1mm Pigma pen, Lexington grey water-brush, watercolour, A5 – 25 minutes
Time to make a new batch of A6 sketchbooks, ‘reloading’ some very cheap Derwent journals (I’ve run out of empty Moleskines). At this stage in the process the 4 folios of paper that make up a book have been stitched together with dental floss, and are being pressed while a strip of cloth (or ‘mull’) is glued onto the spine. I use two G-clamps and pieces of thick plywood as a home-made mini book-press.
Below is the final result, five sketchbooks loaded with Fabriano 90lb HP and occasional coloured paper, which should last me until Autumn. For more on sketchbook binding see this separate section of the blog. Bookbinding can look labour intensive, but it’s fairly straight forward, very satisfying and you end up with a sketchbook you couldn’t buy – you choose the paper, the binding, the size etc. – for very little money.
Mostly drawing 
book binding is SO cool. Yours look really nice
http://www.awordofsubstance.wordpress.com
Thanks Alice.
I didn’t know you bind your own sketchbooks! I love your process and illustration of the result here. Last summer I started bookbinding for the same reasons as you. At first I thought it would be too much work, but now I love it and have fully embraced the process, even making the covers. Here’s my most recent: http://www.tina-koyama.blogspot.com/2014/01/fifth-sketchbook-bound.html
Here’s my post on the process I use: http://www.tina-koyama.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-hand-book-binding-groove.html
– Tina
Hi Tina, yours look great. Making my own covers could be the next step if I ever run out of cheap refillables, and after that it’ll be making my own paper! Ed