From exquisite medieval bookbindings crafted from precious metals and jewels to the unique and highly imaginative creations of contemporary bookbinders, this book celebrates over one hundred of the most beautiful bookbindings of the last thousand years.
The art of book binding is an ancient craft, but actually it is not very difficult to do and with almost no practice you can get really awesome results. If you are on the lookout for fun craft projects or quick ways of making nice presents and gifts, then this could be the project for you. I know that there are other Instructables on the art of book binding but this project is meant to be a simple quick project that will give a very acceptable finish, and a book that looks like it has been professionally made, yet without the need for any special equipment. All you will need is: Some paper Minimum really is about 32 A4 or US Letter sized sheets, to make a half A4 (half US Letter sized book), although smaller books can be made as can ones with more pages.
You can use tracing paper, thick or thin paper and of course colored or even preprinted or written on paper. Some glue You will need PVA (Elmer's White glue) or a rubber fabric adhesive (in the UK that is called Copydex, perhaps someone could tell me what it's called in the US), (a glue gun if you have it, would help with one of the stages, but is not mandatory). Some stiff cardboard or corrugated (fluted) cardboard Some fabric or leather Any old stuff will do for the cover. I have used the fabric from some old pairs of trousers that were being thrown out (actually nothing gets thrown out in my house, just put to one side for later use). But you could use a bit of leather, some old curtains, cushion covers.etc etc, I'm sure you get the idea. You are going to be binding your paper in eight sheet folios.
Of course you could do more or less. I have found eight sheets to be a good number.
Because you are folding it in half each sheet is going to make four pages of your book, so this eight sheet stack is going to make 32 pages. Your book should have at least four of these eight sheet folios which will therefore make 128 pages. (Apologies to all the maths wizards out there).
You can use just plain paper or paper upon which you have already printed a header and footer (remember to get this the right way round and remember that there will be 4 headers and four footers per sheet of paper. If you want to mix in different papers then remember that they will appear further into the book as well. (don't worry, this all becomes obvious as we go through the project).
I have a long arm stapler ('bully for you', I hear you say), but if you don't have one of those, then no worries, just do the following: Open out your stapler Place the upturned paper stack on top of an eraser (positioned where you want to staple - which will be about two inches (5 cm) from the edge of the page exactly on the crease) and slowly but firmly push down on the stapler until you have stapled through the pages. Turn the pages over, pull off the eraser and then fold over the staple ends with the blunt end of a dinner knife or your thumb nail, being careful not to break it / stab yourself. Repeat at the other end of the crease so that each page has just two staples in it. If you, like me, have a long arm stapler, simply staple the eight sheet stack in two places. I knew there was a good reason for borrowing that thing from work. You are now going to make the heart of the book.
You have made at least four of the eight sheet / 32 page folios and they need to be stuck together. Firstly, cut a piece of thin fabric to the same length as the page height and about five times the thickness of all the folios held together. Hold the folios tightly together and all lined up. Either get a friend to help or clip the folios together using giant paper clips or bull dog clips (or even a rubber band I guess).
![Book Book](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125511054/864735727.jpg)
When they are all nicely aligned apply glue to just the spines of the folios. You can use white glue for this (this was what white glue was originally made for BTW) but you must be careful not to let it drip down in to the gaps between the folios (maybe painting the fabric would be better.) Alternatively you can use hot melt for this part. Again, hot melt is used in industry for book binding, so it is perfect for the job. Before it has a chance to set, quickly turn over the wad of folios and glue them to the piece of fabric so that some fabric sticks out each side (i.e.
So that not all of the fabric is glued to the pages). As Fugazzi has pointed out, you may be able to get your bound pages trimmed by a proper guillotine at your local one stop print or copy shop. Failing that read on. If you want (and you don't have to) you can trim the folios a tiny bit.
Beware that the first time you do this you might end up making more of a mess of the edge of the paper than if you just left it. It takes a bit of practice and a sharp craft knife or scalpel (definitely NOT something for children to do on their own). If you want to trim, then the most important edge to trim is the edge opposite the binding, because when the paper is folded over all the pages get to be slightly different lengths depending on where they are in the folio stack. The trick is to hold the rule very steady and take many repeated cuts being careful to cut in the same groove and try to make sure that at each cut the paper on at least one layer is cut from edge to edge. (BTW I know that the drawing I have done to illustrate this step does not show this method of trimming multiple sheets, but it is meant to be a bit figurative anyway). If you have access to a proper guillotine that can cut through paper stacks (i.e.
At work or at school) then this is the time to use that, it will give you the most awesome finish). Trimming is by no means necessary. Trimming or not, you have now finished the paper part of the book and it's time to move on to the cover. Position the book covers and the spine on the reverse of your chosen fabric or leather and mark out so that there is a border of about one inch (25 mm) all round. Cut out the material. As already mentioned, you can use any material you want really, although very thick material will be difficult to fold and glue (but hey, who knows how patient and skilled you are?). Actually, I used material from a pair of my ex-wife's linen (Toast) trousers, thought I might give her the book as a Christmas present in an ironic sort of way.
Don't worry only joking and she had thrown them out anyway. Things are starting to shape up now.
Smear some white glue (or rubber solution glue) in two stripes down the middle edges of the cover boards being careful not to get any glue on the spine board. Then place the bound paper wad so that it is centrally resting on the spine board and ONLY the thin cotton 'wings' are glued to the cover boards.
The spine should NOT be glued to the cotton-covered bound paper wad, although you should make sure that it IS properly glued to the cover boards right up to their edges, because this is the join that makes the book strong and stops the page block falling out of the cover. It is best if you wait for this part to dry before moving on to the next step. It is probably a good idea to leave the book lying on its back with the paper was supported by to food cans while it dries, because, if you leave it to dry closed, bits of it might stick together that you don't want sticking together.
Your book is nearly finished. Functionally it is already a hard back book, however the next step will make it look like a real book and cover up all the bits of folded over material.
![Most beautiful books ever written Most beautiful books ever written](http://justterrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/stab-binding-ribbon.jpg)
For the lining paper you can use almost any type of paper. Traditionally marbled paper was used.
Now you can make this yourself (hey, I feel another Instructable coming on already) or buy it in sheet form from most good craft shops, or download a sheet of from my site (where you'll see loads of other projects just like this). Or alternatively you can use a bit of old gift wrapping paper, or even just plain old brown packing paper. Be as creative as you can. The lining paper is like the lining of an expensive suit.
Hidden until it is revealed by someone opening it. Ideally, you want the lining paper to be a fraction smaller than the paper wad's height so that you can line it up neatly and twice as long as the paper wad's width so that it covers the inside of the hard cover. (See next step). Fold the lining paper sheet in half crosswise. Smear the inside of the cover and the first page with white glue or rubber solution glue.
Carefully place one half of the folded lining paper on the glued first page so that it lines up neatly with the edge of the paper. Then making sure that it goes in to the corner of the join between the paper and the cover, fold the liner out and glue it to the inside of the cover so that it covers up all the folded over material and the inside of the cardboard covers. Repeat for the back of the book. If the first paper goes a bit wrinkly as it dries out, wait for at least a day for it to dry really thoroughly and then iron over the page using a medium hot iron.
It won't get all the wrinkles out but it will make the page a whole lot flatter and just try to use a bit less glue for the next book. Make books as presents, make them for school, make them for friends. Keep a pictorial journal, you never know, one day you might be famous, then think, how cool would it be when they unearth your journal, which is not only full of angst and perceptive youthful insights into the unfairness of it all, but is also embodied in a book that you yourself made and not some cheap (or expensive) notebook or diary that you bought from the store like millions of other people. I have made a couple more so far. I made the jeans one with a pocket after my niece, Josie suggested that I use the pockets from the trousers for pens and stuff. Neat I thought, and it seems to work rather well.
See what you can come up with and if you make something you like, why not post the images here or email them to me and I will put them up on line on. This comment is 5 months old but I'm going to answer it to other people that want to know the answer.
The answer is yes, you dont have to fold the papers. I attached several papers with staplers. That way, I didnt need to use those hand stapler thingies. If you want to use staplers you have to make sure the staplers are secure and neat.
I stapled several times until it's forming sort of like a line of staples. I'm guessing by blank you mean blank pieces of papers, the answer is no. You can use any materials you want to bind the book.
Make sure the papers are not too thick tho, they might break the staples/sewing thread that you're using. You can also sew them instead of stapling it. I think sewing works better if you fold the paper, but I can't think of a reason why using scraps of paper won't work. So yeah you can sew them without folding. At least in the US, 'chipboard' is usually used as the backing for sketchpads, and is often used in book binding, too! Matboard is the nicer stuff, available in all sorts of colors, but structurally, they're about the same. Mounting boards can be far more expensive, as they're designed to protect whatever art you're mounting on to them.
(acid-free, speckle-free surface, PH blanaced, blah blah) Since the material will be wrapped up in leather or what have you, it probably isn't worth using the more expensive materials.