Workshop with Gerry in the print room, explaining how to create books in the print room using basic binding techniques. Each image, will show each step to the process.
The first step to this process is that you need to have all of the pages for the book and make sure that they are inline with each other.
Next, make sure that all of the edges of the pages are together. This is important for the next step of the process.
This stage of the process is placing the strip on the spine, that is used to bond everything together. There are two ways of doing this process. The first is shown in the images above, where double sided tape is used to bond the cover and the pages together. The other way of doing this would be using the binding machine, which is present in the image below. This machine has a heating element inside of it, where the binding strip melts and binds to the pages section of the book. The binding strip is inserted into the side of the machine. The pages sit in the section on the top of the machine, where the binding process takes place.
After you have bonded the pages together, you want to size up the sheet that you are going to use for your covers. The cover needs to be cropped to the size that you want it to be.
After you have cropped the cover, you will need to find the centre of the page and mark it out. this is so that you can find the centre of the page, when using the scoring machine. The scoring machine creates grooves in the centre of the page, that will become the spine of the book.
First, when using the scoring machine, you will need to measure the width of the book that you are making, using the the measuring section pictured in the image above. This is so that you can make sure that the spine is the correct size for the pages to bind to.
Next, you need to place the paper underneath the scoring press. You need to make sure that the centre of the line is directly inline with the slit where it lines up with the press. you also need to make sure that the edge, lines up with the sizing section to make sure that the scores line up on each side of the centre line. First, press down the left side of the centre line, then repeat it on the right side.
When the page has been scored, the paper will have one side, where the lines are indented in the paper and the otherwise will have the lines pushing out of the paper. the side where the lines are pressed to, will be the inside, where the pages are bonded too. This is because the smoother side will have a pronounced spine which may have text or images on it.
You will need to bind both sections of your book together before using the guillotine.
This piece of equipment is a guillotine. This section of the process is to even off all of the edges and to resize your final booklet. The Guillotine is useful because it allows you to straighten the edges and adjust the sizing of your book. The Guillotine in the print room has a clamp that allows you to fix your work into place so that you can crop it on a straight line. The blade is locked so that when you clamp the booklet down, it won't cut your hands. when using the blade, the cover will come down and the lock will need to be released, then you need to push down on the lever with force to cut through the many layers of paper that will make up the book.
This piece of equipment is used to round off the corners of your booklet. This can be adjusted to create flat edges or rounded corners.
This image shows how this machine can be used to add corners and edges to your prints and books. When using this, make sure to hold your work in place to make sure that it doesn't move.
This is the cover for my book, however the corners are terrible, as when I was rounding off the corners, I knocked my booklet. That's why they look uneven and rough.
This is my final outcome for this task. I think that it turned out better than I was expecting. This is because I thought that I would find this process really complicated, However I found out that it isn't as difficult as I thought it was. However I think that I need to crop the edge again, because the cover and the edges are uneven. I enjoyed this induction because book binding is a process, that I have wanted to learn for a while but I never got to do it before this workshop. I think that I am going to use this process regularly and produce a series of small books that contain illustrations and other art work that I have created outside of the workshops.
Artist research
Sangorski & Sutcliffe-
Sangorski and Sutcliffe are a book binding company that was founded in 1901. Sangorski and Sutcliffe are known for their use of luxury materials like gold and gemstones. They are considered as one of the most important book binding companies of the 20th century (Wikipedia, 2022 ,P1)
This is an example of a book produced by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in 1898 of the Oscar Wilde book: The Ballard of reading Gaol. (Sangorski and Sutcliffe.1898) This book has gilt panels made from gold and the main panels are made form dyed leather. I think that this book is beautifully made object. However, I feel that this style of book making feels very dated now, as the materials used now are very valuable due to them being extremely hard to source.
Source 1
Sources-
Source 1-
Sangorski,F. Sutcliffe,G (1898). FINE BINDING BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE [Jpeg]. lyonandturnbull.com. https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auction/lot/366-fine-binding-by-sangorski--sutcliffe/?lot=210790&sd=1
Wikipedia . (2022). Sangorski & Sutcliffe. en.wikipedia.org. (p1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangorski_%26_Sutcliffe
Sangorski and Sutcliffe. (1898). FINE BINDING BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE (The Ballard of reading Gaol). lyonandturnbull.com. https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/auction/lot/366-fine-binding-by-sangorski--sutcliffe/?lot=210790&sd=1
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