Book binding

Just finished my first book where I used yarn to bind the pages together. That came out fine, although I could not find a description of how to do that best with 4 holes to bind. But that was what I prepared.... The manuals online are for 3 holes when just binding several pages to one fold, and 5 holes when getting several times several pages, and folders need to be bound together.

So, the binding came out fine, and after I got new paper to cover the cardboard, I measured, cut and glued. Should not be that difficult, but had to repeat a cut because it was crooked. Sigh.

And then I made a mistake and switched the gluing order.

I glued the book block into the binding first, and then folded the corners all around. Should have done the other way, now I have some not nice areas where I can see the paper cut. Well, I am still happy I finished my first 'sowed' book.

BTW, I don't really know what I should use this book for, so I just look at it from time to time ;-) It is small with ca. 3 by 5 inches, and it feels nice in my hands.

I am looking forward to the next meeting of the Austin Book Workers to see what other people did over the summer.

A fresh start with a bow

I want to make a new bow again. After having done that once, I always wanted to do that again. The eternal question is ..... "when". When would I have time enough to do that? All the tools and materials? Now I have the time, but do I want to spend the money?

Either having time - while searching for a new job - or having money while having a job, but hardly ever both, this can be quite challenging.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead. I started taking a course (beginner) at K.C. Outdoors on Saturday mornings, and it is just great. First time I had quite some bruises on my left arm from the string hitting it, but second time was much better. And I think I am pretty good, I really hit the target sometimes.

So, I placed an ad on craigslist, someone responded and I felled two small elm trees, the straightest we could find. (THANKS, Daryll!)

Home again, I split them with an axe and two metal wedges, and then skinned them with my knife. They are pretty crooked and have some big, many small branches, but I'll just give it a try. I cannot wait (hope I can, though) to start cutting the bow out of the trunk, I wonder how long I have to wait for them to dry. They seem pretty dry from the start, may be because of that long drought they are relatively dry already. Hm.

(I need a draw knife still, but that's not that easy to find. )