Books with Memory

Yesterday it was Saturday so I went to the fair. It was not a really good day, full of finds, but I got these three photos. They are from the beginning of the last century, all mounted on cardboard, not in perfect state but meanwhile I already cleaned them and they look great. I have been collecting old photos since many years and I've always felt moved by them. But these three got me thinking so I finally shaped an idea that was going through my head since a while now. I don't want to make just books, but to restore pieces of history and create books with a story to tell. Books that have character, that have soul. Books with memory.

It's not just a matter of incorporating old photos into my books - I played with this idea before and liked it very much, but this is more than that. It's about everything, the materials I use and have a story to tell, even the design itself. 

And so I embark in a new journey. A slightly different concept, not necessarily new but rather an evolved one. "Books with Memory" - another project,  perhaps another book shop. This is a big fear for any business, especially among the Etsy shops, but why not? I like to think that this is only the beginning. For me this might be just the right time.
 

The Trio

These are the three books that came out of my last paper staining session. Monday we will fill the garden with paper again, probably for the last time this summer.

My personal favorite book of the Trio is the one below. We call it scarface :-)

A new approach, definitely something I will want to play with again later on.

 Thanks to my friend Liviu who bought it fresh out of the press.

 

The making of a book

A quick sneak peek :)

It all starts with the paper... tearing it into pages, staining it and folding it into signatures.

Then comes the sewing of the book block. 

Followed by the gluing of the spine and rounding of the back. Like so it goes into the press over the night. Meanwhile all attention is directed to the making and the tooling of the cover.

 

For this hollow back binding the raised bands are attached directly onto the spine.

 

Then one of my favorite steps, selecting the endpages... Gluing them will attach
the book block to the cover.

 

And finally, the last touches. The decoration of the cover with black and gold leather paints.

And look, how wonderful it shows its tea stained pages when it's open.

Saturday's Fair Finds

Flea market was good to me today! I found all these goodies :)

Oh, that leather box! (nooo, I will not turn it into books!!!)

 
I was especially happy with this shoemaker's tools - I don't know if I'll ever use them but they are just beautiful to collect, aren't they?

And keys, many little rusty keys... in an old nivea box. So cute!

 

Coffee or Tea?

This was the question of the day while staining paper... coffee or tea? It was a great day - a mixture of paper, sisters, fun and lazy cats. At the end of the day it was unanimously decided that tea was the best choice for paper while coffee was better to drink :)

The most serious results of our work are yet to come, as the piles of aged paper are still in the press, waiting to get flat and ready to be bound.

More pics freshly uploaded on Flickr.