My work space before the creative process begins. 

 

I have created the images and pages for the book using MacBook Pro and Wacom tablet. Book binding is a long process of cutting, folding (using the bone tool), sewing and glueing. 

 

 

Having spent hours printing A3 high resolution pictures on my Brother print it would be a shame to slip now! Sharp scalpels are very imporant at this stage, watch out for your fingers. 

I have printed on a high grain Epson 120 Matt paper, to insure the book opens correctly over 200 pages had to be gently folded using the Bone tool.  

Lots of pages, now each page will be measured and shorted to insure the pages are lines up and accurate.

Sorted and in full colour order, the process or cutting and folding has taken almost 6 hours...

Time to lay out the pages to make sure that their are no last minute changes that need to be made in their order. 

Once the pages are held together with bull dog clips, 7mm cuts are created along the edge of the pages. The techniquie of sewing pages in this fashion is called 'perfect binding', however I have had to alter the process to work with card.

The next stage of the process is to glue the spine of the book together. To insure the glue will be absorbed into the card I dampen the pages with water and brush. PVA glue is then spread lightly onto the page edge and then covered with muslin.

Next come a 24 hour drying period, where by the pages are kept under preasure.

Finished, the pages are bounded and strong enough for my purposes. 

Next comes the hard back cover, using a large sheet of 8mm book binding card I carefully measure out the size of the components. 

The cover of the books have been printed and covered with laminate plastic. 

Hard back covers ready to go, the plastic cover should increase the life of the book by several months.

The best part about hand making books, is that you can do what ever you like. Using a large A1 sheet of Jet black 90gm paper I will create the opening and binding pages for my book. This will be the pages that connect the hard back cover to the book bundle. 

For some added flare and a bit of fun I have created a pop up compartment to house a business card. 

Time for the final binding, always the scariest bit but the most fun. 

Knowing the right people can be very usefull, to help insure my books are returned (with a prepaid envelope) I included a free badge with every book. Hand cut and printed, the badges are created using three components.

Simple yet effective, thanks to a good friend with a house full or interesting gadgets. 

The final product. 2.5mm badges that link in with the theme of the book. To keep with the times I have included a QR code that links directly to THIS website. 

All of the promotion material together, lots of items for just one package. Included in a parcel was a sending envelope, a paid return envelope. A cover letter, business cards, badge achievement + badge and the final product.

All of the materials together.

Dont ask how much this cost to produce and post :)