays that I wanted and attempted to "print selection..." but I fumbled and just sent the entire document to the printer. So, unintentionally having 22 pages of Shakespeare content in front of me, I changed my direction and made this little black book of Shakespeare Wiki Content.

This is a small hardcover book, with black book cloth on the covers. I cut a circle in the cloth and put a photoshoped image of Shakespeare under the cloth peeking through. I used the ream of accidentally-printed paper to create the pages for this book. I cut them up to make a book that is 4¼" x 4¼" (11cm x 11cm). So all the pages have text and images printed on one side.



After completing the black book, I still had some of the paper left, so I also made the three little notebooks shown here. The covers are heavy white cardstock, and they are sewn with black linen thread. The covers are decorated with bits of text and images cut from some of the scrap page.

World Book Day is April 23rd, so there will hopefully be other BEST members creating books for this challenge as well. They have been compiled with photos and descriptions on the BEST blog.

A book for Remembrance Day

I am wearing a poppy today for Remembrance Day.

This is a book by Jenny Gunter, a bookbinder I've met through the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team. A very pretty address book covered with poppies. Jenny did the poppy design herself! Wonderful faux raised bands there on the spine too. This is just a tiny example of her work, she does some amazing books with wood and leather. Very nice stuff.

Dictionary Day

Today is Noah Webster's birthday so it's recognized, mainly in the USA, as Dictionary Day. Webster being the one who Americanized the British dictionary for the masses. And my old Websters is definiely my favorite dictionary although the Canadian Oxford ranks high on my list as well.

I was going to just mention Dictionary Day and post that little photo of all my dictionaries but as I was gathering them I found my Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and decided it might deserve some mention today.

This was originally a perfect bound paperback that I got, um, maybe 15-20 years ago (gulp!) and the spine dried and cracked and came apart after a few years. So when I had a chance to learn how to turn a perfect-bound paperback into a sewn hardcover, I selected this dictionary. It certainly turned out well. It never looked as good when it was new.

That was the first time I rebound a perfect bound paperback. I have done a couple more since then, but this one is the best because I did it in a class so I had my instructor, Joe Landry, there helping and all the best tools on hand in the Dawson Printshop and Bindery - including the ability to make that gold printed spine label.

So the loose pages were gathered into sections, about 15 pages each. Then I punched a row of holes very close to the edge of each section - and it is a lot of holes, one every 15 millimeters or so. Then all the sections were sewn onto tapes, kinda looping over the edge of each section. I tried to get a photo here that shows all the little sewing holes.

So the sewing was tedious but once the textblock was sewn together like this, casing it in was standard procedure. I thought the book would not open very well being sewn like this, but it does open really well - not perfectly flat, but it is quite good especially for a dictionary that isn't being read cover to cover. And, as an aside, I really love this marbled paper.