And Handmade Art Journal no. 3

I did it I did it I did it! A 3 (threeeee!) signature book! And I wasn't overwhelmed or scared or anything!

Let's look at the pictures first:





Now I decided to do the spine in white duct tape instead of fabric, which was fine until the cover came out of the flower press. It turns out you can't glue to duct tape. So the edges of where I had collaged my DIY-paper were coming off. I needed to put an extra layer of duct tape. No problem

And then it was time to measure out where to put the holes and where to score the actual spine. You can't write on duct tape. Everything would come off, even Sharpies. Sooo... I stuck a strip of masking tape on the inside of the cover, and measured there. I punched my holes and took the masking tape off. Perfect! (well, not perfect, rather off actually, but hey, this is my first attempt and I'm not going to complain!)

Next 'problem': white dental floss on white duct tape. Solution: markers! It was just a fluke, but it turns out you can colour dental floss with markers. It stains like nothing else, but who cares, right?

And then it was time to sew. The first signature was done without any problem. I then, following Leslie's instructions, went over the fold again with my wooden replacement for a bonefolder. I started working on the second signature, but the first one did not want to stay folded back like it should be. So I clamped the pages to the cover. And then it went just fine!

I am sooo happy with the result. I never-ever thought I could do this, I always figured that it would be far too complicated, and that I'd get confused and stick the needle in the wrong holes etc. etc., but Leslie's instructions have helped so much!

If you ever wanted to try bookbinding and are looking for a beginner's workshop, I highly recommend Leslie Herger's down to earth, easy to follow, no-nonsense (no singing, no dressing up, no talking to puppets or animals) workshop. Please go here and have fun!