Bookbinding Update

This is to continue on the topic I sort of started here, where I was making the decision about attending bookbinding classes. They aren't really classes, per se, more gatherings of people with a range of skills. Money goes to the man who organises it all depending upon whether one is working on their own project or mending a book belonging to the Lit Phil library. When I finished my beginner's project, making two small


notebooks, I'd intended to move onto the Lit Phil books and save myself £8 per visit, but Bill


produced a stack of elderly, ragged books from our shelves and so I thought I'd try mending my Grandma's cookbook.


Derek asked if I minded being thrown in the deep end, and since I've found it all reasonably do-able thus far, I said 'Not at all'. So he set me to work with a needle and a discarded end paper selected to match my paper as closely as possible with respect to colour, texture and grain. My task


was to carefully trace the ragged edge, scoring the paper that was to form the new edge of the crumbled page. I then pulled this scored edge apart and lined it up with said page. Then I tore a piece of lens paper to create a ragged edge and laid this over the join (in some places, a gap, due to my limited skill) between the old and new edges. I brushed paste over the paper and left it to dry. I'll find out what happens next tomorrow! As you can see, Derek is also frugally minded, using old transformers as weights, and we save lots of scraps for later use.


My beginner's books aren't perfect, but I'm pleased with them.


You can see the difference between a machine stamped label and one stamped using individual letters, like little branding irons.


Mind, the total cost of attending the class so far means that these booklets cost £81 each. I wouldn't necessarily have paid anyone to save Grandma's cookbook, but I'll factor that into the sum when it's done. I'm just hoping I get some Christmas presents out of this class!

How do you decide whether a hobby is worth the expense?