Bookbinding - day 1

Today we have been mostly learning how to bind books.

PERFECT BINDING

Leveling the papers (Jen's one already done to the right)

Leveled and clamped

Scoring the edge (so the glue sticks better)

PVA squirted along the spine

Glue spread out (with a finger) and let dry to tacky

Piece of muslin glued on

De-clamped and cut out from clamp once dry

SEWN BINDING

Punch holes with a braddle and SEW! French Folio

Sewing two signatures together

Coptic binding - when you have more than two signatures

Clamped and glued

My own handmade sketchbook... The ones above were done with cheap paper just to practice making them. I then made up a new coptic bound book out of nice off-white thick cartridge paper.

Neatly done coptic stitches (not very neatly cut paper though!)

Closeup of my coptic stitches

Clamped and glued, ready for tomorrow - COVERS!!!

All the glued stuff is drying and tomorrow we will be doing covers for them! I'm not going to attempt to describe the processes as I find it hard to do it without showing people, live. Look round the internet of you're really interested - or better still, borrow a bookbinding book from the library...