Thursday 18 February 2010

Books covered in Silk

I have finished one book with a silk cover. It is a very fine fabric (60 epi) and liable to fray, even though I ironed fusible lining to it. So the corners of the corner had a smidgin of PVA applied which makes the book look tidy and should hold the silk in place. The paper is watercolour paper. You can just see the blue marbled end-papers that Michael made.

I have another identical book which is half finished but will not be able to do much more until the next book-binding class. It was half-term this week.
What I must concentrate on is the endpapers for the Omar Khayyam book. The problem is gluing the endpapers on to a backing sheet. They get all wrinkled. I have been reading Ikegami's 'Japanese Bookbinding' and came across a different technique for glueing two sheets of paper together for end-papers. I will try that at the weekend. It needs a visit to the cellar which means going out into the snow!


It started to snow at 1100 hours and already it is  piling up. The forecast is for this to continue until 1800 hours. By which time I shall be snowed in!

2 comments:

  1. Really lovely Dorothy

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  2. How very beautiful. I had not realised before how well the crafts of weaver and bookbinder compliment each other, not to mention the lovely marbling of the end papers. I hope your snow melts away again soon.

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About Me

I am weaver and - -. I dye my yarns with acid dyes, I paint my warps, put fabric collages and stencils on my weaving. I have three looms, a 12 inch wide, 12 shaft Meyer for demos and courses, a 30 inch Louet Kombo which is nominally portable but has a stand, two extra beams and a home-made device containing a fan reed. And last a 32 shaft Louet Megado which is computer controlled, has a sectional warp and a second warp beam and I am the proud owner of an AVL warping wheel which I love to bits and started by drilling holes in. I inserted a device for putting a cross in. I have just acquired an inkle loom and had a lesson from an expert so I can watch TV and weave at the same time. I am interested in weaving with silk mostly 60/2 although I do quite a bit with 90/2 silk. I also count myself as a bookbinder with a special interest in Coptic binding.