Plato's Makeover - completed

Good afternoon! I'm back, and I've brought books: two new hardcovers for a professor's library. Click for larger images:

My last post was a WIP shot of rebind work on my dad's Plato paperbacks, and now here are the finished products. They are perfectly matched. Their Greek titles, Gorgias and Politeia, were printed via laser printer onto the cover material and positioned over a rectangular piece of cardstock. Once the cover was glued, I used my bonefolder to find the edges of the cardstock, producing a raised effect.

The cover paper is a thick, creamy cardstock with metallic gold swirls, and the spines and corners are dark forest green (though they look a little black in these photographs). I went with navy blue for the endpapers, a paper with tiny bits of gold tinsel to pick up the metallics on the cover.

One of the books came with a special task. Dad has a little notebook that he used to keep binder-clipped to the back cover of the Gorgias, not a very permanent solution when the re-binding happened. So, I fashioned a pocket for the inside of the back cover which perfectly fits the notebook.

More projects to come soon. I'm working on a re-bind of A Little Princess which I will post as a photodocumentary of how the process works, and I've also got another big project from my muse of epicity, Brian.

Plato's Makeover

Good afternoon! I've figured out a specific line of work for myself, and the first project is under way now. It was my dad's idea. He's a professor of philosophy, and here's his copy of Plato's Gorgias which is older than I am:

As you can see, it's not in good shape. The spine has cracked down the middle, and pages are falling out. He'd buy a new copy, but this one is full of two decades' worth of notes. It's a perfect candidate for re-binding.

While I'm working on the Gorgias, I'll also re-bind Dad's classroom copy of the Republic as a matched companion. Here they are with newly reinforced spines, waiting for a shipment of nice papers so I can make their covers.

I'll keep you all posted and show you finished pictures soon!

Rebound paperback: Wuthering Heights

I was always more fond of Jane Eyre than I was of Wuthering Heights, but this paperback copy of Emily Bronte's classic novel was too inviting to pass up. It wanted a dark but romantic and thoroughly Victorian look.

I gave it the full treatment to make for a sound new hardcover: cords sunk and glued into the spine for strength, a cheesecloth hinge to attach the cover. Putting the cover together was something of a trial. I knew I wanted to use this floral brown printed paper with a cream spine and ivory endpapers. However, I didn't have a long enough strip of the cream paper to cover the spine, so I had to come up with the brown spacer strips you see in the final product.

Then there was the title. I'm not a practicing calligrapher, but I have practiced, I'm comfortable with an ink pen, and my natural handwriting isn't bad. So I inked a couple dozen practice titles before taking on the real thing. I'm happy with the result, but I wish I had practiced the sans-serif author name a little more; it was supposed to be cleaner and very blocky. Still, I'm pleased and I know I'll get better.

I was, however, extremely pleased to find a ribbon in precisely the same shade of indigo as the endpapers.

This book is available for sale from my Etsy store.

Sneaky dictionaries: French and German

The books I mentioned in my last post are now finished. I took a paperback French phrasebook and a German/English dictionary, removed their old covers, sanded down their spines, and treated them to hard covers. They are now case-bound books with cloth hinges. First up is Charles Berlitz's "Passport to French" phrasebook:

As I was deciding how to decorate the covers, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to make these books interesting: don't include a title. In fact, don't include any identifying marks at all. The result is an unobtrusive little hand-bound volume which can be carried the world over without advertising its owner as "not from around here."

Next we have the Bantam New College German & English Dictionary:

Again, stealthy, but the red, gold, and black marbled paper on the spine does subtly conjure the German flag. The book is unique and easy to spot on a shelf for the German student at home. It might make for a pretty gift to a German language student.

Here's a quick shot of the hollow spine I was so excited about in my last post:

Both dictionaries are available on my Etsy store (which also has more pictures).

• French phrasebook
• German/English dictionary

In progress: rebinding paperbacks

A quick trip to my library's bargain used book corner landed me with $6 worth of ready-made text blocks to practice binding. Here's what's on the workbench right now:

I don't feel bad about potentially destroying a dictionary, so this one seemed like a good guinea pig. Next up maybe I'll give Emily Bronte or Ralph Waldo Emerson a shot, and eventually I'd like to rebind my friend's Lord of the Rings trilogy and my own Elements of Euclid.

In addition to the German/English dictionary, I also have an ancient Passport to French book under surgery. Here they both are with endpapers and mull applied; the French book has an elegant, subtle pinstripe on the endpapers, while the German book has ivory 100% cotton endpapers.

I'll be casing them in once their covers are done drying. Speaking of, here's my new favorite tutorial for making the cover: Dave's Book Tutorial. His advice to use a manila folder makes for a lovely joint, and the spines of these books will be hollow (finally!). Plus, easy-peasy very pretty French groove = bonus!

New supplies!

Lucky me had a friend passing through Ann Arbor who volunteered to stop by Hollander's for me. The kind girl answering the store's phone let me call in an order at the last minute and got it ready for my friend to pick up. So, I was finally able to get some professional supplies.

The special delivery consisted of:

• two sheets of standard binder's board and one of Davey board,
• Italian book cloth in red,
• a sample packet of Italian book cloth,
• thin French linen cord for cord-bound books (no more stains or tangled hemp fibers), and
• my very own 6" bonefolder!

I now feel like a proper bookbinding initiate.