Binding Commitments Part 4 of 3

Real life has been a little busier, but in between I made four more books.

These two are have exposed spine, with fabric-covered card cover. Mary Ann's instructions for exposed spine said to glue each signatures to the next one, but I forgot to do that with the first two sketchbooks, and... I forgot again. The first two only had three signatures each, but these have five, and are structurally wobbly; if really bad, I may apply some kind of a remedy as I work in them.      

Both fabric are leftovers. On the left is one of the pieces I cut off from a PJ bottom I bought years ago, because, you know, they were too long. Naturally I can make another book with the other leg. The grey on the right is leftover from a boxer/PJ bottom I made.   

These are approximately A5, (explained later,) with 110g sketchpad paper inside.  

This is one of the three notebook covers I saved for decades. I can't remember what I did on the inside, but I always wanted to make something nice with these. I made a covered spine book. 

Mary Ann's video instruction also show how she worked on the inside, including a lot of collages. So I wanted to make a something different specifically for collaging. (There's no reason why I can't draw in these, or collage on a regular notebook, but you get the gist.) There are ten sheets, of uniform A5 height, but different width/formation. It was interesting making a book with very few pages to leave enough room for the thickness I can expect from gluing things on the pages. 

The last one, I made for my friend Sally, with a specific project of  hers on my mind, though it's completely up to her how she'll use it. She like blues, and science fiction, and look what I found; leftover from Ben's PJ bottom! (No, it's not that we have/need gazillion PJ bottoms, but I'm not a good seamstress, and my sewing machine has been on its last leg forever, so when I feel like sewing, PJ bottoms/summer-house-pants seem to be the right/easy thing using fun prints. The first ever I made was Ben's with the cut section of Kiwi fruits all over.)  

For this, I made a covered spine with gros grain ribbon, fusible interfacing, and lots of glue. 

I made three signatures of 160g multimedia paper and three of printer paper; in my mind, I thought these might be handy for use in drawing vs writing for her project. This book also has roomy spine (??) so if/when she pastes images and color samples and such, the book will still "close" nicely. 

When you do an image search on bookbinding, there are a lot of crazy intricate stitching. Some are as complicated as astrophysics to me, but some are intriguing geometry and I can begin to see how it's done. I would like to look into doing something not overly complicated, perhaps.

I am very bad at cutting paper cleanly. If you look closely, the last exposed spine books are not as tall as the earlier ones; they are narrower, too. The harder I try to get the edges of the page clean, the smaller the pages got. I think I'll stop worrying too much about clean edges once I start to assemble the signatures. 

Also, some tasks must be done during the day with good light, cutting especially. I like to work on these after dinner with the telly on, but then I'm utterly dismayed at the bad results. Although if I'm aiming for quirky, it works. 

I think it's safe to say the "practice" phase of hobby bookbinding is completed. I have two more hardcover notebook covers saved, one is A4 and the other not A-something size, between A5 and A4 wider. I would like to make collage books using these, and inside, I am thinking of using not only 160g multimedia paper, but old calendar pages and such, with some pages not in the standard size, some folded, etc. I'd like to be more deliberate in the making, consider what goes inside, and work on one or two at a time. I'll never stop, but I'm not rushing any more. And while A5s are very portable and handy, lately my preference at home is to work in A4, so there may be more of those. But wait, if I'm making the cover, my books can be any old size, and shape, I like as long as I can cut the cardboard! 

I would some day love to use my woven cotton fabric on the covers as well, but that's a little further back on the burner. 

Anyway, Big Hurray to hobby bookbinding/notebook-making. Oh, and I must remember to occasionally work on the inside of them; as in not skipping the Monday night Face Zoom in preference to cutting and folding more blank paper. 

Peace out.