I’m going to
come straight out and admit it – writing wasn’t my first love. I’d been around
the block a few times before we finally found each other. In fact, I was past
the big three-oh before I finally realised I wanted to be a writer when I grew
up. But on the way to this realisation, I had affairs. Lots of them. With
almost every creative past time you can imagine.
For
starters, when I first left high school (yes, that’s left. Shock, horror, I didn’t
finish) I went to TAFE to study art and design. Then a year down the track I
discovered myself in a hair salon wiping mirrors with vinegar and newspaper and shampooing the
heads of elderly ladies. It seriously happened by accident. I never had any
intention of becoming a hairdresser. But I did, and that accident turned out to
be a happy one. For sixteen years I got to paint and sculpt people’s hair. In
the meantime, I painted (mainly oils and acrylics), I made dolls, quilts, polymer
clay mermaid sculptures that I used to sell to a local gift shop, and books.
Yes, books. Not in the way I’d like to be making them now – writing the words
that fill them – but actual, old fashioned hard-cover books via a course in bookbinding
at RMIT.
Lately, like
writers sometimes get, I’ve been feeling sick of myself and the stories I’ve
been working on. Nothing was lighting a fire in my belly. So, I figured it was
time to head back and make some art. I firmly believe that one form of
creativity spawns others, so I got cracking. I moved my writing desk and
computer into another, quieter part of the house (yay for lots of spare rooms!)
and set up my little bindery again. I promised a friend I’d make her a couple
of books, like, a year or so ago (thanks for your patience, Bec) so I had a
project ready to get working on.
Here’s a few
pics of some of the steps:
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| Each leaf of parchment paper is folded individually, collected into signatures of 5 leaves, goes into a vice to have the spine cut for sewing and is then sewn up using the kettle stitch technique. I add spine sashes in at this stage for strength. |
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| After the sewing is complete, I put the book into a press (not pictured) and give it a good squish. From there, I glue up the spine under weight using a mixture of acid-free PVA and a gum glue. Then the spine is dressed with muslin and glued again. And again. Then the book is shaped to give it a nice, curved spine for strength. And it looks pretty. Then it's glued again. |
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| While the guts of the book are drying, I get to work on the design of the cover. We're going for a bit of a dragon inspiration here. The materials used will be polymer clay and embossed leather. Plus a few pretties like freshwater pearls. |
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| Painted up dragon eye with pearls. The iris will sit behind the glass bead. |
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| This is the almost completed 'guts' of the book. Endpapers have been added, along with bookmark ribbons (2!), headbands and muslin spine dressing. |
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| Back to the cover, with the design now covered with nylon twine. The leather will be embossed and shaped over this. The design itself has had a couple of alterations since this pic, but you get the idea. |
I’ll upload
the finished product as soon as I’m done.
I use traditional
techniques to bind; it takes a long time but is so worth it. The books I make are
strong and sturdy and should outlive their owners. And that’s what it’s all
about isn’t it? Leaving something behind.
But did it
work? Did I get all fired up and get some words happening? Hell yeah. This week
I’ve got down just over 12 thousand words across one big project and a couple
of little ones. Win.
