A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 6.

Week of 10 Feb 2014

OK, more Japanese stab binding. I'm teaching a class in a couple weeks at the library, so I wanted to make a couple of them to make sure I have all the tools and materials gathered. I want to do a complete glue and fancy paper book as well as a found-materials, non-adhesive book. So here we go -

Here's all the tools and materials I used.
My daughter and I made the pink paper last month, using a little Rit dye and some pink lint from our dryer.
The two floral papers are from Wet Paint. They came in really large sheets, I cut pieces to suit as needed.
The tool next to the mini green cutting mat is a Japanese screw punch (or push drill) I got from Talas. It is awesome. It came with 9 bit sizes.

Above the green mat are my other favorite tools: bone folder (folding and scoring), micro spatula, and a little metal ruler. I took apart an old Readers Digest book and used the boards - they were exactly the right size.
I also make good use of my little tool kit and, of course, some PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue.

I covered the boards, then I needed to punch 5 holes. I use a couple of my sewing tools (oops, I forgot to put them in my first photo) to make holes. The button gauge makes the holes evenly spaced. The measuring gauge keeps the holes the right distance from the edge of the board.

OK, now which color thread? Emy picked the red one.

Instead of having loose threads, I tucked the tied end into the middle hole, using a bit of glue to keep it there.

 Emy chose a bead she'd always liked for the cover.

And here's the sweet inside. Didn't that paper come out awesome - we had new red flannel sheets - lots of red dryer lint!

And a really quick found-objects stab binding, for my daughter who is obsessed with chocolate:

Score the board with a ruler and bone folder.

A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 5.

Week of Feb. 3, 2014

Another repair. Ghost Towns of Colorado.

TS asked me if I could repair this book, with a note, "Please save, if possible."

As you can see, these endsheets have cool photos, but were quite damaged, partly from acidic paper, but also from library tape, stickers, due date slips and envelope glue. I decided to give it a try.

I learned, from working in the conservation lab at UW-Madison Memorial Library, to remove glued-on paper you should try methyl cellulose. Basically, it's wallpaper paste, but also an inert, low tack, removable glue. Methyl cellulose is a versatile tool in book repair, conservation and bookbinding. You can add it to your PVA glue to lengthen the drying time when you're doing detail work. It can be used straight as a glue to attach book plates which can be removed easily by wetting the plate with water.

For book repair, we use it to loosen old glues and remove glued paper. So I applied the methyl cellulose to the endsheets on the boards. It took some time (hours) before the paper started to come loose. I used my micro spatula to gently lift off the paper.

 

The boards were too acidic and crumbling to keep, but I wanted to retain the look of an older book. I had a discarded Guideposts volume, which was about the size I needed. The only problem was the title on the cover. I carefully cut out the Guideposts title with an exacto knife, and printed a new title to insert in its place.

I used a bit of my metallic coloring to make it look not-quite-new.

I even found the original spine piece underneath some book repair tape, so I reattached it to the new spine.