The book is alive!
What a nerve wracking week! I took my book block in to be trimmed down on the guillotine, and then couldn’t put off actually finishing it any longer.
Using the bookbinding cloth was terrifying as well, I only have so much of it so I don’t want to wreck any of it.
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2-768x1024.jpg)
I did the spine first, so I could adjust it slightly, and will do the cover afterwards.
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/3-768x1024.jpg)
Screenprinting!
It took ages to make the cover, I could not get the spine lined up correctly for ages, and then I had put too much glue through the fine mesh that it just couldn’t handle it anymore. Luckily I had thought ahead and ordered several sizes of the spine art to accommodate different widths, so I was able to just move on to the next size and not fret about missing any of the detail. I’m a bit sad I won’t be able to have the small circular emblem on the spine, but to be honest the final width of the book is a tiny bit too small to really accommodate it anyway.
The screen is still doing very well, but I will need to figure out a different glue that is more screen friendly for future runs. I’ve been washing the screen and scrubbing it straight away, but the book binding glue is just too fierce!
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/IMG_5428-1024x768.jpeg)
Look at that glue though!
It really holds the copper leaf so well.
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/5-1024x768.jpg)
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/6-1024x768.jpg)
This one came out well, but the emblem and my name started degrading, so I switched to one of the other spine widths on the screen. The emblem was also slightly out of place, so I needed another go anyway.
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/9-768x1024.jpg)
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/7-768x1024.jpg)
![](http://lorritrewhella.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/8-768x1024.jpg)
Still came out a little bit wonky, I think in the future doing the spine on a separate, more durable bit of book cloth would work better. I’m finding the corners aren’t keeping up well, so it would be good to reinforce them anyway, and it would be a lot easier to register the screen on a smaller, separate piece.
Either way – I need to build a registration mechanism for the screenprinting portion.