February bookbinding wins

[antuhsa]

In my previous post, in which I was asked to come up with my own challenge, I said that I wanted to finish this bookbinding project I had been struggling with. Well, I have some joyful news, because I did it! I've been steadily working on the books since writing that post and finished them yesterday. I'm so happy and relieved they're finally done!



This project came to be because one of my best friends handed me a pile of her favourite sheet music pieces and asked me to make a book out of them. She plays often and found it impractical to have all her sheet music on separate sheets. We decided quickly that it would be best to bind them into multiple volumes, because one big book doesn't fit onto a music stand. I've never done multiple volumes before, so I was really excited. Making three books that all have to be the same size, and look good together but also separately, was an entirely new challenge for me, but one I was very much up to.

It was easy to decide which sheet music would go into which volume. My friend had solos, duets and group pieces, so it made perfect sense to make one book for each of those categories. After we had made that decision, the design popped into my head almost immediately. I wanted to make the cover look like sheet music as well, with one set of music bars for the solos, two for the duets and three for the group pieces. That way the books would look like they belonged together, but it would also be easy to tell them apart.



The cover is made with bookcloth inlays, so the strips of black and white were all cut separately and then glued together side by side. It was very time-consuming and my hands still hurt from having to cut 30 small strips of black bookcloth, but hey, we got there in the end. Oh, and the endpages match the cover design as well, but with a reverse colour scheme. I made those with a white gelly roll pen and a ruler and I think they turned out very well!





So there you have it. I've given the books to my friend already and she's very happy with them. Hope she'll get a lot of use out of them!

Comments

[paulamcg]

Oh, they look wonderful, so elegant and functional at the same time!

[antuhsa]

Thank you! Now that these are finished, I should have a bit more time, so I can finally read one of your fics!

[paulamcg]

Thank you for that intention! You know it’ll make my day and more if you let me know how you like my writing. Some of my fics won’t take much time to read. In case you want some suggestions, tell me what kind of fic you’d prefer. Congrats on the completed project!

[antuhsa]

Of course! You've already recced me one of your fics during the Snowflake Challenge. I forgot the title, but I still have the link in my inbox and will pull it up when I have a moment to spare. Looking forwards to it!

[narya_flame]

These are gorgeous! Congratulations!

On a semi-related note, I posted a new chapter of Summer's Song :D thank you so much for your encouragement and support!

[antuhsa]

Thank you!

Ooh, you finished your challenge too? Congrats! You're very welcome and hope the next chapter will be easier.

[malenkayacherepakha]

These are fantastic - I really love the design, and what a wonderful way to keep track of loose sheet music (mine's just all over the place, but this is much nicer)!

[antuhsa]

Thank you so much! I feel you. My sheet music is all over the place as well. But I rarely play anymore, so it's not much of an issue for me. What instrument do you play?

[malenkayacherepakha]

I don't play too often either so it's mostly contained in a basket but it would be nice to have it in some sort of order for when I do play so I don't have to rifle through piles of music to find what I'm after! I play the piano and clarinet - what about you?

[antuhsa]

Yeah, I get that. I don't even have that much sheet music, but even the little I have can already be a pain to search through.

Ooh, clarinet, awesome! I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument when I was a child, but it never happened. So I eventually taught myself tin whistle (an Irish folk instrument) when I was 16. I was never very good, but I had a lot of fun with it. Though if I were to pick an instrument now, I think I might go for oboe. I've always loved the sound of it.