A question posted on the comments:

When you have a paper-covered book, do you glue the board side first or the back of the paper, and what's the best glue? I am afraid the paper may buckle or tear when I crease it.

Answered: As a general rule, when gluing together two pieces of paper/board, always apply glue to the thicker piece and then lay the thinner on it.

But when gluing a thinner piece onto a more complex structure, for example, inlay paper onto a constructed case, you'd apply glue on the paper, because it's simply easier to handle. When applying glue on paper, always let the glue soak up enough moisture so that it doesn't buckle. In other words, you need to saturate the paper with glue before fusing with the other material.

The best glue depends on the materials that you're working with. Generally, water-thinned PVA, a mixture of PVA with methyl-cellulose, or wheat paste are used with paper and boards.

Before attaching the covers to the book blocks, I had to attach the closure ribbons. The pale brown/maroon piece has a pair of wide color-matching ribbons, while the blue piece has a single extra long yellow/green stripes ribbon that wraps around the album many times.

After marking the width of the ribbons on the board with an awl, slits are made using a chisel.


Portions of the board were removed to accommodate the thickness of the ribbons. This is called recessing. You don't want any ribbon to show after you put on the end paper. The inside of the cover should be completely flat and smooth so that the pages don't get indented.

After attaching the sections to the spine, the book blocks are complete. We are going to put them aside and work on the covers. Actually, not until we measured them for the covers.

Most of the time, I don't transfer measurements with the help of a ruler; instead, I use markings on waste paper instead. In other words, I don't first measure with rulers and then transfer "13-1/4 inches" to something else; I simply mark the measurement on a piece of scrap paper and then apply it where I want it to be. I'd never know the exact measurements! (In fact, when I do measure, I measure in millimeters!)

The pale brown/maroon set of the covers are created by strips of book cloth, the other set is wrapped with plain navy Arrestox book cloth. In the first set, the maroon strips in the middle have different widths to create a unique effect with the closure, as you shall see in the next part.

When the covers and pressed and dried, I immediately stack them up with the book blocks and see how good they look...

Continued from previous post: E-book to flat-back (Part 2) - Mistakes happen.

Mull correctly attached
Instead of detaching and reattaching the incorrect mull, I put on a new strip of mull that extends about an inch or so from both sides of the spine. I then applied a thin strip of glue along the spine on the book block to attach the yellow end-paper on both sides. A sheet of wax paper is used to guide the gluing.


The tapes were trimmed at the same width as the extensions. Now everything looks flushed and the book block is ready for casing-in.

The first set of my recent holiday journals was a hybrid of button-hole and long-stitching design. The long-stitching weave in and out of the buttle-hole cover.

Here is how the covers are made:

Construct the case with 5 pieces of boards: 2 for the covers and 3 for the spine. Align the boards and glue onto the cover paper. Cris cross cut the cover paper through the openings on the spine, and then glue them onto the inside of the case.

To accent the wonderful cabin I got invited to stayed in the Adirondacks a couple of months ago, I created a somewhat rustic guest book. The guest book doesn't have any turn-ins at the edges except for the spine, in other words, the edges of the boards are shown. The squares in the inside are also exposed boards. By using veneers and unfinished edges I created something that looks a little bit raw and unfinished.

As artists, I believe that we grow everytime we create a new piece. Our style changes and grows overtime, and new work would build on previous ideas and experiences. (But of course there is always the "breakthough".)

Everytime I make a new book, new ideas develop and feed into the successive pieces. It seems that over these last few months I was really into using multiple bookcloth as a design element for the cover, as well as using extra long ribbons/ties to create some sort of visual effects that extends the practicability of the ties. And most likely I will continue to toy with these ideas in the coming pieces.





Visit Studio CaiLun for more pictures of Ellen's 30th.

If I have to pick the most laborious and intimidating step in bookmaking, I'd pick making covers. If I have a board cutter, perhaps it would be different. But I don't like cutting boards very much. I am always afraid of cutting myself, especially my left thumb that presses against the straight edge. It has been cut so many times but luckily, it still has its 'shape'.

Anyway, making cases is such a long process: you have to measure the boards, cut them, sand them, and make sure they are of the exact sizes; then you have to measure the book cloth, trim them, glue them on to the boards, make the turn-ins, work the corners, and to let them dry. But we are not finished yet. Here comes the he most intimidating part of all — laying in the end paper. You can rarely predict the exact size of an end paper, because different paper expands differently after absorbing the adhesive. So you slather the end paper with glue, let it soak up and expand, and then apply more glue. You carefully put the end paper onto the cover, only then you realize that it's expanded too much and you have to trim the edges.

But the end result is so rewarding. Covers look so good when the right fabric is combined with the right endsheet. It's like perfection.

I have now finished making the 4 covers for 4 hardcover long stitch journals. The next step will be piercing and stitching.



And by the way, I absolutely love the Yuzen paper (the blue one on the left in the picture), a gift to me from Morry. It's absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to finish the book.