After drying the glue, the blank spine (above) was ready for decorating.  If you are rebinding a book for a library, a Tattle strip (magnetic alarm tag) can now be attached on the inside of the spine.  If you wish to have a title or some other labeling on the spine, it should be added before attaching the text block, while the cover is still flat.  You may wish to send the cover to a professional bindery for title stamping, or if you want to do it yourself, check out Hugh Sparks’ website for suggestions.

I did the labeling on a decorative paper mache patch on the spine (rather than directly on the spine).  Pieces of gift wrapping tissue paper, three to four layers thick were cut to desired size (below left).  The area to be glued was marked with masking tape, and PVA glue was applied (below center) and evenly spread.  The patch was then placed on top of the glued area (below right), four layers at the same time, applying ONLY vertical pressure.  Several minutes later, the first two layers were peeled off and discarded and the process was repeated once more when the glue was almost dry.

After gluing and drying the patch, the tape was removed and a decorative gold border was adding using a Pilot metallic paint pen (below).

Title was applied using scratch-on lettering (below), a method which I do not recommend as you can tell by the mess.  Varnish was applied to keep the lettering intact.  I intend to redo the labeling someday.

The spine was then rounded by pressing it against a section of pipe (below).

Next Step: Attaching the Cover to the Text Block
Back to the Bookbinding Introduction Page

Back to “Projects” Page
Home