Sorry, pretty photos are banned until this book is finished. Until then I'll bore you to death with in-progress shots. I won't be turning this into a tutorial, but I thought someone might be as curious as I am about other people's work, so loads of photos will follow.
My relatively simple complicated endpapers. There's also a very complicated complicated version, but I find that one a bit over the top, so these were made with a leather hinge and three pretty shades of some turqoise-y aqua kind of coloured paper. (I find colours difficult even in Finnish, but you English people make it near impossible to me. Maybe it's teal and light teal and even lighter teal. Or something entirely different. Greenish blue stuff.) Anyway, the endpapers will be trimmed after the sewing is done.
Ta-dah. Sewing happened and I forgot to take photos. Later I did take photos of my headbands, but they were all out of focus, you'll see them on another day. What we have here is the prettiest and most stylish living-room corner item, my press and the book ready to be backed.
Done, or actually, the almost there phase. Looked awful lot like this when finished anyway. I've sewn the endpapers with turquoise silk thread, that's why there's some odd bits of turquoise there too.
I attached the covers to the book block, and took a break from handling the actual book since it was in the press, once again. I had pared my onlay leathers yesterday and today I dyed some darker shades of that greenish blue colour to liven up the cover onlays a bit. The overall design could be a bit monotonous and boring if everything was done in the same colour. I have yet to decide how exactly I'm going to use all these different colours, but I'm sure it will all come to me in time. It always does, I've never been too much of a planner when it comes to my books.
Meh. My least favourite part of bookmaking. Sanding the covers with my super handy artsy sanding block made by a fellow bookbinder while we were still at school. (I can't believe how fast time goes! I finished my studies almost three years ago.)
Covers sanded and a hollow back added (still needs to be trimmed). The tapes and everything will be covered and evened out before the cover leather is pasted on to the book. Every little bump will show through in the finished book, so I need to be sure that there isn't even a smidgen of a bump anywhere on the book.
The hardest and most fun part of today's work: my title. I haven't measured how tall the letters are, but they are way less than a half a centimetre tall. I've cut my title twice, because with letters this small, you're bound to lose some and ruin some. It's just best to admit it straight away and do a little extra work and save yourself from swearing when it's time to glue these little things on.
Now, on an entirely different note, I wish to publicly declare my hatred towards mosquitoes. I'm losing my mind. Why was I saved from those meanies when I was in the forest picking blueberries, but I can't sleep in my own home without getting bitten like I was the last person on earth to have blood on their veins? The windows will stay closed from now on, who cares about oxygen or fresh air anyway...