Book Binders Need Books

 And that means I'm back, for a little while, in the book-making business, This kit came to me from the things we helped sort and tidy last fall, and as I had no purpose for it at that time, I filed it away. Fortunately, I filed it in a place where I could easily find it. 

These are all non-opening books, as they will be shelved ready for parceling up or for repair work. The covers of this kit are lovely and subtle , just right for the period I'm working in; moreover, they have lovely worked spines, and that is more or less what will be visible of them when they are placed in the book-binder's workshop. There are 124 covers in the kit, and I'm not sure I'll be needing all of them; however, we'll see! 

For the "pages", I'm using scraps of mat board and foam core; in some cases, one of each, in others the books are thin enough that only a piece of mat board is needed. The rest of the supplies I need, like thin packaging cardboard, are in good supply in most homes. I've found the card from tissue boxes are the best weight, and they bend nicely and don't warp when the glue is applied.

One of the really nice things about this kit is that there are a wide variety of book heights and thickness, which makes them look more "real". 

At Least Five Days' Work....

 The amount of time involved in making minis is directly related to how much time is spent waiting for glue and paint to dry. And the other thing is, how many times something has to be redone!

This is a gilder's cushion, with a tiny drawer underneath to hold the gold leaf bits that are applied to the more expensive books the bookbinder is working on. It measures 42 mm (1 3/16") wide, 21.5 mm (7/8")deep, and 1 cm (3/8") high at the side, has a padded suede leather top, and has brass "nails" (sequin centres or glitter!) along the edge of the cushion. It took 4 tries before the drawer stopped imploding; the fifth time it actually held. That took at least 3 days....

This peculiar item is called a "persknecht" in the Dutch instructions, which I think would translate to press aid in English; it appears to have something to do with the book press. There is another photo of this item below, it is actually 2 layers separated by square wooden pieces, which gives it a certain amount of springiness, or give. I used a #2.5 permanent black marker to draw the late Victorian/Early Edwardian decorative elements on it. I tried to research the press aid, without much luck, and if anyone knows what it is meant to be, please do let me know!

The work table has sturdy legs, and a fine beeswax finish. The block, most likely used for stamping designs into the leather book covers, has a veneer top, and like the table, a beeswax finish. I need to visit a bookbinder's shop to learn about the various tools used, so will do a little research to see if there is one in the area. With a couple of universities, there should be someone still re-building old and out-of-print books, and there are lots of artists in the area, as well.

Two of the walls for the bookbinder's shop have been cut, and I hope the others will soon appear on my work table. I'm thinking about how to decorate the interior; I rather like the idea of a late 19th or early 20th century scheme, lots of dark wood, anaglypta wallpaper, dark stairs with, perhaps, coconut matting, and imposing stair spindles and newel posts. I'll have to check scrapbooking shops to see if there is a good embossed paper to represent the anaglypta. We rented a house in Edmonton, AB for several years in the second half of the 70's, which dated from about 1910 (very, very old for Alberta!), which had olive-green anaglypta paper half-way up the hall and stair walls, my inspiration for this treatment for this little shop. We'll see!

Happy New Year?

 We missed most of it, this year. We were away for 4 whole days at Christmas, visiting with my sister-in-law in Nova Scotia. Driving up was good for the first 6 hours, but then we hit drizzly rain, poor visibility, and then darkness hit. The last leg of the journey (2 hours) was mine, but with cataracts in both eyes and the car lights in the dense drizzle, it was a white-knuckle journey.

On the way, we made a stop in Kentville, NS and visited Freedom Miniatures there. To say I was blown away by what Shelley carries, is an understatement. It is well worth a visit if you are ever in Nova Scotia, as she has just about anything a miniaturist might want. Santa arrived! 

We picked up a number of components required for the book bindery so it appears that the project will become a reality. We just have to recover from Covid first....

On Tuesday, we headed home via the ferry across the Bay of Fundy, which halves the trip in terms of time for us. I had had a bit of a sore throat the last couple of mornings, but didn't think too much of it as the house we were staying in was dry enough my sister-in-law keeps misters going in the living room and main bedroom. But, the Carpenter-in-Chief had the entire drive from the ferry terminal to our house, as I was totally out of it. Two days in bed with headaches, fever, congestion, aching bones and so on, and then I realized I had lost my sense of taste and smell -- a test proved I had Covid. Which means we are both under voluntary house arrest until our tests come up virus-free, which cannot happen soon enough for me. The C-in-C also caught it, although a milder case, but we are still not rested enough to do very much beyond reading and sleeping. However, my sense of taste and smell has returned, thank goodness! A life without stinky cheeses and dark coffee would have been a bleak thing, indeed!

Now that we have the doors and windows, we can cut the carcase components; we are using commercial ones rather than attempting to make our own from scratch. That means cutting out the front and back, as well as the false wall, and using the commercial windows and door to mark the appropriate openings for them. The large shop window has a fancy header, which will have to be replaced as the shop is in a humble fisherman's cottage, and dentil moulding just would not have been on the builders' horizon. We'll see how that goes.

I do hope 2023 will be a good, productive, happy year for all of us!