I had forgotten how much I liked bookbinding. The class was offered by Hollanders in Ann Arbor, MI. Tom and Cindy Hollander were wonderful teachers; very encouraging and supportive. I'd never worked with leather before and we learned to pare down the leather's thickness so it wouldn't be quite so bulky on the turned ins on the spine. There are two kinds of adhesives used in bookbinding: PVA glue and paste (either wheat or rice). Leather doesn't react well to PVA so paste is the adhesive of choice. It dries slowly and can be repositioned and manipulated it for a longer time. Very useful.
Cindy taught us the fine art of hand sewing end bands. Most end bands you see on books are machine made and glued in. These take longer but are physically sewn to the spine and won't come out. Besides, they look nice. From Tom, we learned to round the spine which is something I'd only read about but wasn't really able to understand until I saw it done. The Hollanders basically tag-teamed the instruction of the various parts of the book, each one teaching what they do best. I have to say, I really enjoyed it.
The last thing we did was glue on the cover papers and then glue down the end papers. Much as I'd like to play with my new baby, it has to stay in my book press 4 or 5 days till it dries... then I'll be showing it off to everyone I know.
It's a good thing I've already decided to skip SOAR this year because there are two classes I want to take in the fall: one taught by Daniel Essig and a marbeling class.
That's so cool! I never would have thought to take a bookbinding class. It looks really interesting. The end product is really pretty too!
Posted by: turtlegirl76 | March 30, 2009 at 07:45 AM
(jaw drops) Becky, that is GORGEOUS! Wowee! I'm completely and thoroughly impressed!
Posted by: Maggie | March 30, 2009 at 10:58 AM
Cool! Love those book ends!!!
Posted by: elizabeth | March 30, 2009 at 11:39 AM