bradel binding

For the first books in my Bookbinding 3 class we had to make two books in the Bradel style. What is that, you ask? Basically, Bradel is German for: freaking complicated. The whole time I was making these books I just hated it. We had to make made end sheets, round the spines, make a cardstock spine called a bonnet, build up the cover boards to make them tall enough to fit into the shoulder, cover the book with fabric once it's all assembled, then paste down a piece of marbled paper. It took for-ev-er.

But, once it was done, I LOVED it! They just felt so nice and weighty, just solid and real, you know? I really liked how they turned out, even if I wasn't a big fan of all the intermediate steps.

The one on the left is what the spine is supposed to look like. The one on the right, while it looks rounder, is actually less correct. Fun fact.

The marbled paper is the paste down. Doesn't it look great?!

Anyway, that's a thing that I did recently...