Project Information
So I'm new to LJ, and have been browsing the archives on past projects.
WAAAAAY back when, it seemed like a number of people attempted to make wooden books.
Well, I'm here to say that I've done it, and perhaps in a way that nobody has done before (and I do mean nobody, as I've searched many a site looking to see if anyone else has done it)
I'm kind of a self taught craft-person. My first crafts were as a child and involved paper. I did quilling, origami… you name it. When I was out of high school for maybe for or five years, I picked up the craft of bookbinding. I loved it, and originally learned about two or three different types of binding. Fast forward again about 3 years, and I wanted to make a checker board for my grandfather, whom I used to play checkers with often. I decided that since I didn't have the tools or materials to craft an honest to goodness board from wooden tiles, I would try my hand at veneers, and take up marquetry. The board had some issues. I was working with paua shell and some koa, and none of it was treated (just raw sheets of shell and unbacked rough wood. The wood in fact, still had the rough raw edges from the board it was cut from), but as a first project it was interesting and I kept up with it. I enjoyed the challenge of getting precise lines and angles with an exacto, while fighting the wood's natural grain and tendencies to go astray.
The books, were my grand idea for a marriage between the two.
Instead of paper for a book cover, I went with veneer. The backing is bookboard, which I coated twice with a polyurethane finish to give them moisture protection (bookboard is just really thick cardboard, and in the past, had warped considerably during humid summer days), and then after cutting the veneers (it's a ribbon sapelle background, and a variety of woods including walnut and birdseye maple in the foreground) applied with contact cement to the treated boards. (despite the warnings on the can about applying cement to poly coated surfaces I have never had an issue, and I have books from when I started this 4 years ago, so it works well), and then using PVA glue (the bookbinding kind, which is REALLLY rubbery, to give spines and other book parts flexibility) a sheet of cardstock was inserted on the inside cover.
I then had the issue of edges. Easily enough rectified with copper tape (though this does sometimes have a tendency to peel back off).
The holes in the covers are then drilled to allow for the coptic binding method of attaching signatures to them (you can search the web for "coptic bookbinding" to find instructions on this), and stamped on the inside cover to denote them as my own design.
I've done this numerous times, incuding using veneer to frame out artwork on papyrus for covers (Which is actually an amazing effect, but I have no pictures of this), or with brass library card catalog tag holders, (which allow one to label the books), and many other purposes.
I hope this passes as woodworking for the site, as it is the best solution I can come up with for this "woodworking" problem, and, well, the marquetry itself is a woodcraft.
I hope you enjoy.
WAAAAAY back when, it seemed like a number of people attempted to make wooden books.
Well, I'm here to say that I've done it, and perhaps in a way that nobody has done before (and I do mean nobody, as I've searched many a site looking to see if anyone else has done it)
I'm kind of a self taught craft-person. My first crafts were as a child and involved paper. I did quilling, origami… you name it. When I was out of high school for maybe for or five years, I picked up the craft of bookbinding. I loved it, and originally learned about two or three different types of binding. Fast forward again about 3 years, and I wanted to make a checker board for my grandfather, whom I used to play checkers with often. I decided that since I didn't have the tools or materials to craft an honest to goodness board from wooden tiles, I would try my hand at veneers, and take up marquetry. The board had some issues. I was working with paua shell and some koa, and none of it was treated (just raw sheets of shell and unbacked rough wood. The wood in fact, still had the rough raw edges from the board it was cut from), but as a first project it was interesting and I kept up with it. I enjoyed the challenge of getting precise lines and angles with an exacto, while fighting the wood's natural grain and tendencies to go astray.
The books, were my grand idea for a marriage between the two.
Instead of paper for a book cover, I went with veneer. The backing is bookboard, which I coated twice with a polyurethane finish to give them moisture protection (bookboard is just really thick cardboard, and in the past, had warped considerably during humid summer days), and then after cutting the veneers (it's a ribbon sapelle background, and a variety of woods including walnut and birdseye maple in the foreground) applied with contact cement to the treated boards. (despite the warnings on the can about applying cement to poly coated surfaces I have never had an issue, and I have books from when I started this 4 years ago, so it works well), and then using PVA glue (the bookbinding kind, which is REALLLY rubbery, to give spines and other book parts flexibility) a sheet of cardstock was inserted on the inside cover.
I then had the issue of edges. Easily enough rectified with copper tape (though this does sometimes have a tendency to peel back off).
The holes in the covers are then drilled to allow for the coptic binding method of attaching signatures to them (you can search the web for "coptic bookbinding" to find instructions on this), and stamped on the inside cover to denote them as my own design.
I've done this numerous times, incuding using veneer to frame out artwork on papyrus for covers (Which is actually an amazing effect, but I have no pictures of this), or with brass library card catalog tag holders, (which allow one to label the books), and many other purposes.
I hope this passes as woodworking for the site, as it is the best solution I can come up with for this "woodworking" problem, and, well, the marquetry itself is a woodcraft.
I hope you enjoy.