Bookbinding challenges - beginnings

Bookbinding is a hobby that has appealed to me for quite a while.

It began when I chose my career.

No, wait...

as I reflect on this, it truly started with books.

The earliest book I loved was a hardcover early 1941 edition of Curious George. I must have gotten it as a gift from my mother when I was three or four, so 1955 or 1956. I still have that book, it's in my library, quite beaten up, with love.

The iconic book jacket is long gone.

Books, books, books.

School meant more books. By the time I was done with school, books had literally framed my life. I once told my nephews when the eldest told me he was in grade three, that I was in grade 27. Their look of shock and disbelief was cute.

Early in my career as a lawyer, I started collecting leather-bound classics. As time passed, I received more leather-bound books as gifts.

Later still, I was responsible for selecting gifts to honour a prominent CEO on his retirement. One of the gifts was a custom-made, small, leather-bound book, in a custom case, that told the story behind another gift, a perfect reproduction of an iconic item from the company's historical collection from its private museum.

The process of creating that book introduced me to the brilliant bookbinder who made it. She was from Paris, and ran a bookbinding craft shop in Montreal where she and her colleagues also taught bookbinding.

A few years later I was working at another company that freed up a little time. I decided to take a bookbinding course taught by that very talented bookbinder. Among her skills was restoring medieval manuscripts. Wow.

Binding a custom-made book is a curious recipe combining paper, folding paper, measuring precisely, cutting exact shapes, sewing French stitches, and kettle stitches, practical geometry, a surprisingly complicated series of mathematical formulas required to achieve what is referred to as the imposition of pages and sheets to form signatures, and lots of sticky messy glue.

Finally, I am in the midst of actually creating my very first book from scratch.

I am lucky to be doing that now, because YouTube is a stage on which very talented bookbinders teach the intricacies of the craft.

I still have the tools I purchased when I took that bookbinding course (a steel ruler, a scalpel, two dividers, and a cutting mat). I recently added a bookbinding needle, waxed thread, special glue, brushes and a few other tools. I have also made some necessary tools (a book press and a hole punching guide) and I am now in the midst of making a piercing cradle. Oh... there's software too!

There is a lot I want to share on this journey of discovery, so that means that this is the first in a series of posts I plan to share. I may even decide to make a video or two. Time will tell.

I suppose that technically, this whole process is the polar opposite of Life on two wheels. This is not careening on a spontaneous journey on the spur of the moment. This is definitely slow and steady. It's not even life on four wheels. It's deep and thoughtful life, at a desk.

Who knows... if you are here, bookbinding may be in your future too.