Thursday, March 11, 2021

A New Hobby Emerges: Bookbinding!

 As if I don't have enough things taking up my time, I got "the bug" to want to try my hand at bookbinding. I've watched a couple of youtube videos and subscribed to Vintage Page Designs channel, started following some book-binders and paper marblers on Instagram and Twitter, etc. But the best thing I did was purchased a DIY bookbinder kit from the American Bookbinders Museum

The kit comes with instructions and everything you need to create a small bound book. The instructions were fairly straightforward and the quality of the materials was excellent (so far as I know, but I'm just a newbie). After familiarizing myself with the instructions by reading them a couple of times (just to be sure - measure twice, cut once, right?) it took about 45 minutes from the moment I started folding to the time I put the finished book between some heftier books to flatten and dry. Not too shabby! Here are some pics of my progress:





No pics of the finished product yet, but if you look at that last picture and imagine another black, book-cloth-bound board on the right side of it, that's what it will look like. I'm already thinking about the next project(s). I've been thinking of doing some incredibly over-priced RPG supplements or adventures, hand-made. I'll need to save up to buy some more materials, however. You do need the right materials. And I have a thing for marbled endpapers . . . I mean: a Call of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu adventure with marble endpapers - what's not to like (except for the price - this won't be inexpensive, I'm guessing)? This might be the start of something, who knows? And I might just make some books for myself and friends, too.

Like I needed another hobby!


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2 comments:

  1. Very cool! I'm a huge fan of letterpress printing and hand-binding processes, such as Pegana Press uses to put out their volumes of Dunsany, Lovecraft, etc. I might have to order that DIY kit myself!

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  2. This is an amazing post and thanks for sharing it.

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