Book binding and box making

Ever since I took classes in French cartonnage I've been enjoying making boxes in various sizes and styles. I have recently started taking classes again, this time including book binding. 

Look at this huge board cutter! I was scared stiff at first but after careful instructions and some practise I'm now quite blasé woking on it and it makes cutting card board effortless! 

With this monster on the left books are cut on three sides after the pages are first sewn and then glued together.  And the one on the right is of course a binding press. 

Here a few pictures of the process of making a book. 

The finished book and a few more. 

I also repaired a book belonging to my husband. I forgot to take a picture before I took it apart, but this is how the covers looked

and here the repaired book. I'm quite please with how it turned out and so is hubby. 

Then I made a couple of note books, a different process and much faster than a regular book

and a big folder. The hardest part (at least for me) is glueing those huge pieces of paper straight and without too many air bubbles, preferably non!

I also made a couple of boxes. As our instructor is a professional book binder, she does things sightly differently to how I was taught. But it's always good to learn something new. 

A fabric covered box. I had to line the fabric with a thin paper first, in fact making it into book cloth. I'm not convinced that this extra step is really needed as the result is more or less the same as when the fabric is glued directly onto the box. 

And a letter stand I bought as a kit a few years ago at a lovely stop in Den Hague and I'm glad to finally have made it up.

I'm really enjoying my three hours every Monday evening. I've met some really nice people in my class, the oldest a 85 year old gentlemen. And you should see the work he produces, quite amazing.
I've also made some Christmas gift, but I won't show you those yet,  don't want to spoil the surprise. I'm knee deep in Christmas preparations; I just took the first batch of Christmas cookies out of the oven. I always make Basler Laeckerli first as they last for a long time since there's neither egg nor any or butter in it. It's a sort of ginger bread cookie but better, you'll find the recipe here.

Vreni x