Making Books For Dirty Looks

I made some books. It's fun.





Here are some small books. They are pretty good for notes or small sketches, so they're kind of ike a mini Moleskine. The one on the right I made for Krissy and gave to her yesterday.




This is the Guestbook I made for our wedding. It was the first book I made so parts of it bother me, but overall it came out well, and no one seemed to notice it was wonky, even the people who didn't know I made it. The endpaper is a cream color with blue bird feathers on it. The paper on the cover and the back is actually banana leaves laid flat and pasted together and backed with something like mull.  It doesn't fold well (especially against the grain) so I cut it to size and covered the whole book in book cloth underneath it.





A sampling of books made. The one underneath them all will likely turn into a scrapbook of sorts. It's covered in ivory book cloth with a blue fabric covering the remainder (as you can see). It's about 240 pages, so it's quite large compared to the others.




A view of the books from the side. Krissy likes this angle. You can see all the imperfections, but that's okay. If you want a perfect book, go to a book store and pay $1.95. Hand made has more character--and character comes at a price.



A text block in progress. The paper is from a thrift shoppe. It's old accounting ledger paper. I'm honestly not sure where this paper went or if it made it into a book or not.

The Tools

This is an awl. You poke holes into paper and binder's board with it. They are sharp and pointy.



This is thread. You might recognize it. This thread is coated in beeswax though and made of linen.



This is a bone folder. It make folding paper super easy. You can also score things with it too. Like free beer. Okay, maybe not. Maybe just paper and stuff.



This is binding tape. It's not really "tape" but it works in a similar fashion. Combined with the mull this holds the text block to the outer case (cover) and makes the book much sturdier. Otherwise you'd only have glue and paper holding it together.



PVA. This is the glue for making books. It dries fast and clear and holds extremely well. White glue or mod podge might work, but PVA is also acid-free which won't obliterate your book and turn your paper yellow over time.




I also made this sweet card (and ten others like it) from a linocut I made. It's basically a bird flying in the clouds over the ocean. One cloud looks like Italy. Or a dolphin. Another looks kinda like a shoe. One looks like a Salvador Dali-esque middle finger. I think he'd approve. What do you see?