After all the work I did in the first semester, I have decided to make an artist's book, perhaps books. However, most of the research I did was invested in determining what I wanted to do and planning my projects, considering my options and materials and ideas.
As I was searching for workshops for book-binding or short courses I came across Renegade binding. I ended up joining their discord server and they have a lot of resources for beginners and experienced book-makers alike.
Although we were officially on term break, I wanted to get started on making things as I was exactly working on my artist book but rather a foundation for making a good book. Book-binding requires technical skills and techniques that I felt I would have a better handle on if I made a few practice books beforehand.
24th May
I had an appointment with Gen Harrison at the Caseroom B16 down in Printmaking, starting in the morning. We were going to make a basic book, A6 size. We used plain A4 paper that Gen cut into half with the guillotine. We then folded these A5 papers in half using the bone folder. After folding 32 of these sheets, we stacked them into signatures of 4.
We then took each signature and poked holes for the binding. We used a basic awl, a measurement on another sheet of paper and a phone book. I also tried some techniques used by DAS bookbinding, a YouTube channel that is part of Renegade Publishing. I used my original measurement sheet to make the holes but Gen told me that making a duplicate is probably better. The phone book acts as a book cradle.
After this, we put the text block with the holes into the nipping press so it would be compressed. For this notebook, I used the bookbinding thread from the ECA store. After 10 minutes we then got them out, threaded the needle and started sewing on the signatures. Using a running stitch we stitched the signatures together after which we attached each new signature with kettle stitches. I missed a hole in this process so one end of the last signature was not attached to the rest. The thread is quite thick and didn’t seem to have much wax on it, but I successfully finished binding the block. It didn’t look quite that neat though, I think I might try a thinner thread, and potentially a thinner needle. I had a lot of trouble pulling the needle through the holes. Gen said sitting down while stitching would help, and doing it against a flat edge of a table might also be useful.
We then put this back in the book press, this time leaving the edge out a little bit and put on a thin layer of PVA glue.
While that dried a bit we took the scrim and cut it to size. For the scrim, you want to cut it shorter than the length of your text block, covering all your holes and stitches, and make it 20 cm wider than you spin on both ends. For your book, you can make this larger as required, this is the basic measurement I'm using for an A6 size notebook. I tried to be as neat as possible with the cut, but I don't know if it matters so much. The scrim is very easy to cut through too.
Before putting on the scrim, we put a thin layer of glue so the scrim would have something to stick to.
After that we put the scrim on, trying to make sure it was centred. We then put another layer of scrim, scrapping the excess glue away with the bone folder, while making sure it was completely flush with the edge of the text block.
At this point, I got so engrossed in making the book that I forgot to take any more pictures for the day.
We broke for lunch, and after an hour we put one more thin layer of glue on the spine. Gen cut some pieces of greyboard to size. She asked me to pick what I wanted to cover the book with. As I had a lot of rolls of wallpaper I wanted to try it. It's quite thick and is supposed to be strong and easy to glue, so I wanted to try it instead of book cloth. For this notebook, however, we did a half binding with the book cloth and the rest with the wallpaper.
For the covers, each side of the cover is a separate piece of greyboard, and the spine is cut separately as well.
We covered each piece of greyboard with the wallpaper. To cover them I cut the wallpaper leaving 1 inch extra on each side. We first glued the greyboard to the centre. After that we cut the corners, leaving a few millimetres on each side to make sure the greyboard is completely covered and the corners are reinforced. We cut off the edges and glued the long edges first. Using a bone folder we smoothed the edges to make sure it was straight and smooth. After that, I tucked the small corner in on the width side with the bone folder (and my nails, Gen said it was something actual bookmakers did too). After that, we glued the edge and then smoothed the edge with a bone folder again. After we finished covering both boards, we put them in the nipping press to dry.
While the boards were drying, we cut the book cloth to size. Once the boards were dried, we glued the boards and the spine to the book cloth leaving some space between the boards and the spine so that book can open and close. The space I left is about 5mm on each side. Once this is done, the case is made, we put it in the nipping press again so that the excess glue would be squeezed out and left it to dry for a bit.
We also used some old Riso prints for the endpapers. The endpapers I cut to A5 size. I stuck the endpaper to the text block's inner edge, putting it inside the scrim. After this was dry, we put it in the guillotine to trim the edges.
After this, we were finally at the last stage. We put glue on the back endpaper, and then carefully placed it in the centre of the back of the case trying to keep it in line with the inside edge of the back cover. The glue does not let you move it once you put it in place, so you have very careful and very fast. Once it's in place, immediately close it and turn it while pushing the text block against the spine. Open the book and put glue on the front endpaper, quickly close the case carefully while pushing the text block against the spine. This is called casing.
Do not open the book while it dries a little. While it's drying push the space between the spine and the boards in. Depending on whether the spine is bigger or smaller on the text block, the way you push it in would be different. I pushed them in with my nails first, and then went in with the bone folder. Gen said to make sure not to score it with the bone folder, but rather use the side of the bone folder.
After that, we put sheets of plastic between the endpapers on either side and put the book between plastic sheets as well and put it in the press. Gen said to leave it in for a day to dry.
This is the final result. I didn't do a great job on the casing, but overall I think it looks really good. The spine doesn't look very even, I think I might have made a mistake in the order of the signatures and while making the holes in the signatures.
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