Do you have a needle and thread? Time to sew up signatures.

Today I finally finished the sewing of signatures. It is most likely the least favorite thing that I do in the studio having to do with the reconstruction of old texts. I will try as always to remember all the details, but as I mentioned this is not my favorite part.

First of all a signature is a series of pages that fold together to form part of the book. If any signature is more than four pages (signatures are always mulitiples of 4 if you have not guessed by now) it must be sewn together to hold the pages in place. Once the sewing is completed, the signature block is then covered as was mentioned in an earlier blog. Let's start at the beginning.

After the printing of the pages, I then determine how many pages are in each signature, count them out and fold; creasing each one with a bone folder. I tightly wrap them in waxed paper and into the press they go. Each book is kept together and placed back to front to make them even during pressing. It is important that I take my time when folding. I use a bone folder to crease each fold and pay close attention to making sure it is square prior to using the folder.

Next step deals with math again. I will try to explain it easily without using too many words. First of all, one always thinks in what is called stations when sewing signatures. This is a set of two holes (in and out- back to the beginning) and is always used when there are more than 4 pages in a signature.

So where would you put your holes? Perhaps it is a good time to note that I am not schooled in book arts, I have read and reread and experimented and figured it out for the most part, so in many cases what I do is not always text book correct. Just thought you might like to know. ;-)

Now, where was I, oh where to put the holes. This is what I do and it seems to work pretty well, eventhough the stations are larger than my tapes, it all works out. Uusually, I can wait in the sitting room or sit in the waiting room and in the end I end up in the same spot so this is how I do it. I like to have about .5" to .75" for my first hole of the first and last stations. These are the holes that start from the top and bottom edge of my text. So, I must first add in the amount of paper I plan to trim off from each side. If that amount was to be .5" and I want my first station to be .5" from the edge of my text- my first hole of the first and last stations would be 1" from each end of the sheet of paper used to print the text. Note illustration. Next, I move my ruler so that it starts at that first hole and measure. In this text, I will have 3 stations or 6 holes. Two holes have already been determined so 4 holes are left. If the distance is around 5 inches or so. I make each station 1inch. Second hole of the first and second hole of last station will be one more inch in. After finding the center mark I use that as the center to determine where the last signature holes will go. I make a mark for each hole on either side of the center mark. I don't know if I understand what I do either, but it is a start.

The text then goes to the cradle for hole punching. The folds that were so carefully made earlier make this job come out more precise. I place the signatures inside of each other, checking to make sure they are even and square. When they look good, I place the sheet of paper where I want to punch my holes on top. Next, I use a little tiny drill with a very small bit to drill my holes. Most instructional books will say to use an awl; however, the tiny drill works well for me. The signatures are now ready to go to the sewing station and be sewn together.

Books are usually sewn at a sewing station. This tool has been around for a long time and still works pretty much the same way as the original designs. Signatures are sewn together and on tapes. The linen tapes and linen threads used to put the text block together are strong and do not stretch so the book stays in proper shape for a long time. The tapes are used to tighten the signatures and then frayed to be glued between end pages and covers. For informational purposes, I inherited this lovely tool and I cannot find the exact set up so I figured out how to make it work for me so if it does not look correct, it most likely is not correct. ;-)

Where do you start to sew? I start at the back of the book and move forward. I turn the book over and then place the back page on the bottom and the folds laying next to the tapes. The tapes have been lined up so when the thread is on the outside of the folds the tapes will be included in the sewing.

Now, that I have sewn to the top of the text and my needle is on the outside of the book, how do I attach the next signature. To hold the ends together of that and the previous signature, a half hitch knot is done behind the previous signature. After this knot has been made, I just add another signature from the pile and continue. If I run out of thread, I use a fisherman knot or perhaps it is called a book knot to put the the new thread on and then clip the threads about .5" from the ends. I do not think that these knots detract from the book when they are seen during reading. It is just part of being handmade. I do not want to have too many knots on the back of my book as I want this to lay flat against the spine. Oh, no wonder so few make books. Anyway, the books have been sewn and taken off the sewing stand. The tapes have been cut and each book is then once again wrapped in wax paper, squared up and placed under my favorite heavy books, the Oxford English Dictionary.

It will be another process to add some endpages and make the covers, but if you keep tuned in I will have pictures before too long. Tomorrow is going to be a break day and I hope to do a couple of silks.

Well see you all around town,

Janet

Ready, set go- let's make a cover for a book.

Doesn't look like much but with what I did today, I could even make some new covers for those old fairy tale books of long ago that seem to have lost their fronts or backs or just are like wobbly old teeth. Using book cloth and the signature blocks I spoke of in my last blog, today I will finish up a series of books right down to signing a colophon to make it all official.

Before I started working on my covers, I unwrapped the signatures from yesterday and found them to be nice and square and the glue had hardened well. Since the signatures were larger than the actual size that I wanted for my books, careful measurements were taken and then the books were trimmed to size. A very sharp xacto knife will work, but after throwing too many blocks in the trash, I found a large size cutter to make my edges nice and clean. Now that the books have been cut to 6.75" x 6" it is time to choose some book cloth, cut the boards and spine and put it all together.

Lets cut the book boards. First one measures the book or signature block very carefully. The example today will be 6.75" wide by 6" tall. I will be using these measurements to determine how large the book board will be. The width of the book board will be the same measurement as the text block is or 6.75." The height of the board will need to be larger so the edges of the books will be protected from dust and well it just looks better when there is an .127" on both the top and bottom of the board. So, yes all that is needed is to add .25" to the height of the book block or 6 .25. " (If the measurements are close as in this book, I will put arrows denoting direction on the book board- you guessed it- too many times I have tried to glue the text in and found I had - well you know what I mean ;-) ) Two book boards-front and back- are cut for each book. Next the measurement of the spine is taken and another very thin piece of board is cut- almost like double weight card stock to add support to the spine. The measurements for the spine will be the actual width of the spine block and the height of the book board not the book block. Remember check things out before cutting. The width of thin books is determined by laying the back or spine on the thin weight board and draw a line on each side and then measure and draw nice straight lines. Scratches head. I hope that all made sense.

Most any kind of paper will make a nice book cover, but I prefer to use book cloth for one reason or another. When I make up some artist sketch books, I will choose wonderful handmade papers to add to their beauty, but in most books book cloth gives a very professional addition. Book cloth comes in many forms, some backed and some with only starch as a stablizier. The backed linens are very easy to use but one gets a better fit with starched, but it can be cranky. The width of the book cloth will be as follows. 2 book board widths, the spine width plus .5 " plus 2 inches. For this piece that will be 6.75" + 6.75" + .25" (that is the spine width) + .5" (when we lay it out this .5 " will become a gutter of .25" on each side of the spine) + 2" that will be used as a fold back onto the board. When I do the math the width of the book cloth should be 14 .25". The other demention will be the height of the book board or 6 .25." To that measurement add approximately 2" for turn ins. So the piece to be cut would be 14 .5 " by approximately 8 .5."( I could add a little more, but not less.) Now, if this was just too confusing, I just lay all the parts plus the gutters on the book cloth give .75" or so on all sides to fold in and cut. Check the illustration above.

Oh, this is always a favorite part for everyone. Let's use glue. When using glue, first of all make sure it is in a consistency that spreads well, does not soak the paper or fabric. Gluing is supposed to be done in a circular motion-from center to edges. This can be a bit tedious on larger sheets that are not square, but start out in the middle and then wing it from there. Once the paper or cloth has been covered with glue, the paper or cloth will begin to curl. This is very normal and if you wait for just a bit longer, I have heard that it lays back down. I never seem to wait that long to see if that is true.

Before applying the glue, I make two tiny marks at the top and bottom of the cloth where the spine will be placed. Now, I apply the glue and place the spine right down the center leaving the turn backs equal on top and bottom. Next, the boards will be laid on the glued up cloth .25" from the spine. This is important and needs to be a nice straight equal distance from top to bottom on each side. I then place the boards down, press lightly and turn back the edges of the cloth onto the board. I like to make little squares at the corners so it looks nice. Laying the cover down and letting it dry well before gluing the text block in.

Here are two finished covers with the signature block in the background. The white is the spine.

The signature block will be glued into the cover when the cover has been left to dry. I take the cover and place the signature block into it so the spine fits snuggly to the board spine. The bookis put together and to see how it fits. The end page will be glued to the edge of the cover .25" in (this is the side edge.) The top and bottom edges will be .127 or close. A scrap piece of paper is put between the two end pages so when you put glue on that back page it will not get into your text block. Once the glue has been applied carefully, I slide out that sheet and put it right away in the garbage. Glue can be my worst enemy when Iforget to cleanmy area. I always have a damp cloth near by for fingers, table and rulers.

Next I place the end page gently on the board and then pressing the end page firmly into the book board checking all your edges and making sure they are nice and straight. I continue in the same manor for the back end page. Now, I take my finger and go back and forth on the gutter areas making sure they are straight and have no wrinkles in them.I Run my finger back and forth making a slight indentation. This is the hinge of the book and some detail should be spent on this.

It is really nice to have a crimping setup for the hinge. If you notice in the above illustration the spine of the book is sitting ouside of 2 brass plates that fit into the gutter to crimp the book hinge together. The book is left in the press until the glue has set in order to get that nice crimping for the hinge that makes the finished piece look so professional. Add a nice title page, sign the colophon and this mission has been completed. Now if only these were the only books I had to make. Over the next several days, I will continue to work on my reproduction titles. I believe the next blog will be on sewing up signatures or how about how to make an artist sketch book.


Well, it will give me something to think about as if I need to think more. So until then find peace and kindness or give it a whirl and if not-

See you around town,

Janet

Putting together a signature block.

First what is a signature block? A signature block contains the insides of a book, to include -signatures composed of pages and end pages that help hold this all together with the cover-that is what I am going to chat about today.

Ok, first of all, one has to understand how to lay out the page order in a given number page signature, but lets start out really easy and do a folded page signature or a 4 page signature.

My laser printer takes a legal size sheet of paper so I start with a layout of 8.5 x 14 to include margins, gutters and a cutting edge. (If saving in some word document you can save so each page is how you want it to print out in your book.) Next, I print the book using a two sided printer that is set in preferences for printing on front and back. This is a life saver; how I hated turning papers and getting them mixed up- oh I know that drill!

The picture above is of folded signatures. There are 2 pages printed on each side-1 and 4 and 2 and 3. I fold the pages in half and stack so the first page lays flat on the table and so on to keep the correct order. I then wrap each one with waxed paper and then off to the press while I cut the end pages.

End pages can be almost any kind of paper, in this particular book, I use a flat black linen paper as the story is about a crow. There are many ways to attach an end page, but I find using another sheet of 8.5 x 14 works very well. After thes pages are folded, they are incorporated as 2 additional signatures to the text block. If one were to use this idea when making an end page, remember that both sides of the paper will be seen so remember that when choosing.

All folded up and waiting for glue and something known as "super." Super is a loose woven linen that is glued to the back of the sewn or tightly held signatures to hold it all together. This backing is glued partially to the end page then around the folds of each signature and then back to the back side of the other end page. (A very proper super would be frayed prior to the gluing of end page to cover.) In these next pictures, look closely how I perform the gluing of a single sheet signature block. I first glue the super to the back of an end page and then across the back. I place enough glue to penetrate the pages but not so much that it will interfere with the turning of the pages. The super is pulled across the glue, stamped a bit to make sure I have a flat back and flipped over and using my thumbs it is pulled tight. So tight that the glue comes through the back of my super and the piece is nice and square. I place this on a sheet of waxed paper and make a nice wrap to keep it all in place. Then under my last press- resting while the covers are put together. It can be noticed that these blocks are not put into the large press, but left under some heavy books. The big press is a bit too heavy and this can cause the signatures to slip a bit-making your book more of a trapazoid than a square or something like that.

Next comes putting the cover together but that will be another blog. See you then.

Thanks for stopping by and

See you around town,

Janet

Going to finish up those lanterns.

Welcome back.

The boxes have been covered and are waiting for the image. There are several ways I provide images one is by using some beautiful papers (I test out to see how they will look behind light) and I use images from where ever I can find them. If I found an image that I knew was copyright free, I could bring it into photo shop after scanning or dowloading from a cd and make it the right size through cropping and such. Many of the images that I use are from old books and designs that need a great deal of work to bring them to their original format so at times hours upon hours are spent cleaning up old works. After measuring my openings in my lanterns, I resize the image and prepare it for printing.

I use a laser jet printer, as toner does not fade and inkjet printers do. I use a translucent vellum type paper (it is really plastic I think) to print on that really makes them "POP" as the elusive they say. After printing, (before I print on the exspensive paper I make sure it is going to work by doing some preprints on regular paper) I dab some glue around the inside frame opening and place that image in. This is done very carefully. Just a little tap into place at first and then I check out how it looks. This paper and glue make it hard to move once it is down so to check it out first makes for happier moments. When using papers not vellums I am very careful as the paper can be very fragil and I don't want to tear it. There all done, starting to look like something.

To finish the boxes, I first put a inner lid of book board in the top so the top of the boxes will have something to be glued to and to stabilize the box. Measurements of the box and plus I add one inch per side for overhang and cut two, cover and make sure one has a hole cut out of it. After the cloth has dried, they rectangles are glued to top and bottom with a heavy book on top so the top and bottom are nice and flat and glue up well.

The final touches are the balls that have been painted red first and then gold. Not hard to figure out where to glue them. When ever I paint anything gold I first coat them with red -I read that somewhere. ;-)
Put in one of those little lights that have a 4 watt cool bulb inside.
Bingo - I have lanterns.

There are lots of ways to finish up the lanerns-that was just one way. The covered boxes that aren't quite finished will have some dowels up the sides and through the top and bottom lid pieces and who knows what I will do with them then. Stay tuned and if not-

See you around town,
Janet

Just had to do another silk.

Yesterday,I got several of my boxes filled with their images and they are now ready for the final cutting of tops and bottoms, placement of feet and topper and then they will be completed. Still a lot to do though isn't there? Well, before I get to all of those busy steps, I just have to work with some silk. So here I go.

First, I wash my silk in advance according to directions in case there is any residue on them that will keep the dyes from penetrating the silk.

Next, I pinned my 36 x 36 china silk square to my frame,

which has some problems, but I am still in the early stages

of this new passion so I think this will do it for now. I use stainless steal pins just in case I get a bit of rust that will slip into my silk.

After pinning, I chose

my dyes. I have chosen 3 for this piece, my favorites- cyan, veridian

green, and magenta. I deluted my dyes 1 teaspoon to about 3/4 cup of water. With the pr

ocess of layering colors I don't want to start out too dark.

I layer on the colors letting them bleed together and then apply several applications of salts, alchohols , and dyes. This is the final stage of the piece and is drying with salts.

The three pictures on the sides are in the following stages:

top: ironed off the stretcher and ready for steaming.

middle: stretched and dried

lower: last layer to include salts

Well, that was a lot of fun for me and I believe I like this color combination enough to make a garment out of. So the next adventure in silks will be for me to dye up some yardage. Stay tuned and if not-

See you around town,

Janet

Let's make some paper box lanterns.

This episode of my blog is about making my lanterns. They are just little light boxes made from book board, book cloth, wooden knobs, a light and some wonderful out of date images that I collect from old resources and from the many copy right free books and cds available today.

First things first. Decide how large one wants the box and then cut out the boards. (The bottom board will need a hole cut out so you can push the light up.) After the boards are cut, you have to determine how large the frame opening will be and make each board into a frame. Once that has been completed, time to glue up the sides to bottom. I always do this on a scrap piece of paper and I do not worry if the boards and paper get glued up. I will tear off that paper later prior to adding the book cloth, but to begin with it adds a bit of stability.

After the glue has set, it is time to cover the boxes with cloth making them ready for the image.

Be careful as you apply glue to your cloth- do not get any glue on the front sides or it will live there forever. Take your time-and remember when glueing, don't let the glue be too watery or too thick. The little bear said this one is just right. Wrap the box with the cloth folding in the bottom and tops and don't worry about your windows just now. That cloth is still damp with glue and will be very hard to cut into. Sit the boxes to one side and do a little chatting on your face book page while you wait.

That was fun. Now back to our boxes. If the glue is dry, it is now the time to prepare the openings for your images. Take your knife and make sure you make a cut in each corner of the cloth up to the points where the squares meet. Then cut out the extra cloth in the middle, apply glue to the board not the cloth and turn in. Once again be very careful not to get glue on any cloth that is seen by the eye. Glue makes ugly marks on your cloth and well you might get some of it off, but when it drys it will come back. Like a bad penny I have heard.

Well, that is enough of a project for today. Below, are some of my boxes that I covered yesterday and today I will place the images in. Tomorrow my blog will be about what ones does with an image to get it right for the box. Hope you join me then, but until then-

See you around town,

Janet

Some new silks.

Over the course of time, it will be noted that I do many things. Now, do not misinterpret that I do things well-I just said that I do many things. The new passion in the studio is the dyeing and painting of silks. At the end of this dream, I see clothing constructed from my designs; however, as I am currently stumbling along, that dream might continue to be just that for some time to come.

I have been obsessing over silks for over a month now and have experimented with gutta and the laying of dyes as if one was watercoloring. Dyes must be fixed in a steam bath to make them permanent and that led to the making of the steamer. Now, that the steamer has been perfected my silks are now completely finished and ready for a little display.
These are very early and experimental works,
but some aren't but so bad.

See you around town,

Janet

Welcome to Janet's Place

Hi, I'm Janet.

Glad you could stop by. I have always made things and do so most every day. It is not lonely, but I do spend most of each day surrounded by things to make or what was made and it might be nice to share some of what I do with others.

Over the years, my hands, heart and mind have created things that I in turn have cherished, given away or sold. Over the course of my blogging about things, I will talk about my love of pottery, the difference between a basket maker and a basket weaver, book arts, silk and more.

In May I will participate in theStockley Gardens Fine Art Show so each day will be mostly about preparing for that show. I do hope to fit in my new passion for silks so we will see where it all goes.

So that is a bit of an introduction about Janet's Place- so stop by often and see what is new in the garret and if you have any questions or like to chat drop me a comment.

See you around town.

Janet