Bookbinding - day 2

Today we did the covers. I've tried to document the process as best as possible ... more to remind me, than to teach any of you lovely people out there ;)

FLYSHEETING and reinforcing the spine

COVER boards and fabric (see here for an annotated version of this photo)

Doing the CORNERS

Doing the SIDES

ALIGNING bookblock to cover

A few more things happen here - gluing the flysheets to the cover using Jonathan's (our tutor) funky technique. And tidying up the spine area. Couldn't do it and take a photo at the same time. Then the whole lot clamped lightly with protective pieces of paper between the cover and flysheets, and cover and clamping boards to let the book SETTLE.

And there you have it. I did two books - One with prefect binding, and one with coptic binding (the two you see in the picture on the top). One covered in this lovely blue bookbinding stuff thats used in libraries. The other we used a fabric of our choice - and Jonathan showed us how to alter the gluing steps to deal with thin and flimsy fabric. He also showed us two types of corners, and something else called 'stack and glue' for making quick dummy books.

I'm so inspired now ... I think there is a lot of potential here for making presents - and never will I need to BUY a sketchbook ever again!