I promised to tell you more about my latest bookbinding adventure so here we go. The book I made in the workshop is a variation of a stab bound book with hard covers. As you can see I didn’t quite finish the binding. Why? Well as we were getting closer to the end the instructor realized she hadn’t cut enough ribbon. I didn’t have time to start all over so I left it as is.The binding is not hard to do at all but you do have to concentrate just so you make sure you are going through the right punches and so your binding design will come out right.

The book covers are a mix of cloth and paper, which I do love seeing those two together. If you’ll notice though there is paper peeking through the end. Not a good thing. Our book covers were pre-cut for class and those were cut a bit on the small size. Thank goodness I never give away my first books as those are always my learning books. I can feel free to make mistakes on them as long as I get the binding technique right.

I made a stab bound book a while back and never tried again simply because these aren’t my favorite books. The binding can look beautiful and you can use ribbons, string, thread, etc. and close off the binding with beads and in other decorative ways but here’s the reason these aren’t my favorite books:

This is about as far as the book will open. For some books this is ok but for journaling books I prefer to have books that can lie flat when open. You can also probably see some bubbling on the silver end paper. I noticed as I was trying to smooth out the paper that it was staining my bone folder with a dark mark and I stopped. I wasn’t sure if it would then transfer the dark smudge to other paper I was trying to smooth out. Luckily it’s ok. Good thing because that’s my first bone folder since I started bookbinding about nine years ago and I’d love to hang on to it for many more years.

I think my favorite part about this book though was making a corner piece for the pages.

With some decorative paper we wrapped the ends of the book that were going to go against the binding. There’s no real need for this part but I like that it offers a little glimpse of color and design to the pages.

So that’s the latest in my bookbinding adventures. I’ve been finding working in my studio a couple of weekends and it is so much fun to be able to stock up my shop a bit more and just spend time doing something I really enjoy. I look forward to more bookbinding adventures.

“You can’t lose if you give them handsome highwaymen, duels, 3-foot fountains and whacking great horses and dogs all over the place” ~Barbara Cartland

In my post yesterday I said that I’ve been reading quite a few romance novels lately and Nancy mentioned that it almost sounded like I was a bit embarrassed to admit that. Reading back on my post it does sound a bit like that. It’s so funny because I’m one of the first people to say, “read whatever you like, as long as you read!”

I don’t “hide” my book covers from others if I’m reading YA, Fantasy or some other genre but I guess romance novels just get such a bad rap it’s sometimes hard to say, sure, I can enjoy a good historical love story. I went through a phase in my early twenties when I read quite a few romance novels but all of a sudden I just kind of got over them. I checked out a few here and there over the years but never really went back to the genre.

So again, for some reason when I got sick all I wanted were stories to entertain me and I found some good love stories that did just that. I read Wait Until Midnight and The River Knows both by Amanda Quick and The Bargain by Mary Jo Putney. I think I read each book practically in one sitting. Sure they were predictable but they were just so enjoyable and that’s a good thing.

Will I be checking out more romance novels this year? I don’t know. Maybe, why not? I realize that reading these books it was another way to get a nice break from some of my usual reads. I enjoy changing up my genres although I tend to stick with the same books but every once in a while it sure is nice to venture to another area of the bookstore/library isn’t it?

And, what with Valentine’s Day upon us I say it was perfect timing to be reading these books don’t you think? I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and love and friendship to everyone!