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[komoriblue.livejournal.com]

I have a question for those who are knowledgeable about bookbinding.

I made a book, and I sort of made up the binding method as I went along... which isn't to say that I wasn't inspired by a few methods I've heard of. I'm pretty sure this method has probably been used before, and I would like to look up some information about it; i.e. pros and cons, longevity, etc. However, I don't know what it's called, and my research efforts have been fruitless. So... basically I want to know what this type of binding is called. I kind of like it, and would like to know if I'm likely to run into issues later if I continue using it.






This is a drawing of how I tied each individual signature.


And this is how I bound the signatures together.

*sigh* Unfortunately, I'm not very good at explaining things in words, as I tend to be a much more visual person... I think you can get some idea of how attached the covers by looking at the remaining photos.


This is the front... (here follows long rambly explanation of the cover design, because I'm all like "boo-hoo it's hideous" and I feel the need to explain myself for some reason. I made the signatures first, and had some other design in mind for the whole thing, and when I made the cover, I realized that it wasn't going to work out the way I'd hoped. So then unfortunately the outside and the inside didn't match at all. I was going to leave it alone until I came up with something, but then I found out that my friend's grandfather had died, and I needed something to send out to her A.S.A.P. So in a desperate attempt to pull the whole thing together, this is what I came up with.)


Detail shot of the teapot. I used to know how to draw, once upon a time :(

ANYWAY...


This is the front page. The (I think it's called) fly sheet(?) is glued to the front cover.


This is what the binding looks like inside the signatures. The next time I do this, I'll probably use a slightly thinner binding thread.


This is why the teapot is orange. It was going to be a sushi-themed book, but I stupidly didn't cover the, uh, cover with the dark green paper as I should have, and it totally didn't work at all. (side note: I can only read one word in Japanese, and therefore have no idea what the text on this page is. I like to imagine that stuff like this says "Stupid white people who shop in scrapbook stores will buy anything that smacks of exoticism.")


This is what the binding looks like between signatures.


My favorite part is the spine:

You can see clearly here how I attached the cover. I realized that simply attaching the first page wouldn't be enough to hold for many uses, so I reinforced it by gluing strips of cardboard over the tied bindings.


Another view of the spine.

KTHX for looking any constructive criticism/advice/random thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Image-heavy and I do tend to carry on sometimes.