Modern Bookbinding

This binding was done on my paperback copy of Modern Bookbinding by Alex Vaughan. It was in signatures instead of single sheets glued together so I could easily disbind the pages. I used the existing holes and resewed it on three linen tapes. I left the edges untrimmed.

Using the colors from the paperback cover I began my design. I wanted to do a binding with pieced inlays of leather.

The boards were made from two 1.2 mm Eterno book boards laminated with bond paper between the layers and the inner surface of each board. After attaching the boards, I made a hollow tube spine and added a cord spacer at the shoulder.

I sanded the boards along the outer edges and pasted a piece of bond paper on the outer sides of the boards to provide a smooth surface that would make removing the trimmed edges of the leather inlays easier.

I began to apply the oversized pieces of leather at the head and tail so I could turn the endcaps first. After the leather was dry, I trimmed the leather to its final shape, leaving a beveled edge where other colors of leather would overlap slightly at the edge.

To remove the unwanted leather, I used water to soften the paste and pulled away the excess leather. In this photo you can see that I should have trimmed this piece closer to the final shape but with some extra water and time, the unwanted section lifted away.



Moving on to the next section, I trimmed the edge that would butt up to the green leather with a matching beveled edge. The edges were straight so it was easier to trim before pasting onto the boards. When doing curved or more complicated shapes, I leave the first piece slightly oversized and paste the second layer overlapping the first. When the layers are dry you can cut through both layers with a beveled cut and remove the excess leather.

The red leather I had was a little thinner that the other leathers so I added a piece of thin cardstock where the red would be to level out the final surface once the red was added.

The red leather in this photo is still damp which gives it a darker appearance.
I trimmed the tan leather to fit between the green and along the edge with the red leather and then trimmed to its final shape.


After I added the last piece I began to add some line onlays and noticed that some inlayed areas shrank as the leather dried and pulled away from the other pieces of leather. I brushed the area with water and when it soften up I lifted it and pulled it back into place, then watched to see if it stayed as it dried.

I went back to working on the line onlays when I had more problems.

As I began working on another line onlay I noticed it was a little off from being square. I retooled the line in the right place but since it was on a light colored piece of leather, I wasn't sure how to correct it.
Of course the best answer is to simply got rid of it by cutting it out and adding a new color piece.

To balance the design I cut out a similar shape on the other board and filled them in with the darker red leather. I actually liked the design better with these new pieces.

For the title, I had in mind using a matte red foil, but after tests on some the scraps of green leather I had to change the plan. The foil was not working since breaks and areas were not filling in. The leather took a good blind impression but I did not want a dark brown title. So I used a bright red acrylic and painted in the title and author's name.


The endpapers were done with a marbled paper drummed on a secondary endpaper of Ingres paper and leather joints.

Board edge repair

Books are loved by many, including by some insects and rodents. This book had damage to the front board edge which was most likely caused by a mouse. The book is part of a two volume set in fine condition, so the edge is its one big problem.

Parts of the board, leather and marbled paper needed to be replaced. I began the repair by lifting the marbled papers on the inner paste down and on the front cover, saving any fragment of the marbled paper. I also lifted a section of the leather on the bottom corner.

The board was split apart along the damaged area so I could add a section of new board. I tapered a piece of thin dense book board along one edge and pasted it into the split opening. This provided a ridged base that additional pieces of thin board and paper could added to in order to reform the damaged area. The photo below shows this new dense board before adding and leveling the area with other layers. After the layers dried, the edge was trimmed to size.

I mended the marbled paper on the front of the cover with a piece of paper similar in weight and with the same smooth finish as the marbled paper. I tried several papers but finally had to hand burnish the final paper to get the smooth shiny finish of the original marbled paper.

I also practiced on several pieces of paper trying to match the color of the marble and found that working on a yellow toned base worked better than working on the white of the paper.

The paper was pared along one edge and pasted in place. The additional fragments of the marbled paper were added and I began the inpainting of the marbled pattern. Using the finest brush I had, I began adding the red swirls connecting the patterns with the fragments and then continued with the blue swirls and gray dots. There was also some light fading of the blue and gray colors so I had to adjust the color as I worked toward the edge. The paper was then trimmed to its final size

I added a small leather patch and then repasted the marbled paper in place. The paste down was undamaged so I only needed to repaste it in place.

Friendship in Death

Friendship in Death in Twenty Letters from the Dead to the Living, translated from the Moral Essays of the Meffieurs du Port Royal. London, 1729, second edition,187mm x 124mm, 122 pgs.

This book was bound in two layers of paper wrapped around the sewn pages and glued to the spine. The paper covers were separating on the original binding and the sewing had broken in several places. On close inspection, I realized the cover papers were not original to the book because they were machine made. The sewing through the folds of the sections was also not original. There were holes showing that the book had been side sewn first.

The cover papers were falling off so they were easily pulled off. The front and back pages were heavily discolored, most likely from the original cover paper which must have been a dark grey.

Here you can see some of the holes from the earlier sewing.

The sewing was broken in several places and the glue on the spine had cracked.

I disbound the book and examined the pages. There were tears and some breaks at the outer folds of some of the sections. The front and back pages felt weak and soft when compared with the rest of the book.

The first and last pages were washed and lightly sized with methylcellulose. After seeing the improvement to the color and feel of these pages, I washed the remaining pages. After drying, they did not seem to need resizing.

On the left before and the right after washing.

Using a thin Japanese tissue, I guarded the folds of all the sections.

The pages were sewn on double tawed goatskin thongs. Here, I taped the thongs in position for sewing so I would not need to set up my sewing frame.

The endbands were sewn on leather thongs.

After the spine was lined with Japanese tissue, I pasted between the thongs.

For the cover, I did a three pieced laced on paper case. The spine was a piece of black walnut dyed handmade flax paper. I used a paste finish over the natural flax handmade paper for cover pieces. These papers were some that I made at the University of Iowa (PC4 case papers). I made several different patterns when I was decorating the paper.

To make the binding, I started with the spine piece. I trimmed the paper to the height plus the turn edges but left the width the size of the piece of paper. This was a little shorter than the width of the pages and the spine. I punched holes along the spine fold for the thongs and laced the spine on.

I trimmed the cover pieces and folded them to the height of the cover. I also folded the spine edge and made the corresponding holes. I then laced the sides on so a measure could be made for the fore edge and yapp edge folds.

I then removed the sides so the fore edge could be trimmed and the slot and tabs cut for joining the corners.

The final assembly begins with lacing the cover papers on.

The top and bottom edge are folded over. Here you can see the slot that is cut into the folded section on the top and bottom.

The tab then is slipped into the slots securing the corners. This binding can be easily removed if necessary. Leather ties were added at the fore edge.

The book is part of the Bind-O-Rama exhibition "Artistically Reversible: Where Conservation and Art Meet."This exhibition is a demonstration the ideas of the Tomorrow’s Past movement, which promotes work that demonstrates a high regard for the integrity of the original object, the application of current conservation best practices, and an innovative interpretation of book structure and aesthetics.

Threads That Bind

I purchased this book, Threads That Bind, unbound, in sheets, from Oak Knoll Books. It is a series of interviews with hand bookbinders by Pamela Leutz. Initially, I thought of a design showing a book being sewn on cords but when searching through the various pieces of book leather in my studio, I uncovered three large buffalo skins and decided it was time to use some of them for this book. This book was intended to be my own personal copy so I felt I could take some chances with a new leather.

I had a light green, a light gray and a pale blue skins, but I was not pleased with their look. I had tried to die them before and was unsuccessful. This time I just wiped the surface lightly with a dark brown spirit dye to catch the high points of the texture. I wanted a quick drying dye that would not bleed down into the the open areas. I tried it on all three colors and chose the gray skin for the binding.

Here you can see where I took a piece of Mylar to daub some of the excess dye off before wiping with a lightly dampened paper towel. The skin is sitting on a piece of plexiglass I use when dying leather and paper.

When I finished dyeing the second skin, I knocked over the bottle of dye. Luckily almost all the dye stayed on the Mylar so it was an easy clean up.

I spent a week working with Karen Hanmer in her studio and we decided to follow the binding techniques in Jen Lindsay"s book Fine Bookbinding: A Technical Guide, also from Oak Knoll. There were steps I have used before plus new variations on others, so it was a good exercise to go through.

The book was sewn on pliester linen tapes with a leather hinged endpaper construction. The book was rounded but not backed with the book boards sanded to fit the shape of the pages at the spine.

The book sat under Karen's gold brick weight while the glue on the spine dries out.

The buffalo skin was a little more spongy in texture than the goat skins I was used to. I had the skin split down to .07 mm but it still seemed too thick so I sanded down the board edges to give the book edges a thinner appearance.




Before covering, I looked for onlay colors but still did not have a final design in mind.

I am very fond of Art Deco bindings so I worked on using a design made of lines. The dark bands are dark brown and dark blue onlays.

For the rest of the lines I used copper foil. The warmer look of the copper worked better than gold on this unusual colored skin.

I use a simple jig to aid me when I tool straight lines. I learned this technique from a poster session at the Guild of Book Workers Standards Meeting. It consists of two pieces of book board taped together with packing tape so the smaller piece can fold up. Then you can see where the edge of the board lines up and you can slip the foil under it. In this photo you can see where I have taped off where to start and stop the line when I tool it.

I use a 1 1/4 inch line pallet for most of the lines with smaller lines done with other shorter pallets. Since you place the jig first you can use a ruler to make sure that it is in place. Then I use a box weight to hold it down.

After tooling if you keep the jig in place, you can check the line and repeat the tooling if there are any gaps and breaks or if the line is too short.

The titling was also done in copper using type and a hand pallet.





The finished book was displayed in the Lone Star Chapter of the Build of Book Workers 2011 shows in Dallas and Houston, Texas. It is also included in the 2011 Bind-O-Rama at http://www.philobiblon.com/bindorama10/index.html