Day Seven: Week One Completed! Picture times!

First of all, it turns out my little ol' academy has a blog, and the most recent post has pictures of some of my classmates.  You can get to it by clicking on this.  There is a picture of Renate, Steve, Emilie, and Courtney, in...maybe that order? I'm not going to go check, you have to just guess.  Cuz I'm a jerk.

So, today was the beginning of Sewing Structures class.  It's going to run from today through Tuesday, and then from Wednesday to Monday I will be kicking around on my lonesome!  This class is running so short because there are not as many people in it (2 of the men left, leaving the 4 women and 1 man) so Renate thinks we can get through everything more quickly and she can get home and back to work sooner.  So, we are sewing intensively for 2 more days and then I will have ages and ages to lollygag around my empty house and work my tail off doing side projects at the studio. I'm going to try to wash at least one more book, which will be GREAT when no one else is there clogging up the sink and counter space, and then I guess I'll just be making new boosk for fun or doing more conservation stuff on the old books I brought--I'm going to need to ask Renate what I should do to each one before she goes, do not let me forget!!

Okay so here are some pictures of town and work:

read this plaque.  then think of how long i stand in front of it singing raindrops keep falling on my head.  EPIC.

favorite store front.  full of leather and fur.

free box, where people dump stuff they don't want and then other people paw through it and take stuff they DO want.  I've gotten a few books there so far.

lots of stickers, and the Galloping Goose sign (that's for you, Dad)

free school branded recycle bags!  Woo!

Ok so this is what it looks like when you sew a book on tapes.  Which sounds like 'book on tape' which is FUNNY.  Haha!  But um the thing is, in normal life, like when I am sewing a book for fun, I just sew it up all by myself because this is modern times.  But in HISTORICAL bookbinding, and also other folks these days I guess just not me usually, you use some kind of 'sewing support,' either linen type tapes like these or cords (we're getting to that never fear) to give the spine extra support and help connect it to the cover. So basically you just sew it up like normal but you include these supports into the stitches so it all gets attached.  I realize that is not a good explanation, but I also realize that I am not going to be able to actually explain how you sew up a book even just regular style without just doing it in front of you in real life, so we are all going to have to just be strong and move on.

Ok so THIS contraption was completely new and awesome to me. You use it when you sew onto cords, and it is really just cool because it LOOKS so cool, right?  Right?  Basically it just holds the cords in place for you all cool-looking-like and then you lay down the signatures and sew through them like normal. Just, when I normally am sewing on tapes or whatever I'm like throwing the loose tape ends over my shoulder and everything is getting tangled and awful, whereas with this awesome apparatus sewing on supports is a DREAM.

This is just a closeup so you can see how the spine looks with those cords sewn onto it.  This is called a single raised cord binding, not to be confused with double raised  cord or single or double RECESSED cord, all of which I think we will do tomorrow. 

This is the next book I am working on.  I spent my non-sewing time today pulling and cleaning and repairing this so that I can sew it tomorrow!  It's relatively clean so it didn't need to be washed, and there was only a bit of guarding and tear fixing I had to do.  Also it is really fun to work on because it is Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, so there's fun quick reading to do while I'm brushing off a page or gluing a fold.  Also, it is BEAUTIFUL, and I'm excited for when I figure out the best way to clean and then reattach covers, which might not be til the FALL sessions which is lame but still....lots to look forward to.

these are some pages from Bartlett, so you can see how comparatively sparkling and whole they are.  Pelham, I love you, but you really gave me a run for my money.  PS Pelham was originally sewn with single recessed cords, but I think I'm going to be sewing him back together on single raised cords, hopefully tomorrow!

This is what my workbench looked like today, except I don't think this picture truly captures the chaos and horror resulting from doing sewing, dry cleaning, and repairs all basically at the same time. It was Ridiculous. Oh ps, those text blocks that I was sewing on tapes and cords int eh above pictures were just models-blank pages we made up just to practice on.   Which is good, because now I won't do the silly mistakes on Bartlett and Pelham that I did on the models and had to go back and fix!