My First Foray into Fine Binding*

I made my little godson Giles this photo album during a course in Bookbinding I did at Amazing Paper a few years ago. I had opportunity to create a leather-bound book, and I thought that I might as well create a photo album for my new nephew and godson.

To be different and get away from one of the standard paper sizes, I decided to create the album from 25 black A3 sheets (420 × 297mm) cut lengthways (420 × 148.5mm). The sheets were actually 25mm wider than standard A3 to allow a fold-over and still get a full A3 width. After scoring and folding each of the 50 pages, I placed each one inside the other to create 25 sections, which I then lovingly pierced and sewed with lovely red linen thread. Next I glued tracing paper, cut to give a 3mm square, into each section. After gluing, I rounded and backed, and created the hollow-back, and dressed the spine.

Because of the unusual size of the book, and because I was doing a leather binding, I laced the covers in with the tapes I had sewn on to. I then proceeded to cut the embossing for the front and back covers. The rest of the process was pretty standard, and I won’t go into too much detail.

Needless to say, Giles’ parents loved the photo album.

* Insofar as any binding with leather is considered fine