bookbinding

Wow, from next week, I'll work as a bookbinder at the Saarland University- and State-Library. Yay!

So, you already know the Version of this book, my wife made and the one I made myself with marbled paper. But I finished a third Version as a leather binding, yesterday.

As you can see, I used a dark leather, that's that thin, you don't need to dress it. You can't see the flowering trusses on this image, but you can clearly see them here. In my opinion, the brass corners are kind of cute. I must confess, I'm proud of having made this book ;)

Yesterday, I finished a book, I already planned for some years. It has the shape of a treasure chest. But look yourself behind the ( cut: )

As I wrote before, I got three copies of signatures for "Der Alchimist". Now, my wife finished the second Version of this book. See the Pictures behind the ( cut: )

Hello,

first of all, I want to introduce myself. My name's Eric and I'm 32 years old. I've been binding books for nearly 4 years now. I've attended several bookbinding courses during the last years. Meanwhile I make the most books at home with the help of a fellow bookbinder who cut my ready-sewn blocks. As I try to bring them to perfection, I mostly produce classic half-linen bindings. But you can see it yourself behind the ( cut )

Hello, fellow bookbinders!

I hope this kind of post is okay, but I recently taught my first workshop on bookbinding and wanted to talk about it a little and share some pictures.


( Pictures! )

Welcome to the bookbinding community.

I'll start this community off with a post about "The Secret Belgian Binding". Not so secret after all, obviously... It was a very different style of binding than any I'd made before, something new to try. A very good set of how-to instructions are available here. (I didn't write the instructions, I just followed them.)

The book opens flat, which I always consider a plus, as that makes the book easier to write in (if you're using it as a journal or sketchbook). The spine being held on only by sewing, I thought it might be able to slip out, but as it turns out the threads hold it in place quite well. I'd say the one "rookie mistake" I made was in using a thin twine instead of thread--I thought I'd like the look of twine, and I do, but since it's slightly less flexible than thread and slightly more brittle, my choice made sewing harder than it should have been, and there's more danger of the twine breaking when the book is handled. Although I sewed this book with an ordinary bookbinding needle, I think it'd go a bit easier with a curved one.