3 books finished

The books turned out great. I finished glueing in the cases early this morning. The moment of truth was when I pulled off the weights they've been sitting under for 6 hours and opened the front and back covers to see if I got the text blocks in straight or if there was a bit of a wobble or a fold. Happily, just a tiny bit off on only one book. 

I like making this type of book even though it's a ton of work and some of it is putsy (e.g. rounding the spine on the sewn section and rounding the spine on the case). I'm going to take another class from Karen Hanmer using a sewn text block but a binding more like a drum leaf book (I think that's what it is). So maybe there won't be any spine rounding? 

Kind of an aside -- I took a drum leaf binding class during covid lockdown from a different book arts center and it was sooooo AWFUL that I thought I'd have to stab myself with a bone folder. Last week I took a drum leaf binding class at MCBA from Karen and it was soooooooo much better. Fast paced, some experience required, have all your papers cut to size before class, and your tools lined up. Perfect. I still made mistakes but at least I can figure it out. 

The covers on the two that are matching are Japanese paper that Peggy bought at a Japanese paper store in San Francisco. The back sides are covered with Duo bookcloth in color Herb Garden from Talas. I love that color so much, and the one called Sunshine (I have made many orange books). 

The smaller book is covered in some kind of textured paper that I got at MCBA. I don't know what it is. The back is Duo bookcloth in color Grape. The combo looks great! This is the book where one end paper is slightly crooked. 

(If anyone wants/needs any black bookcloth let me know. I hate it.)

I'm  happy with these books. I want to keep the one I'll give to Yin (but I won't, it's the only book I KNOW will get used).