So I announced yesterday, somewhat boldly, I might add, considering that I have two sick children--yes Aex came down with it--that I was going to make a book last night. I had a book in mind that I've been wanting to try for a while. The binding is called The Secret Belgian Binding. You can find a tutorial here. I knew this would be a quick, easy book to make, so I set out. I so enjoyed the process! As I stood at my island in my almost perfectly clean room, I remembered just what I love about bookbinding. It's the deliberateness and the exactness. Everything that my little Type A heart desires! I have only made a few books since November when the old studio was disassembled to make way for another guest room to accommodate all of our Thanksgiving guests. When I did get to make books, my work area looked something like this
Not exactly the most inspirational of spaces, is it? The other distraction was, of course, my children. This winter has been a trying one with Alex as he has spend a good amount of his waking hours crying at my feet. Anyone who has tried to do anything with a child vying for your attention knows that things tend to go wrong under those circumstances. I had to start over multiple times on every project I began. Several pieces of binder's board were ruined in the process. Many, many feet of linen thread went to waste. Simply put, trying to be creative was almost more stress than it was worth.
Last night was different. I had some nice music playing in the background. I remembered to write everything measurement down so that I didn't make a single mistake. I delighted in the precision required to make a beautiful book. I went slow. And this was the result.
Aside from the terrible taken at night photos, I'm very happy with this little book. I finally used one of the papers that Jeremy brought back from India. This is a beautiful one that looks like letterpress, but there's probably some term for how it was decorated that I can't recall right now. It was nice and forgiving to work with, too, but still not as nice as Japanese paper.
