The end of the course..

and two more books to finish!!

Well what a wonderful weekend I have had!! Two days of a bookbinding course and I have loved every minute of it.
I have tried to show as much as I can in this picture but discovered it is really difficult to show off the books to their full on camera. So, here we have the two books I have finished on the right. The purple one on its end to show pages which were hand sewn together before adding a bookmark and binding with a Manila spine is A6 size. The red spined book is A5 size and made with a stiffer board spine.
On the left hand side I have two more books ready to sew and cover. The top one is a Pamphlet Book.. made of one section of paper and sewn together with red thread and needs to be covered. Below it is a smaller A6 book which needs sewing together. It will end up with one of the papers shown underneath as an end paper inside the cover...I can't wait to do these!!
Below the two unfinished books is a traditional bookbinding tool and one of the most useful tools.. the bonefolder! We use that to work the glue into the stitched spines and turn the paper cover up over the board and also to smooth away any air bubbles after gluing. Also in the picture you can see my needle (in the cork) the tape and the thread which is all ready for sewing the A5 book together and the Mull which is the thin piece of fabric which adds strength to the spine of the book. There are also two spacers which you use to measure a gap in the cover between the back cover - spine - front cover. Without the space the book would not open or close properly.

I really can' t wait to finish the next two.. it will be a whole new challenge to have to do this without the guidance of the teacher!! Maybe I will get another blip of these when they are all done. Then I think I will be making some more as presents for Christmas!! Look out all!