Books don't crash. My computer did. Or rather one of my two hard disc drives did. So once again I had to fumble around inside my machine to get it all fixed. Even though it was 'only' my storage drive, it kept my computer from starting correctly. That too is now fixed.
Due to that hardware malfunctioning, I once again lost all my stored data. Nothing really life-threatening amongst it, and I do have a back-up, just annoying. All those downloaded books, patterns, files, gone to the scrap yard. After I've dismantled the drive and smashed the disk itself to pieces. I'm a touch data-paranoid in that regard.
Other than that nothing much happening. I've got another week of summer holidays here and am completely and utterly enjoying it. August 6th School starts up for my colleagues and me, then a week later for the pupils. I'm more or less just sleeping and resting. This year's exam season was quite stressful for me and I decided to just do nothing but de-stress for my holidays.
I did look into my new craft though. I have this idea of learning a new craft every year. So after spinning two years ago, weaving last year, this year it was book-binding. For once something not directly fibre-related, but closer to one of my other main interests: books. I'm a self confessed biblio-maniac (the step up from biblio-phile) with a library my friends claim (in jest I'm sure) rivals their local sub-branch. Almost as big as my yarn stash... ahem...
I've always been interested in the making of books seen from a material point-of-view. The union of paper, board, thread, cloth and leather into a carrier of information. A medium that may have a far lower data density per volume than a hard disc drive, but with a far greater survivability than those in my PC.
So I dug around on the internet and found a lot of resources and information about book-binding. One of the better ones is the website of The E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory, a library/book conservation/restoration facility serving the Indiana University Libraries. Their manual has an appendix:making a case-bond book that in quite some detail describes how to do bind a book.
And so I simply followed that description. The tools and as well as a quite substantial amount of materials I got from J. Hewit & Sons. If you're interested, I can recommend their Bookbinders Starter Pack. Though I have no idea whether I'll ever get to use all the paste powder in it. They provided enough to make about a gallon of paste glue...
The results so far:
Three different books, each bound by a different method.
The topmost, the little black notebook, is case-bound by the method described in the Manual.
160 pages in ten signatures of 4 sheets each, sewn onto five tapes, bound in black bookcloth.
A few things I need to do better with the next one:
1. I need some nicer headbands. This one was made following the manual, a piece of cord folded into a piece of cloth. Doesn't look too good. So I dug around and found Greenfield and Hille's book 'Headbands and how to work them' I ordered it through my library in an ILL, only to find that the loaning library would only let me read it on-site and under observation. I was slightly wtf?!?, as the book is still in print and current, but I got a good look through it, took some notes and put it on order at my e-bookstore. The librarian who had to sit and watch me was somewhat amused too. We both wondered a bit though why the Library of the Agricultural and Veterinarian School a.) had that book and b.) put up so much trouble for me/us.
2.) I tried to round the back and didn't do too good a job on that. Next time more attention to symmetry or a flatback binding.
3.) I could have glued in the hinge cloth a bit more discretely.
4.) The hinge cloth, sewing tapes and super got to be quite thick and show through the endpaper. They even press into the bookblock itself, marking it and deforming it a bit. Definitely need to work on that.
Also I got some nice endpapers in that starter pack, so next time I'll use those.
The second book was put together using the so-called Coptic Binding, by which the book boards and the papers are held together by a line of chain stitches. The text: Carmencho Arregui's descriptions of her Crossed Structure Binding©. All seven PDFs downloaded from her website and printed out using Acrobat Reader's booklet printing mode.
It has a disadvantage in comparison to the case-bound book: the spine is open and thus open to damage, dirt, deterioration. On the other hand, it always opens completely flat.
Here I remembered to use that endpaper.
I tore through the paper between some sewing stations, as some signatures were just one sheet. Better watch out for that next time or use a binding that is better suited for single sheets.
The last book of the three is a collection of the first four issues of 'The Bonefolder', the e-journal of the Book Arts Web.
They are bound into one volume using the 'Expander' version of the CBS described in the Coptic-bound book above. I stiffened the leather a bit by glueing on an endpaper, otherwise it would have been very limp.
This binding allows me to expand the book adding new signatures when necessary. I will then pull out the leather tabs from the slits and sew the new signatures onto them.
I'll also need to cut open the holes a bit more then, to allow extra room for those sewings. I'll be a bit more careful then than I was here. The centre hole is a touch too wide, as you can see in the first picture.
More books when I get to them. There is a lot of information available, both in books and on the internet. One interesting item: like knitting and spinning and weaving this craft also contains those dreaded words: 'Keeping Tension Correct...'
Although I didn't knit or weave much these last weeks, I did spin a bit. Some Black Welsh Mountain wool I had in my fibre stash. I also dug out my very first hand-spun yarn for comparison.
The very first on the left, the latest on the right, a bit of Rowan Kid Classic in the middle. I've progressed nicely, a fine lace-weight yarn, but not quite frog hair yet. It will do well as a warp. I'll bet that should I ever want to spin a thick, irregular, slubby yarn for whatever reason, I'll be completely unable to do so.
