Binding the Book - Very Basic Art Lessons

I should have done a “play-by-play” of building the book. I actually sewed the signatures during the Caesar / Cicero Debate Tournament. Two days of keeping kids quiet and myself busy.



Once the text block was together, we added the endbands to protect the pages and the binding. My daughter Alison did most of the sewing; I cheered her on.

As you can see; I left the back cords long and frayed the fibers. These were pasted onto the binding boards along with the hinges and covered with oak-tag to strengthen the spine and to give a smother flow around the spine.

Once the boards were dried I covered the spine with rather heavy black cloth and the rest of the cover with a textured, brown paper I had found.

I placed a cord along the top of a spine to create a protective ridge. It is probably not practical for a book to be kept on a shelf, but seems to be a good idea for a table top book.

Here are some inside views

Placing the ear and the muscles of the face.

Hands – front and back.