My sister wants to do an art journal exchange with her friend, so I started binding some watercolor paper into signatures.  I got some books on bookbinding, so I started reading them to pick up pointers.  Previously, I had just been doing everything by looking at books and puzzling out how they were made.

What I’ve learned is that I was doing everything completly wrong.  For one, you’re supposed to lace the linen tape on a frame, and sew the signatures immoblie on top of one another.  I don’t have one of these, I just hold it in my hands.  You’re also supposed to have a piecing block to lay the paper over when you poke holes in the back for threading. I just put one signature inside another and poke the holes through both.

This is also the first time I’ve used the tapes.  On my other books, I pasted the outer pages directly to the cover. They also suggest using wheat paste, which I may try next. I’ve been using white glue mixed with water, and had good enough results.

I guess the lesson is: don’t try to reinvent the wheel.