(poetry book spine cleaning and scraping)
(Bible reline for recasing)I need to get these projects completed before we bring the Christmas tree and decorations out of the attic.
(train book reline)Here you can see part of the process of cleaning (with a special poultice), relining, and stabilizing old textblocks, in preparation for reinserting the books into their original covers. On two of these, the spines needed rebuilding. I also needed to line the front page of the poems book block, because it is so brittle. The paper in this book (on top of the stack) is very acidic and browned.
On the train book, below, the spine is fine, but the textblock of the book was hanging on by a thread.
The text block came completely out of the case (above) and I had to reinsert it with new lining (below).
What are you working on this season? Are you making Christmas presents for family and friends? Do you have any generic projects in the works? I used to do quilting, but this hobby has taken up all of the time I used to spend on quilting...and then some.
After these three projects are completed, I have three more jobs in the dock (two copies of Our Island Story: one for my friend Julie from my CM book club, the other for my friend Queen Shenaynay, and two books for one of our elders at church). After those, I have three more waiting on the back burner.
I've got my work cut out for me...ha ha!
Javamom
4 comments:
I love seeing how you fix up these books. Question for you~~how do you determine if a book is worth rebinding? I have several old books whose bindings are falling apart. I am not sure if they are worth fixing. You can email me with the answer or maybe do a post about it? :)
RJBmom7@aol.com
Robin,
Take some close-up photos of them and send them to me...seeing them will help. Each book presents its own set of problems, b/c of how they were stored or shelved over the years, in hot or freezing conditions, etc. It depends on so many things. The other factors include what century they were produced, what kind of materials were used, etc.
I, too, love seeing your projects. How did you go about learning to bind and repair books?
Birdie,
I took classes for several years with University level Library and book restoration/preservationists...both of whom had world-wide experience in multiple countries. I made it to advanced restoration and repair, then my favorite teacher moved to work with a well-known national Restoration/Preservation group (in Bookworkers Guild Circles). I just love it.
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