Fanbinding: If This Is A Man by Primo Levi

[nuh_s]

Back in school, I read the Holocaust memoir If This Is A Man by Primo Levi, and I printed it out. I had it as a stack of plain half sheets (not signatures) held together with binder clips. Since getting into bookbinding, I wanted to try and make that print out nicely bound, giving it the respect it deserves and making the print out much more readable. 

This was my first time doing a perfect bind (gluing the pages along the spine rather than sewing), and I think it went pretty well. I did about 4 layers of PVA glue, and it seems to be holding up well. This was also my first time adding a title to the cover. I used Black Sumi Ink and brushes to do the cover design with rubber bands around the book for the straight edges. 

For the page edges, I did an extra sanding with the fine grit that really helped with the uneven flecks/scraps that I had on the last book. 



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Comments

[uncaged_butterflies]

Oh this looks really neat! Surprisingly clean for a book you didn't plan as a book from the start, good job working around the pages you had!

[nuh_s]

Thank you! It took a bit more sanding than usual to get the edges even, but thankfully, it had been stored nicely before I came back to it, so I didn't need to worry about them being curved.

[yourlibrarian]

Sounds like you're learning new tricks as you work on new projects. A nice look to this!

[nuh_s]

I'm definitely learning something with each book. Thank you! :)

Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That looks good. I like the stripes on the cover.

Re: Go you!

[nuh_s]

Thank you! I think they're my favorite part of the design.

Re: Go you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Look at old book covers in a library or used-book store. You'll see many types of embellishment including but not limited to:

* stripes like you just used
* raised ridges, usually on the spine
* stamped or tooled textured designs on spine or corners
* gold leaf lines or symbols
* a few random bits on the cover like falling leaves, stars, flowers, etc.
* decorative lines or flourishes under a row of text
* stencils to guide ink or dye

Since you're already trying to gild the page edges, you might look at other options. Just off the top of my head I know there is gold ink, a kind of glue-ink that you dust powder onto and then melt it, and actual gold leaf that has to be applied to a gum base and burnished on. Plus a lot of fancy inks, pastes, and other materials -- some archival and others not, so read labels -- that will create crackles, leather-look, patina, and other interesting effects for art cards. Hm, and metal corners. Those were meant for scrapbooking but you might just find ones that would fit over book cover corners.

Hit a scrapbooking or stationary store and see what they've got that you think would be fun to play with.