comm. work,  crafts

Rebinding old books

May 5, 2008 /

I’ve been up to so many things actually; and probably will never stop!

During the KLIBF 2008, Bapak asked me one day whether or not I could re-bind paperback books to hardcovers. I said I’d give it a try; so he brought two books the next day for me to try!

old paperback books
I like the ‘Dokter’ spelling!

It was only yesterday, I managed to get my hands on these books. The covers are still in good condition so I maintained the cover. Sayang nak potong. This is what I did next:

Kulit dalam yang baru

I mount another layer of thick paper so that the paperback cover won’t be mounted to the new hardcover. The new layer will. I have to sacrifice the spine titling instead! Takut!

Edge

Noticed the yellowish edges? My husband told me that it would be good if I could send them for trimming. I will go out in the afternoon to have them trimmed. At the meantime, look at the hardcovers that I made!

Hardcover

They were made out of chipboard, cotton cloth, PVA glue and printable fabric paper. I don’t know where to look for buckram , so I use cotton for the time being. As for the printable cotton, I use Avery’s. Here’s a closer look.

Tadaaa!

I’m happy with the outcome but I’ve gotta listen to what Bapak has to say. He is a person who looks for quality and I really hope that my work is up to his standard. Re-binding is very challenging and it takes a lot of patience. I re-did them twice yesterday and it took me more than 5 hours to complete.

Basically, Bapak’s books are still in good condition, I didn’t have to re-sew or anything. I will be experimenting on a badly damaged book that I owned and will be documenting the process for me to share with all of you later. Later, after I finished unsettled works (i.e. Elisha’s tote, AKPK’s books, Bella’s t-shirts, etc). Hehe!

Nota buat Helmy : Helmy, esok lusa saya telefon anda, nak hantar buku Bapak!

23 Comments

  • Raising Mercury

    May 5, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    oh dear, i was surprised to mentioned me =) about that… take all the time you want, seriously =) i totally understand that you have work to do. Plus, daddy always comes first, not clientele :grin:. Anyways, BRILLIANT work on the hardcover-ing work. gosh, i didnt even know you could do stuff like that. Yours talents seem to be in abundance! you are like an art all rounder i guess =) that actually sounds pretty nice. Some people focus solely on digital art and not soo much on hands on work. you are like, emila of all trades, master of all? hugs!

  • mangosteenskin

    May 5, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    Owh….what I like about u is that it seems like u can use ur hands to do anything u want. and be very good at it, eventhough it’s ur first attempt. cheers!!

  • LadyJava

    May 6, 2008 at 5:19 am

    Wah.. I did not know such thing can be done.. I won’t know where to start..lolz… baguih lah you.. pandai!!

    Your Bapak must be very happy with the end result 🙂

  • rizal@restnrileks

    May 6, 2008 at 7:58 am

    wah..excellent jobs..kalau macam nii..memang buleh amik job binding kerja-kerja budak u bila buat thesis.. hihihi..

    They look very pro. Hai apa lagilah yang nanti Kak Emila surprise kan kami dgn talent2nya yang tersembunyi.. 😀

  • Adam

    May 6, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    That’s a really good job. I tried it once but it came out so badly and I ruined one good book in the process. Now I leave it to the professionals.

  • ennumaellish

    May 7, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Emila,

    I never commented in your blog though I read all your postings since you started blogging (hehe.. lama dah tu), but on this topic, I cannot prevent myself from penning my views.. Wow.. really, really nice… Félicitations! Bapak must be happy!!

    Some suggestions:

    1.u might want to try to use leather (soft leather – of different base colours) – my friend use to do old book bindings with leather n the hasil..ermmm..excellent.

    2.U may want to give some ‘oldies’ touch to the cover since they are quite “ancient” precious books. They’ll look better on the shelf or in the hands of the reader (bapak la)

    My two cents.

  • emila

    May 8, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Hehehe yay finally Suraya out of the shell! Ler, komen je lah, part grammar ke, part fakta ke.

    Thanks Su. Terfikir juga nak try leather but dunno where to buy. any idea? Tang antique look tu, cool! Will try to find a way to apply effects to them.

  • Dookie

    July 28, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    i remembered the thesis hard cover that i was binding like this.. just take to the stationery shop and they do it for me.. it cost me rm50 per binding.. just take it as i wanted to finished as soon as possible.. is that expensive rm50 sis?