Had a lovely day (again) with Vicki and Bev. Vicki generously shared her knowledge, showing us both how to bind a book using the Drum Leaf Binding method. These books turn out similar to the ABC cardboard books that we all have known as children. They open pretty flat which makes them great for artists books and have no stitching.
As usual grain is very important to ensure that the book ends up nice and straight. We folded and pressed the pages (in my case I was using heavy water colour paper that I had eco printed - that would be a surprise!)
Pressing the pages was a very important part of this binding especially as my pages were not totally flat. We then pasted the spine leaving it to dry.
Putting a piece of scrap paper to cover the front and middle pages we applied about a 25 cm stripe of glue at the spine edge, then another stripe of glue to the fore edge. The glued pages are then smoothed with a bone folder, put under weights at each gluing as well as at the end of the process. Leaving the book block under weights we turned our attention to the cover.
The cover for mine was a bit problematic as the heavy weight paper I had chosen seemed a bit small for the book. Luckily with a bit of stretching we managed to wrap it around the book block and glue it into place. Unlike a child's book I left the deckle pages of my water colour paper as I rather liked that look of it.
Next time (to consolidate my learning) I intend to photograph the entire process.
It was great fun and I learned heaps again! Thanks Vicki.
As usual grain is very important to ensure that the book ends up nice and straight. We folded and pressed the pages (in my case I was using heavy water colour paper that I had eco printed - that would be a surprise!)
Pressing the pages was a very important part of this binding especially as my pages were not totally flat. We then pasted the spine leaving it to dry.
Putting a piece of scrap paper to cover the front and middle pages we applied about a 25 cm stripe of glue at the spine edge, then another stripe of glue to the fore edge. The glued pages are then smoothed with a bone folder, put under weights at each gluing as well as at the end of the process. Leaving the book block under weights we turned our attention to the cover.
The cover for mine was a bit problematic as the heavy weight paper I had chosen seemed a bit small for the book. Luckily with a bit of stretching we managed to wrap it around the book block and glue it into place. Unlike a child's book I left the deckle pages of my water colour paper as I rather liked that look of it.
Next time (to consolidate my learning) I intend to photograph the entire process.
It was great fun and I learned heaps again! Thanks Vicki.