Make Your Own Bookcloth

making your own book cloth is a fairly easy thing to do and you can use almost any fabric for your books if you first follow these directions for sealing the back sealing it strengthens it keeps it from stretching while you were working with it and so HAP's most importantly keeps glue from seeping through the weave of the fabric and ending up on the front side ruining your cover that's what happened here you just need a few simple materials you'll want to make some paste in advance or use PVA glue you'll see a simple recipe for wheat paste in the written instructions on this page you need fabric of course in a thin paper to use for the backing Japanese rice paper works best and Japanese kozo is an inexpensive appropriate and readily available paper first cut your fabric to approximately the size you think you will want this doesn't have to be exact as you will trim it to its final size later find a suitable surface for the next step I use a glass shelf that I bought at IKEA for $15 these shelves are quite heavy-duty nearly unbreakable and have safe rounded edges I use them for lots of different things including mixing ink for prints but they are perfect making book cloth as well if you don't have a glass pane you can use a cutting mat tabletop or even a window next prepare the backing paper cut a piece of backing paper larger than the fabric so that it will overlap the edges of the fabric [Applause] I'll explain why I'm doing this with three pieces in a minute place the fabric face down on the surface you've chosen spray the service and the fabric lightly with water to allow it to stick slightly to the surface this will keep it from moving around as you were working with it and the paper backing next prepare the backing paper place the paper on a surface that you can glue on again this could be a cutting mat a tabletop protected by waste paper or another one of those handy glass shelves spray the paper lightly with water and brush it out to relax the fibers then spread the paste evenly across the entire surface of the paper working from the center to the edges the next step is a bit tricky because the paper is so wet and flimsy and also covered with paste so it will want to fold in on itself and glue itself together if you are trying to cover a large piece of fabric you might want to use two or three smaller pieces of paper as I've done here rather than one large unwieldy piece once you have the paste on the paper you will want to place it on the back side of the fabric glue side down of course smooth it carefully from the center out to the edges using a brush or a brayer if you're using a brayer do this lightly so you don't push paste through the fibers of the fabric onto the other side this will ruin the cover a light touch with the brayer is all it takes I like to start with the brayer and then use a brush to finish it off this step can also be a little tricky if you are piecing several pieces of paper together you want to get the seams to line up as closely as possible without any gaps and without much if any overlap while it may seem at times as if I'm hurrying with this process it's only for the sake of keeping this demo short there is no reason at all to hurry as you do any of this the pace does not dry quickly and it is very forgiving as you move the paper around the weak link is the flimsiness of the wet paper so take your time and be gentle as you walk the paper into place lastly let everything dry thoroughly once it's dry cut around the edges and peel the fabric off of the surface you if you used wheat paste for this the cleanup is easy just spray with water and use a razor blade or a razor scraper to clean up the glass and that's it that's all there is to making your own book cloth

Channel: Kristi Warren

Views: 61,506

Rating: 4.9470701 out of 5

Keywords: bookcloth, bookmaking, bookbinding, handmade books, making book cloth, making bookcloth, handmade bookcloth, making your own book cloth, custom made book cloth, book binding, custom book covers, kristi handmade books, making fabric covered books, how to make book cloth, how to make bookcloth, How to use regular cloth for bookmaking, How to use regular cloth to bind books, handmade books made easy, preparing fabric for your book, DIY bookcloth, How to glue fabric to books

Id: V3oN2N-O0Yc

Length: 7min 56sec (476 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 22 2016