The Book Arts Forum

don't let that stop you from posting.

For all the new members, and old, please feel free to introduce yourself, ask questions, answer questions, post photos of your work, post info about classes you might be teaching, gear you have for sale.

There are still many people who check the forum regularly.

Carry on.

Jackie
(Your humble moderator)

Hello, I do indeed check here every now and then. - Apparently about once every two months. It is surprising how quite it has become here. It would be great if things could get more lively again!
So following your incentive...

I am Hilke, Büchertiger (or buechertiger or buchertiger) in many online forums. My official business with the authoroties here in England is called Buchertiger, and I have a supplies business call (surprise, surprise) Büchertiger Supplies and I also make books and book art under the imprint Büchertiger Studio & Press. I moved from Germany to England almost three years ago, and since then my bookbinding has been - kind if - in hiatus while I was sorting out studio space. But currently I am in the middle of moving to a real new workshop which is currently being modified, damp-proofed and generally made nicer before I move in. And then I will hopefully have the time to finally make books in larger quantities again! I like to make books with the sewing visible: Coptic, Softleather Longstitch-type, and raised cord.

Here a few weblinks:
Photos of my books: on ipernity
I have a blog here: http://kurzke.co.uk/blog
My facebook can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/buechertiger

I have two Etsy shops which, however, are currently closed due to moving. Maybe you'll find them from my website if you are interested.

Who else is still reading?

_________________
My website and blog can be found here: http://kurzke.co.uk

I am checking in periodically! Alas, I have had a very busy teaching term and I have not done any bookbinding project for months, which is a bit discouraging. In the corner of my study, however, there is a stack of paper and bookcloth that reminds me that I should practice this art. I am keen to try a full leather binding, which I haven't done yet -- or at least, haven't done WELL yet.

All the best,
Italicist

Hi Hilke, Christopher, Jackie, and all,

I was actually gone for some months - new job, lots of responsibilities, few resources, the usual stuff, and very few time for bookbinding. But things have improved a bit in the very recent past and I managed to do some book working, and even managed to teach a weekend class on bookbinding for beginners at a local public library.

Why don't we try to blow a bit the dust out of the forums and start some fresh topics?

How about a nice little book swap? It seems the last one has been done in 2014. 21st century is seeing an uprising of e-books and digital information, we could have that as a topic for a new swap.

Hope to hear more from you soon, and promise to post some more stuff myself,

Uwe

I'm another who checks in from time to time and who finds it a shame that it's got so quiet here.

I'm still as addicted as ever to bookbinding, especially antiquarian books of which I have an ever growing collection. I also have a sideline making and selling blank notebooks, the profits from which I give to the charities I support.

Buechertiger, we've done the opposite from each other. I now spend about 3 months of the year in Bavaria, although I have no plans to settle there permanently. Good luck with your new studio and shop.

_________________

Oh, that's interesting, Ann. I hope you like it in Germany. I am personally from the North (and if you spend time in Bavaria nowadays you probably know about the North/South division in Germany :-)). Of course I have no idea where exactly you are, but Munich in general should be a rather good place for crafting in general and boookbinding in particular.

_________________
My website and blog can be found here: http://kurzke.co.uk

I feel very comfortable in Bavaria, I like the lifestyle here, even if the weather has been very unkind this trip (I head back to the UK tomorrow). My German isn't what it was years ago, but my comprehension is still good and no one ever breaks into English when they hear me speak, so I take that as a compliment!

I have a little flat in Oberaudorf, a lovely village surrounded by mountains, about 15 miles south of Rosenheim, so yes, Munich is very accessible, although so far I haven't found much in the way of bookbinding supplies there, just one shop, Carta Pura, which specialises in papers. A leather shop in Bad Aibling I was told about was a revelation though!

_________________

Thanks All for checking in.

We do get new members all the time but I imagine they don't post because it's so quiet.

I posted this morning about our forum on the Book Arts ListServ hoping to remind folks that we are here and have a lot to offer the book arts community.

Thanks for being dedicated members!

Jackie

Hello all. Michael Keller here (retired book restorer). Forgive me Father for I have sinned; it has been 4 or 5 years since my last posting.
So anyone interested in new Group Topic ideas? hows this one... Since we are well into the 21st Century and the growth of the Internet in general and its resources like YouTube specifically - does anyone have any binding related video recommendations or comments in general? Any "must sees" ? (please include reasons and URLs if possible).
My own most recent recommendation would be: "Men In Sheds" series; Glenn Malkin, British Fine Binder; 36 m. a well-made, very informative look at creating an 'art book' for competition. (Not the sort of thing I do myself - but very interesting) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f96v8LRyblw
The rest of this post is just an FYI on a contribution I just finished and 'published' on YouTube:
--------------------------------------
Practical Book Restoration ["Tennyson's Book Of Poems"]

After 8 years of working on this project, I finally figured out how to edit, title, etc. each of these 20 videos as best I could and upload them all to YouTube. Years ago, when I first decided to do this project, I had no idea what purpose it would eventually be put to; nor did I have any clue how to technically do it.
Having recently reviewed what binding related video resources are currently available on the internet, I realize that there are hundreds of general interest book binding and book repair videos online (some quite good), and the subject of relatively simple binding fixes and repairs seems to be very well covered, but I could find nothing 'in depth' on old book *restoration* (restoring an old book from the ground up). So, in spite of the no-budget home-made quality of my pretty modest efforts, I decided to share them with anyone out there who might have an interest in such things.

-------------------

01 INTRODUCTION [3 m.]
Overview of 'practical restoration' of a 19th century volume of "Tennyson's Poems".

[url]https://youtu.be/yjegFoXLMwY


02 ASSESSMENT [6 m.]
Description of the specific book in question; discussion of its original construction and the proposed chronology of the project.

[url]https://youtu.be/efaET7JV6XQ


04 DISBIND II [5 m.]
Discussion of original headbands and their replacement. Demonstration of cleaning an extant original leather spine.

[url]https://youtu.be/7kdYiA4slx4


05 DISBIND III [26 M.]
Beginning to disassemble the text-block into individual signatures (page sections). Discussion of "signature marks"; original rounding distortion of signatures; flyleaves; cleaning old adhesive from disbound signature; criteria for tissue reinforcement; the "guarding" process.

[url]https://youtu.be/3yuQGcuSyCo


06 DISBIND IV [17 m.]
Discussion of recessed cords; cleaning old adhesive Demonstration of removing single signatures.

[url]https://youtu.be/vozrX-Je3Y0


07 DISBIND V [15 m.]
The end of the disbinding process; discussing flush cord binding, introduction to sewing onto tapes, original headbands, original extant spine, preparation for signature re-reinforcement and guarding.

[url]https://youtu.be/gBdHn8JN5rY


08 BOARD_I [16 m.]
Demonstration of: cleaning original leather boards; creating inner and outer 'flaps'. Discussion of decorative endpaper; inner and outer hinges; importance and use of 'single-bevel' knives.

[url]https://youtu.be/uEKaKF7_ny8


09 TISSUE I
Beginning a demonstration of final cleaning, assessment, tissue reinforcement and guarding of individual signatures using a common household iron.

[url]https://youtu.be/QmBN2USfp3s


10 TISSUE-II [6 m.]
Continuing a demonstration of tissue reinforcement and guarding of individual signatures using a common household iron; treatment of 'dogears'.

[url]https://youtu.be/I-fgVO1f0DM


11 TISSUE III [24 m.]
Continuation of a demonstration of tissue reinforcement and guarding of individual signatures using a common household iron.

[url]https://youtu.be/C-vwlRgw0ss


12 SEWING I [17 m.]
Discussion of sewing with cloth tapes. Demonstration of creating needle holes in signatures in preparation of sewing

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D05-2dezJWM


13 SEWING II [30 m.]
Initial discussion and demonstration of signature sewing; sewing thread; patterns for redundancy.

[url]https://youtu.be/M3yc89BMhWQ


14 SEWING III [27 m.]
Discussion and demonstration of resewing restored signatures: redundancy; starting first two signatures; introduce cloth tapes into established early sewing;

[url]https://youtu.be/1u0be31WTik


15 BACKING [22 m.]
Demonstration of rounding and backing the restored and resewn text-block in preparation for attaching the boards and beginning the respining.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y9gKIDYLB0


16 RESPINE [23 M.]
Demonstration of creating a new cloth spine (hollow-back) for the fully restored leather book.

[url]https://youtu.be/8ffUsgHBolw


17 RESPINE II [14 m.]
Inserting prepared fly-leaves under flaps inside previously attached boards.

[url]https://youtu.be/10hEsTJDV_0


18 RESPINE III [14 m.]
Brief discussion of cleaning the original spine. Attaching the original spine.

[url]https://youtu.be/yN2z77GXRL8


19 RESPINE IV [8 m.]
Adhering inner flaps.

[url]https://youtu.be/4G4XP3M-UZ0


20 RESPINE V [5 m.]
Adhering outer flaps.

[url]https://youtu.be/apZ1de6rjyQ


22 LEATHER DRESSING [12 m.]
General discussion on the use of leather dressing on old leather.

[url]https://youtu.be/Pr8d5ducD94

Michael Keller - Bookbinder http://www.kwic.com/~bkeller/binding/