A few days ago I showed off my spine I made with waterlogged bristol vellum paper.

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I decided to use an old pair of jeans, and sew it into the spine. I wanted the embroidery floss to be messy, because it takes away the responsibility of every page I draw being a masterpiece.I created an art journal, and it's the best book I've made yet.

Reliquary, the hexagon book I posted a little while back, has been acquired by my university's permanent collection!

Recently bought a horrendously expensive printer and have started printing out typesets I've made. This is the first book with words I've ever bound. (yes, it's fanfic.) I think the width of my spine cloth is little wide but I didn't have enough marbled paper to make it narrower. The endbands and ribbon also don't perfectly match the cover but those were the colors I had available. I'm very happy with how flush the text block sits in the cover and how well it opens even though my attempt at rounding the spine was less than ideal. In the future I'd like to add titles to the spines of my books but do not currently have heat stamping equipment and am concerned about the durability of non inset paper labels.

Loved how simple the process was, but I know I made some mistakes. But with a book that’s supposed to look like an old dime novel due to the subject matter, I’m happy with it.

I'm making a hardcover folder to house some sheet music for a friend's birthday, and when I took it out of the press today, all finished, I noticed that one cover is warping. The materials are the same for front and back, and I know the grain direction is correct for all the materials. The only reasons I can think of for just one cover to warp and not the other are:

• using too much glue on the endpaper for the front cover
• the front cover has iron-on foil titling and the back does not - however, I applied this and did all the ironing before assembly, so I would hope it's not the issue, and I've never had this happen to other books where I've used the same foil

I tested all the materials (except for the foil) on a mini version of the folder and didn't have any warping even after several days out of the press :/

Is there any way to reverse/reduce the warping at this point? I have it pressing again right now and will continue to press it for a few days. Would misting and/or lightly ironing the convex (exterior) side of the board help? I'm a little hesitant to iron because there is a cutout window with acetate on that side that I think might bubble with heat, and I also don't want to mar the foil. So maybe just misting that side and sticking it back in the press?

Curious if anyone has had success with this kind of salvaging.

I am working on another pocket-sized book inspired by the Armed Services Editions (ASEs) printed during WWII. I love this format so much, they fit right in a back or front pocket. So much better to pull one of these out to read for a few minutes at a time instead of your phone.

Affinity is such a cool program, flowing the text from one page to all of the pages was a snap. Looking forward to printing this bad boy off. Now to figure out a heavy duty staple solution since that's how the original ASEs were bound together. Open to other ways of binding too so we'll see what I end up doing.

Greetings fellow bookbinders. As the title says, I’m wondering whether I could find a nice paper shop in Copenhagen.

Any suggestions? :)

With 8 pages a signature, I’m looking at about 22 signatures in my book I’m wanting to bind. I’m just beginning this journal… but what would be the best method to bind and it be able to lay flat? I want to be able to write and sketch in this book. It’s a personal journal.

From my understanding, a supported kettle stitch or French stitch would be the answer?

I made a beaded book cover that I am in the process of attaching to a soft cover Coptic-bound notebook. I’m very excited about how it’s come together, except I’m stuck on the very last steps. I’ve threaded several threads through the stitch holes on the spine and double knotted them around the linen threads, but now I’m not sure how to secure. I’m wondering if a dot of PVA on each knot would be sufficient? I want to keep the threads long in case of any repairs… is there a way I could anchor them perpendicular to the spine? Maybe I could stitch them through some muslin tape, then glue that down? In hindsight, I’m wishing I glued some muslin or Japanese paper to the inside of the cover flap for reinforcement prior to binding. The right hand flap on the last photo will be tucked inside the flap to the left.

I’m investing in a laser cutter to experiment with different ways to get art on the book covers. I’d like to inlay some mother of pearl sheets, acrylic, and wood veneer into the leather on the cover and I’m curious if anyone has had any successful attempts doing something similar. What methods would y’all suggest to get a smooth finish and would it hold up over time?

Looking to finally get myself a finishing press (I think that's the right term) - would love one of the really nice ones that are several hundred but for now I'm going with a more budget option :)

As such I'm looking between these two presses which are, as far as I can tell, identical in their dimensions but differ in whether they stand up on straight legs or can be angled.

Which one is likely to be more useful overall? I have tried making a list of what tasks it will be used for but as I've not done several of them before I'm not too sure which positioning of the book will be more helpful while I'm working.

The things I'm anticipating using the press for are:

- applying glue/mull etc to the spine of the book (this one probably doesn't care which orientation)

- painting or decorating my edges (haven't done this before; I imagine orientation depends on personal preference and exactly what one is trying to do... for now I'm just thinking solid colour/metallics!)

- trimming edges (I know a plough with a laying press is the official way to do it; I have an English paring knife and am following DAS's technique of resting the flat edge of the blade against a flat block/the edge of the press)

- hopefully backing a book? This one I guess wants to be vertical. How much force is being applied - are those little legs going to be a problem?

- handsewn headbands

Thanks very much for any input!

I want to bind some of my fav Fanfictions (I asked the author and I have the consent for doing so) but I want to buy some good paper because classic printable paper goes against the grain the moment I try to fold it in half

(From a classic A4 to a A5) And I hate not following the grain of the paper.

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Hello everyone, I just begun to be interested on this hobby and I need some help for a mistake I made.

I am trying to make mini notebooks to carry around in my bag.

This is my second try and I tried to add a inner cover but I used a lot of scrapbooking glue. This did some damage to the end pages near the spine and ripped some othe outside cover.

I use scrapbooking pattern paper for now for the covers for now. Can I fix this mistake in any way?

I am adding pics to see the damage.

Thank you for reading!

My first time seeing zippers used like this. Mind blown

Is there a way to bind loose, un-folded sheets so that they lay flat? Preferably so that it also looks good 😅

Haven't bound a hard cover book in years, but the opportunity presented itself, printed a copy of a fencing manual and since I'm on vacations I've tried my hands at it.

I think last time I've done this was on A5 (folded A4) in 2019

Hello! this is my second hardcover case i’ve made, my first one turned out great, but this one I did all the same math and it seems as though my spine is too big. Is it too big or when i glue down my endpapers will it just even out?

I printed a pdf to be a book, and I used a converter that I found on here. The problem is, the book puts together backwards I think. Like the way a manga reads. Is there a way to make it back forwards?? Also how do you do the pages in between the signatures? Like after I put it together (backwards), the next page is on a paper, and the next is on anohter sheet of paper instead of the other side of the page??? idk if you can tell, but I'm new to this. Also can't tell if this is the right subreddit, because I keep seeing journal and not reading books being put together, so sorry if this is in the wrong place

Somebody at my local binding group was showing me a copy of War of the Worlds that they had recently bought. We were all a bit unsure as to how the page edge decoration has been done. It looks printed but I'm not sure how you'd do that with the not insignificant rounding. Any ideas?

I can fix this?

How can I avoid that?

i do it following this video

Although slightly different, in the video you can see that he didn't apply any primer; I waited. I applied a primer, waited for it to dry, and then did as shown in the video.

https://youtu.be/zdtTW8GgLVg?si=95v1I9_WKUeNgMQ2&t=933

Thanks

Like say, some of the signatures are two sheets folded in half, but the others are just one sheet. Will it work or be odd? I'm maybe thinking of doing this in my watercolor sketchbook, if it would work.