|
How we make our books.
All our books are totally handmade by ourselves. We use traditional methods of hand stitching each set of pages and then fixing these to the cover boards which have been previously covered in leather. Techniques for making the 3D covers vary by design some sculpture, maybe a bit of carving. We are NOT giving away exactly how we do, it that's our little secret, besides there's far too many people surf the web just to steal other peoples ideas (if you are guilty- grow up, get a life and think for yourself or get out of the game).
Our books are designed to look as if they have been around for a while (that doesn't mean they look shabby) antiqued finishes to the leather, fired edges to the pages to look like they've been well thumbed over the years and things like handmade endpapers (those pretty papers inside the cover) all add to the look of an old book you have just discovered.
A quick step by step (if you’re interested).
1- Design ideas are rough out, then rubbed out, started again, thrown in the bin, forgotten about for a week, then remember re-drawn, the old designs rescued from the bin, you think well what was wrong with that anyway, eventually a design is agreed upon (somehow). This process can be quick when inspiration really kicks in or it can be painfully slow when ideas flow quicker than the brain.
2- Next comes the hard bit, turn that scribbled drawing into a book. This is the part of the process that takes the longest, trying to work out the best technique for the individual design, most times we pick the wrong technique the first time and invariably end up starting all over again (we are getting better though, the bin doesn't get quite as full now).
3- These boards need to be covered in leather, this again is a long process. The leather is glued a small area at a time pressing into each little crevice with a variety of tools, fingernails (they always break just at the wrong time), sticks etc. just about anything that gets within range and will do the job. Then the spine and the back cover are given the same treatment.
4- We then give the covers their initial colouring, yes all our books are dyed and coloured by ourselves. The final finish is left until the end when the book is complete.
5- Now we need to actually make the book part, 250 bits of paper, 8 holes in each one (that's a WHOLE lot of holes- ha ha get it, sorry try harder next time) if you are sad enough to want to know that makes 2000 holes, these are then made into signatures (fancy name for a set of folded pages), we use 5 pages per signature, folded that makes 10 pages. These signatures are then sewn together in a stack one at a time until you get a books worth (on average we sew together 25 of these to make a book). This stack is then squeezed tight in a press, glue is applied to the spine and a mull (a piece of gauze like linen) is applied , this greatly increases the strength of the binding ensuring years of use. This is left to dry over night.
6- Next we need to introduce the pages and the cover to each other and hope they like each other. The pages are placed inside the covers and the mulls are glued to the covers, when dry the first page of the book is also glued to the cover to give added strength to the join. We then add the handmade endpapers which are carefully hand torn to fit.
7- Now we turn our attention to the final finishing of the cover. The colour is re-applied if needed. Then the surface is protected with an antique finish. Polished to a soft lustre and then we leave it for a couple of days, come back and give it it's final check-up if alls well it's photographed and put on the web site for you to buy.
|
