Reconnect with the joy - Flying Dog book

In between family Bibles, I am playing. For a former coworker who loves beer, I decided to create a pop-up book as a wedding gift. I'm no paper engineer, so I used a well-engineered product. The book can be a guest book, photo album, beer-bottle display.... whatever! I strengthened the inside moving parts with PVA and cloth tape, sewed pages to an accordion spine, and added an outside spine of bonded leather. The bottle-cap closure holds its place with a strong little magnet taped to the inside front. Velcro keeps up the bottom flaps until they're needed.

12 Rules For Bookbinders

I'm still working on the Heritage Society Bibles, a project that has had numerous interruptions. For now, here's a text-only post.

12 RULES FOR BOOKBINDERS

1. First, do no harm.
2. If you meet resistance, find out why.
3. It's better to have a good mend than a bad match.
4. If you get tense or stressed, take a break and tidy your work area.
5. Food and drink nourish body and soul, but they don't belong in your workspace.
6. Don't overdo. "A little more" can be too much.
7. Don't panic. When you make a mistake, nobody dies.
8. Build reversibility into your process.
9. Charge what you're worth.
10. Find a mentor. Ask questions. Join a mentoring group.
11. Consider the value of your work and don't scrimp on the quality of your materials.
12. Reconnect with the joy.

(c) 2010 Tawn O'Connor with contributions from The Book Arts List

Middletown Heritage Society presentation

Last Wednesday I had the privilege of speaking to the Middletown Historical Society about restoring books--the "why" as well as the "how." My husband helped me tote bags and boxes of books to display. (I always bring too much stuff.) Lacking Power Point skills, I wanted a hands-on" presentation. I showed them several of the books on this blog, including my prized Samuel Wesley, and told them book stories. The latest story came to me the morning of the talk. A woman called who told me about rescuing an unwanted box of Bibles at a local auction. No one had bid on them, so they were headed for the trash. She and her husband bought the box for $2. Upon investigation, they discovered that one of the Bibles was a Daniel Webster Bible, 1832. They put it up for sale on eBay and watched in astonishment as the bidding war began. It went to a person in Philadelphia for.... $2,100.00. I would love to make a discovery like that! I appreciated the responsive audience and we had a good time! Here's a link to the article that came out in the Frederick News-Post before my talk. http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/local/communities/middletown.htm On another note, eventually I hope to make new business cards that include this black-and-white book photo by my daughter Liana.

Bible Doctrine, Special Edition

Bookbinding and theology go together. I love to restore old Bibles and those Bible-story books for children from the 1800s. It doesn't have to be serious all the time, however. My husband and a friend were joking about their comprehension of a weighty tome called "Bible Doctrine" (which is actually a fine resource for study and has a place on our bookshelf). Listening in on the good-natured jesting, I had an idea. I found the perfect book at Wonder Book and gave it a new cover. The next time we got together, my husband presented our friend Chris with his very own special edition of "Bible Doctrine."

Photo captions

Eventually I'll figure out how to add photo captions. Till then, for the photos below:

Top left: Repair materials for Bibles, including antiqued fabric headband.

Top right: The repaired Bible for the Heritage Society.

Bottom photo, Barbara is on the left. Note the "paperback to hardback" on the table.

Heritage Day 2010

My husband Darryl, and my neighbor Barbara, helped me again this year. We answered questions, enjoyed the parade, and talked with people who stopped by while I sewed my demonstration textblock (Don Etherington's autobiography in unbound signatures). I set up a photo collage of the Bibles I am repairing for the Heritage Society and directed people to the Heritage Society building where one of the repaired Bibles was on display. The weather was good, unlike last year, when we got rained out at the end. We were on the shady side of the street and two food tents were nearby. We relaxed, hung out, took breaks to look at the rest of the exhibits and vendors up and down Main Street, and thoroughly enjoyed the day. It's because of Heritage Day that my book-repair business has its name, by the way. I needed a business name for the application last year, and Heritage Book and Bible Repair simply fits.

Paperback to Hardback

Sometimes a bookbinder just wants to have fun. Or at least a bookbinder's idea of fun. When I started reading this used paperback, pages began falling out. How annoying! I cut off the covers, reinforced the spine with sawn-in cords, glue, and new mull, and gave it new boards. I decided to practice the quick-and-easy way of creating insets, so I cut a piece of typing paper the same size as the paperback cover illustration and pasted it onto the board. After pressing and drying, I cut around the edges and peeled away the paper, bringing up a layer of board with it, creating the impression for the inset. After covering the boards with black bookcloth, gluing the inset, and finishing the rebinding, I finished reading my mystery.