Category: Bookbinding

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A book for my sister

You may recall from my last post that I have been making a book for my lovely sister, this has become as much a practice of the craft for me as it has been making a book for her.

It had some unfortunate slip-ups along the way. All starting well with pairing the corners, which are tricky, considering their size. Maybe I got over enthusiastic or it was late in the day, but the corners were swiftly followed by me ripping the leather spine in half. Not to be dismayed by my lack of skill nor the fact I had no more green, I stuck it back together with selotape and continued to pair. Unfortunately the spine was to see yet more trauma when I tried out my very first blind tooling, and spelt the blasted word wrong – TWICE. It’s a stupidly long complicated word anyway.

So despite its obvious pitfall, I plodded on, and now have some pictures of covering the boards and the completed thing. Phew!!

Acknowledgements Boards
Lining the boards
Acknowledgements Cover
Adding the cover paper

First came lining the boards on the cover to bring them up to the same level as the boards plus the leather. Then I covered them using a very nice map wrapping paper from Stanfords.

Acknowledgements Inside boards
The inside before trimming
Acknowledgements Turn Ins
After trimming the excess insides

Next came neatning up the insides of the book, which you can see above. Any excess leather and paper would look messy under the endpaper. Following this step I did line the boards as I did on the cover, but forgot to photograph that bit… And the final thing:

Hope she likes it! (better pictures will be added to the gallery this week!!)

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Wedding Memory Book | Case Binding

This beautiful handmade album is designed to be a Wedding Memory Book of your big day. It is a landscape cased binding, with guards throughout. The guards will allow you to insert photographs, printed memorabilia and ephemera, as well as high quality paper for guests to write their well-wishes.

ORDER YOUR BESPOKE WEDDING MEMORY BOOK

This particular volume has been bound in handmade book cloth from blue silk, with an additional diamante decoration on the cover. This design was complimentary of the bride’s wedding dress. If you would like to order a bespoke Wedding Memory Book, you can have an alternative cover design should you wish. We will need a minimum of one month advance notice to make the book for you.

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Case binding, fully bound in blue silk, with lace decoration and silver tooling.
  • Handmade book cloth from blue silk, backed with Japanese tissue.
  • Textblock to include guards to allow compensation for photographs.
  • Textblock to be sewn onto four tapes.
  • Made endpapers.
  • Endbands to be made from additional blue silk.

For other examples of bespoke bindings, have a look at the bookbinding page of this website.

I made this book for one of my oldest and best friends got married – which was wonderful, especially as I was a bridesmaid! I was asked to create a wedding memory book for the big day, that was be something for everyone to leave messages and well-wishes in.

I knew that part of the wedding dress was to be made with blue silk and diamante lace decorations. So with a bit of help from the John Lewis haberdashery department, I was able to create a complimentary binding, that would keep all the memories safe for the future.

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Collection of Pamphlets | Flatback Binding with Slipcase

This little book uses sections from a collection of Poetry booklets that came free with a newspaper. This is something the broadsheets often do over the Christmas period and are a great thing to collect if you spot them early enough.

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Hand sewn sections onto tape and linen thread.
  • Complimentary coloured endpapers adhered as a single folio to front and back.
  • Spine lined with mull and kraft paper.
  • Boards and spine covered buckram book cloth and hand decorated papers.
  • Cased in as a quarter bound flat back book.
  • Complimentary slipcase was made in the same buckram book cloth, and a sympathetic coloured ribbon.

ORDER YOUR BESPOKE FLATBACK BINDING WITH SLIPCASE

If you have a collection of pamphlets that you would like bound in a similar manor with a slipcase, please do get in touch. Prices start from £200.00 and will vary depending on any additional requirements you have, such as labels and cover tooling.

For other examples of bespoke bindings, have a look at the bookbinding page of this website.

This particular book was for my mother, who was extremely pleased with it, but is still a bit scared to sit down and read it! The paper was paper we had made together one afternoon, so all very appropriate.