A fun project

Single section books are quick to make, they're simple to sew. Most of the time needed is for choosing your papers and making the cover (and of course waiting for the glue to dry overnight!)

This is a fun little notebook I made recently for a friend's birthday using some of the paper I picked up in Rome!

Making progress

I'm slowly stitching the sections back together, I hope I'm about halfway through! 

Diving in...

Here goes... I'm slowly taking this book apart, ready to sew it back together!

My next project

My uncle has sent this book to me to re-bind! It will be my first "restoration" project.

I'm excited to get started! 

Will keep you posted with how I get on. 

London calling

It's been a while since I've been to central London, so it was great to explore again on Monday.

We started at the 'Big Blue Rooster' in Trafalgar Square 

Walked to Westminster,

And crossed the river to the south bank

We walked along the river all the way to Tower Bridge, 

crossed the Millennium bridge to St Pauls on the way.

That's the Tate Modern and Globe Theatre behind us in the reflection

I was excited to see the Shard for the first time

Of course we had to cross Tower Bridge, then caught the tube back to Covent Garden where I just happened to find some gorgeous papers for future books ;) 

Day 5 -Single leaf binding and Japanese stab binding

Crikey, today has been busy, this morning we learnt about single leaf binding. This is basically how paperback books are bound. I found it fascinating to learn how to make books from single sheets of paper like this.

Papers all laid out ready for today!

Starting our single leaf book...

First we used a small saw to cut grooves into what would become the spine of the book, painted it with a layer of glue and laid a piece of thread through the grooves, more glue and some linen backing is all that holds this book together!

The trimmed book, ready to attach the cover

This afternoon we made a quick notebook using Japanese Stab Binding. It is such a decorative way to bind single pieces of paper, but these books are not as easy to use as they don't open as fully. They are fun to make and there are so many options for different styles of spine stitching. It was a relaxing way to end the course after our busy morning!

My Japanese stab bound book

My four finished books from the last 3 days! The pink one is the single leaf binding from this morning!

Day 4

Today's book was very similar to yesterday's, except we made a soft cover for it, instead of a hardback case. We stitched 16 smaller sections instead of 8 large ones, which made it easier to round the spine of the book, and made a neater edge to the book.

Stitched and ready to trim

Learning to use the vertical plough to get perfect smooth edges to our books

Ready to case, all neatly trimmed

My finished book ready to go in the press

Day 3 - First multi-section book

Today we made a Full Cloth case bound book with a rounded spine

Choosing papers for our next two books! For this one I went with classic black book cloth and pretty Japanese end papers. (Be warned, tomorrow's book will be bright, keep your sunglasses handy!)

Finished stitching, ready to case. 

The finished book. 

Days 1 & 2 - Single Section Books

I am loving this course at Shepherds. We have been busy, making 4 books in two days!
I have learnt so much, we have learnt to trim papers by hand, 3 different styles of end papers and 3 different case bindings... and all in two days!

First book.

First and Second Books

Third book

All books, including bonus fourth book... I chose rather bright colours for this one!

Tomorrow we start working on Multi-section books.

Another class

With mixed feelings I have left Siena for the summer and returned to England for a while. I am sad to be leaving this beautiful town for the summer, but excited to be taking another bookbinding class back in Wiltshire.

The Daffodil Barn, Woodborough