Fleur and I attended a Bookbinding workshop over the weekend, hosted by Design Assembly and presented by Gabi Lardies.
Gabi is passionate about bookbinding and shared with the class her ‘homegrown’ techniques that made the craft seem a lot more accessible and doable – with equipment you’ll likely have lying around your home rather than needing specialised machines that traditional bookbinders would use.
The day was very hands-on and practical; we started off by preparing the text block for our perfect bound book then moved onto a Japanese bind, then a multi-section sewn book, and then finally attached the cover to our perfect bound book once the glue on the text block had dried.
A book is perfect bound when all of the pages are glued at the spine, like many magazines. I have done a bit of perfect binding before so I knew what to expect with this one. It was, however, interesting to see how Gabi secured the text block in place – using cement pavers and $9 clamps from Trademe! This binding style is quite typical and expected but as many people found out, actually quite tricky to get the right amount of glue on the spine while keeping the pages square with each other. A few (including myself) ended up with a slightly wonky book, though this was easily fixed with some straight trimming!
The Japanese bound book looks the most intricate and delicate – because it is! For this, we first had to make a template of where we would punch through the pages with a needle. The sequence of stitches required a lot of concentration, and tight pulling of the string. The book ends up having a large spine area so would suit a book design that doesn’t have double-page spread or full-bleed images. The finished books are quite delicate as well so would be best for a book that’s only being used occasionally.
Fleur and I both enjoyed making the multi-section sewn book the most. The method of sewing one book at a time while sewing it into the bind of the previous book, sounds complicated but was relatively simple to follow (compared to the Japanese bind), and looks awesome once complete. In the past I’ve always thought an exposed spine of thread was a bit messy but after seeing it used properly in the instruction guide that Gabi supplied, it really works! Her document had a different section for each of the different bind methods and each section was cut shorter than the one behind it, so the sections we’re emphasised even more. This type of bind is really practical and as Gabi’s book demonstrated, would be great for a small tabulated document or one that has clearly defined sections. We’re keen to suggest this binding style for the right job when it arises… Watch this space!
At the end of the class we had three little books that we’re all bound in really different ways. These handmade bindings would be perfect when there is only a few special edition copies required but for any large jobs we’ll be relying on the professionals for sure!
