Annied Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Hello everyone. I live in England and I'm a hobby bookbinder. I've always had a love for old books and handicrafting, so the two fit interests fit together perfectly. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where there are bookbinding classes, so I've been taught by a professional. I especially like working with leather. I'm not sure about uploading pics here, so I've given it a try and you may or may not see a before and after example of what I do! I've seen quite a few posts here about notebook covers, and "designer bindings", but I'm just wondering if there are any other members like me, who collect, repair or rebind old books. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Regis Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Annied, First, welcome to LW.net. That is an amazing "before & after". Just beautiful work. Do you make the book look original or create your own look or design? Glad to have you join and look forward to seeing more of your work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hilly Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Wow, that's a interesting skill to have. You did a wonderful job restoring that old book. Thanks for sharing. I was just reading a book binding tutorial that someone here posted a link to: http://www.leatherbooks.info/pages/BindingProcess1.htm I am interested in making a photo album with acid free pages (for my nieces wedding), only I didn't understand what the "spacers" are in step 7. Guess I'll have to do more studying. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomSwede Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Hello and welcome to LW! That is a beautiful book! Hope we get to see more! Tom Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Annied Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Annied,First, welcome to LW.net. That is an amazing "before & after". Just beautiful work. Do you make the book look original or create your own look or design? Glad to have you join and look forward to seeing more of your work. Thanks for the welcome and the compliments. I try to rebind in a style that's in keeping with the age of the book. The one in the picture is over 200 years old for example. It needed to be completely restitched, so I did the stitching on cords, that were then "laced" onto the boards, because that's the way it was done originally. It was printed before bookcloth had been invented, so a cloth binding of any description wasn't an option. Although the original binding was full leather, half leather bindings and hand marbled paper were very popular in those days, so that's what I chose to do. (Again, the book pre-dates the first machine marbled paper by a good 50 years or so.) You end up learning quite a lot about the history of bookbinding when you work on antiquarian books! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Annied Report post Posted June 16, 2008 I am interested in making a photo album with acid free pages (for my nieces wedding), only I didn't understand what the "spacers" are in step 7.Guess I'll have to do more studying. I've never made an album, but I think they're small strips of thick paper or card that are folded and inserted between each page. In an ideal world, they'd be the same thickness as the photos you intend to insert. When the album is finished, but still empty, the spine end will be much thicker than the outer edge. When the album is full of pictures however, the spacers would ensure that it would be the same thickness at both ends. It's hard to see in the pictures, but I think there are 3 signatures, with spacers in the two innermost ones. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hilly Report post Posted June 16, 2008 I've never made an album, but I think they're small strips of thick paper or card that are folded and inserted between each page. In an ideal world, they'd be the same thickness as the photos you intend to insert. When the album is finished, but still empty, the spine end will be much thicker than the outer edge. When the album is full of pictures however, the spacers would ensure that it would be the same thickness at both ends.It's hard to see in the pictures, but I think there are 3 signatures, with spacers in the two innermost ones. Thanks! You're right, I never noticed it till you pointed it out. Do you know of a source for large acid free sheets of heavy black paper or lightweight cardstock? I think it would be nice to make an album with black pages, include a box or 3 of those adhesive corners for photos, and a metalic gel pen to enter captions... Sort of a cross between a photo album and scrapbook, if you will. My brother is super good at photography, and will be able to attend the wedding. He said that he'd take photos starting at the rehersal and rehersal dinner to the "getting ready" at the church, at the ceremony and reception. He could have the photos printed at one of those 24hr Walmarts or a 1 hour photo places, and put the loose photos in the box with the album I want to make. The bride and groom would have it wrapped up at the gift opening the day after the wedding. They could then choose the photos they wanted to put in the album, and write their own captions... We thought it would make a neat wedding gift from "Uncle Jon and Auntie Hilly". Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Annied Report post Posted June 16, 2008 Do you know of a source for large acid free sheets of heavy black paper or lightweight cardstock? I think it would be nice to make an album with black pages, include a box or 3 of those adhesive corners for photos, and a metalic gel pen to enter captions... Sort of a cross between a photo album and scrapbook, if you will. What a lovely idea! The nicest gifts are always the ones that someone has taken time and trouble to produce. Your niece should be thrilled to bits. I live in north east England, so although I do know of sources where you could probably find the paper/card you need, they're here in the UK, which isn't a lot of use to you! Are there any art shops near you? A lot of the paper they stock is acid free and there's usually a good range of colours and thicknesses. I've also seen an aerosol you can buy that neutralises the acid in paper. You spray it on and hey presto, you have acid free paper. I'll add a link to the shop I where I saw it, the last time I was in London. If you google it, there could well be stockists in the US too, but be warned, it's a very small can and very expensive! http://store.falkiners.com/store/product/6...okkeeper-Spray/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Annied Report post Posted June 16, 2008 (edited) Sorry, I got an error message when I clicked send and thought that the previous message had vanished into a black hole. This was just a duplicate reply. Edited June 16, 2008 by Annied Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Oscar B Report post Posted June 17, 2008 Nice work. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
