The Books

Just successfully took pictures of my 2 hardbound sketchbooks. My family shares a really old, ugly camera, but the pictures turned out alright.

Naked and Monolith

 In this picture, the left one is the one I'm beginning with. When I took these pictures I noticed that the black one looks like the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I'm naming the black one after it. The other I'm calling "Naked" because my brother came down and mentioned it - found it entertaining and appropriate. ;)

Each book was sewn together and made up of 10 signatures (bookbinding term definitions at the bottom); each signature is made of 6 folios. The structure of both are entirely the same internally - the only difference is one's completely bound and the other is spineless. The benefit of a spineless book is that it lays flatter when you open it.  

More details about Naked: None of the paper inside is brand new: they're made up of newsprint I've used over the years since high school, white paper ripped from another sketchbook I never finished, road maps, and other toned papers I found around my house. (You can see all the different papers more clearly in the bottom pictures.) I didn't want to start with new paper when I knew that there was plenty I could use; makes me feel good to reuse things.

the spine and opposite edge of Naked

After sewing all the signatures together, I glued the spine to protect it using a bookbinding glue, glued the ribbons to the top of the cages, and then glued the end-sheets to the inside. Between each gluing I had to put other large books on top to keep the cage from bending. (When I get to Monolith, I'll tell you how I did that too.)

So, then I had a book. :D And now I'm going to start drawing in him.

 I will post my first pages soon.





TERMS
folio: large folded piece of paper
signature: sewn stack of folios
bookbinding glue: Jade 403 - PVA adhesive
cage: fancy word for the cover
text-block: the stack of many sewn signatures
end-sheet: paper glued to the inside of the book to further attach the cage to the text-block