Intermediate Bookbinding: Week 6

This past Wednesday we had a busy class, repairing torn pages in our disbound books, sawing cords, sewing on a sewing frame, and whatnot. I was busy until a half hour after class officially ended and wasn't able to take as many photos as normal but here's a wrap up of what was done:

These hands belong to my classmates, Kate and Tina

 Before getting started we allowed ourselves several (well, many) minutes to touch and admire the leather samples our instructor Juliayn brought in. The verdict: calf skin is the softest and the samples that look like mini hides, while cute, are also somewhat disturbing.

Before getting down to the business of sawing and sewing, we needed to map out the old sewing stations from our books and then choose new ones.

After sawing holes for the cords, we each had to rig up a sewing frame (setting up a sewing frame is really hard, after 15 minutes of struggling on my own I had to call over Juliayn for help), and start sewing. And yes, for all you astute bookbinders reading this entry, I forgot to make my square knot after the second section, but don't worry, I fixed it later on.

Now that both books are sewn together, I feel like I'm actually headed somewhere with all this rebinding...so exciting!

After entertaining my class with a story of how I had Shakespeare's sonnet 116 recited at my marriage ceremony, my classmate Kate gave me this book to rebind next. I've never been so happy and intimidated in my life!  

Intermediate Bookbinding: Week 5

Turns out my new nail color matches the spine of my round back book!

I'm running a week behind on the bookbinding posts; I hope to catch up over the weekend. Week 5 was last week and it was all about finishing and deconstructing. 

First, we had to finish our rounded spine books:

Not much left to do, just cover the front and back covers and paste down the end sheets inside.

First the spine cloth had to be trimmed back so that it was covering 'exactly' one fifth of the cover on both the front and back.

Grey cover cloth on. I don't have a picture to show but, the shirt I wore this day was the exact same color scheme (I didn't plan it, I swear!).

Then it was time to trim the fold overs on the inside covers so they would look even underneath the pasted down end sheets.

Tadaa! All done!

Once our first books were complete, it was time to disbind old books so we could prep them for re-sewing and re-binding:

I chose 2 small Shakespeares that I will bind as one volume.

After detaching the old covers, we had to coat the spines to loosen up the old glue.

Then you scrape the old glue off, yuck!

Mostly glue free signatures

There was a minor tragedy with this folio, when I separated the signatures, this folio tore. But don't worry, I was able to repair it this week (week 6).