Iron Craft Challenge #7--Post Three

Today, I finish the text block on the way to building the case and "casing it in." This is where the interesting part of the process begins--picking papers, bookcloth, headbands, and ribbon. Since the theme of the challenge is "dots" I decided to use some marbled paper that uses a pattern called "stones." They look like dots to me.

Since I am doing a particular type of binding (usually called a German binding) for a flatback binding, I have to take some extra steps. Since I didn't want to glue the end sheets directly to the case, I am tipping in my endsheets to the text block. The text block will be glued to a bookcloth hinge, then covered in mull. The hinge will be glued to the inside covers of the case.

To tip in the endsheets, you glue a small portion of the paper and then wrap it onto the spine.

Endsheets

Before I can glue the hinge, I must work backwards in terms of layers so the the mull is the very last step applied. After the endsheets are glued into place, the ribbon is next. To measure the appropriate length of ribbon, simply place the ribbon diagonally across the page and add one inch which will be glued to the spine.

Measuring the ribbon

I decided to use a coordinating yellow and green headband and glued it into place. So the spine now has both endsheets, the headband and ribbon in place.

The next step is to apply the bookcloth to make a hinge. The bookcloth should be the same as the cloth that will be used on the case. The rationale is that you want the hinge to disappear when the text block is cased in. To accomplish this, you must glue the wrong side of the cloth to the spine. The hinge should appear just below the headbands on the head and tail (top and bottom) of the text block.

Top View of the Hinge

Inside View of the Hinge

The final step is to apply mull to the spine so that is covers the paper side of the hinge. This will provide added support to the text block when it is glued to the case. After the mull is applied, the text block is placed in a weighted press to dry.