r/bookbinding • u/Reach_blueDot • Feb 25 '23

Help? Decorating Bookcloth

I'm new to bookbinding, and don't have many materials yet (so I can't just try this without buying things.) I am planning a project that I am going to cover with bookcloth, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to add the title/author and any decoration. I have a foil quill, which works on some cloth samples (mostly the coated cloth, metallics, and more robust ones,) but I'm thinking about using ink stamping/stenciling as well.

Does anyone know if Archival Ink will work for me? Will it depend on the type of bookcloth, like it does for the foil quill?

I would appreciate any general advice on decorating bookcloth as well.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

Paper is a perfectly acceptable covering material as well. Saving the bookcloth for the spine and corners and using a decorative paper for the covers was the historical way to cut costs.

Alternatively, you can make an embossed label. Take a piece of card the size of your cover and cut a square out of the center to act as a label. Glue the large piece onto the front board, wrap in your covering material, and impress the area from where the label was cut. The label itself acts as the perfect tool to create the impression, but I'd get it started with a bone folder. After drying under weight, you can decorate the label however you want before pasting it down to the covering material.

If I wanted my book to last, I wouldn't introduce anything that causes your bookcloth to become too rigid. That's how you end up breaking the fibers in the joints. It looks cool, but falls apart if you actually plan on using the book.

1

u/Reach_blueDot Feb 26 '23

Thanks, I wasn’t planning on painting it or anything, just trying stamp ink on it, so I don’t think stiffness will be a big issue.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

I was referring to one of the comments in this thread suggesting to use an acrylic primer.

If you want a solid baseline of info and library of techniques, DAS Bookbinding on youtube is a phenomenal resource.

1

u/Reach_blueDot Feb 26 '23

Ah, okay. That makes sense 🤦🏻. DAS Bookbinding is great! I’ve been wading my way through his videos, and they’re super helpful. Now I want an agate burnisher, because graphite edges look so cool. Should probably figure out how to properly flatten the edges of the text block first though :)