I have made a grand total of three books so far. Here's the retrospective.
Left to right: Book I (2010), Book II (2013), Book III (2015)
Book I: Poetry Written as Poeta Atlantiae
I attended KASF 2010 with a Persona Pentathalon entry. I'm a little fuzzy on the dates, but I either was, or had just stepped down as, Poeta Atlantiae. I thought I ought to represent poetry at the Festival, so I printed out all the poetry I had written as Atlantia's poet. I didn't use special paper or fonts, just Times New Roman on whatever was in the printer.
Computer-printed poetry on standard copy paper
I read a few webpages on modern bookbinding, and sewed all of the pages into a single quire. I did use one piece of cardstock on the outside of the quire, which would serve as the endpapers. Since I didn't have any idea how to actually sew a binding, this is what held the book together.
A single multi-page quire, whose outer, thickest foila are glued to the bookboards as endpapers.
The whole project was more arts and crafts than Arts & Sciences, but it was fun. I used a thick boiled wool (scraps from my Order of the Owl cloak) as the cover, since it needed to stand up to the Elmer's Glue. I made some ornaments of twisted wire - a golden frame, and a compass star (my primary charge). Bookboards were scavenged from an old book. Trim the corners of the wool, fold over, and glue.
Boiled navy wool cover with twisted wire embellishments sewn on
I calligraphed my name and the date on the first page. I aspire to a mediocre hand.
Calligraphed title page
Here endeth the tale of Book I.
Book II: Bardic Performance Repertoire
I used to memorize all my repertoire. Then I had kids, went to fewer events, and found that if I wanted to perform at all, I should probably have a crib sheet nearby. I wanted something more discreet and easier to carry than a big binder, so I thought I could make a book. This time, I learned a bit about Coptic bookbinding before proceeding. [Posts on the goal-setting, information seach and development, further development, and results for this project.]
The pages were copy paper again. They mostly have my original work on them, but there's also some stuff that's not mine. There's a few entire pieces, some titles, or first lines to jog my memory. I also left blank pages on purpose, and I've written in new stuff on them. I've tried to do some large initials and other medieval techniques for distinguishing the start of a new piece.
Typewritten original poetry
A handwritten golliardic verse (not mine) and a handwritten original song
Abstract crayon illumination provided by my younger son
This one had multiple quires of a few sheets each, and the text block was stitched with waxed linen thread in kettle stitches. The book boards were scavenged again, and they already had a nice red cover and nice white endpapers. I didn't put a cover over the boards, because I liked the red.
Ten (?) quires of two bifolia each. With copy paper, I could have had a lot more pages per quire.
Kettle stitches worked in waxed linen thread
I tore one of the quires while stitching on the front cover. Otherwise, it came out really nicely, and has been very useful for me.
The Red Book of Canterbury
Book III: For Hand-Writing
The Storvik Early Northern European Adhocracy did bookbinding this spring. I led the group, based entirely on my work on the Red Book. For paper, we used heavy cardstock in a cream color, which I found recommended somewhere on the Web as a reasonable cheap substitute for parchment (as far as weight goes; texture and curl are not accurately modeled). I bought book boards for the group, and a big spool of waxed linen thread, and curved needles. I'd used an S-curved needle for the Red Book, and really wanted plain curved ones for this.
We made quires of two bifolia each, which was more reasonable with the cardstock. We did something like 10-12 quires and stitched them up. I'd learned about endbands in the meanwhile, so we put those on, too.
Eleven (?) quires with endband visible.
The covers were stitched on. I used some garment leather I bought in... 2013? as a cover. (I had the vague idea of making a Swallowcliffe Down belt pouch with the leather, but it's the wrong type and weight.) If this had been real parchment, oak book boards, and veg-tanned red goat hide, I'd have gotten hide glue, but it wasn't, so it was back to Elmer's. I cut a piece of cardstock in half and used that for endpapers, glued on last of all.
Book III open to first page. Book board is visible between endpaper and textblock.
There are no cords - I think that's more Carolingian binding and less Coptic. I do remember seeing Carolingian book reconstructions with leather tabs sticking up at the top and bottom, so I snipped the leather cover to let me fold the leather over each book board separately. Worked pretty well! (Except where I snipped in the wrong place, so now the bottom tail is in two parts.)
All the pages are blank, and my plan is to prick them and blind rule them. I go back and forth on using plain handwriting and calligraphing whatever goes in here. If I do use calligraphy, I think it'll be a modified hand, with modern-looking 's,' 'g,' 'v', etc.
A small and modest book
