Serious question, my cousin who runs a print shop said 'you binders just glue paper to pretty boards' and it actually made me think about how we explain our craft.

I was showing him a quarter-leather binding I finished yesterday, and his comment, while joking, made me realize I never really break down the sewing, rounding, and backing steps to outsiders, so how do you describe what you do to people who don't get it?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy6922mo ago

Honestly, your cousin has a point. Most people just see the cover and think it's fancy scrapbooking. Trying to explain linen thread and headbands just makes their eyes glaze over.

andrew9162mo ago

Tbh, it's more than just the cover though. The binding is what makes it last.

rivera.henry1mo ago

My uncle Jerry owned a bookshop in Portland for like 25 years and he always said the same thing @andrew916. He had this one customer who brought in a hardcover from the 1920s that was falling apart but the binding was still solid as a rock. The cover was all faded and torn but the spine held together because of the stitching. He used to tell me that modern books with glued spines would crack after a few years but the old school sewn bindings could last generations. I remember he showed me a copy of Moby Dick from 1947 and you could bend it back flat without damaging a thing. It's crazy how people ignore the inside of the book and just judge it by the dust jacket.