Now that I’m back, I thought I’d post some updates on the Struwwelpeter project!
There’s been a lot to do on the books, so I’ve been busy ordering materials and finishing it all up.

The pages have all been screen-printed and cut down to size, hooray! I am now folding, sewing and gluing everything. Soon I’ll be applying the covers and wrapping it all up in bookcloth.

For the next few weeks, I will be recording the book-binding process as much as I can. Since I’m relatively new at this, I’m learning as I go and trying out new things, so I’ll make sure to post whatever tips and notes come up along the way.
If you’re curious to try your hand at some book-binding, you can follow along!

First, before the pages can be bound, they need to be folded. Since I have over 620 sheets of paper to fold, setting up a jig sounded like a good idea. Now, there is no doubt in my mind that what I came up with is a seriously janky solution… but it actually worked out pretty well! :)
I used some illustration board to set up the edges, then taped a ruler across (making sure it is aligned to the halfway point). The height of the illustration boards allowed for space to slide the sheets in & out.





Once the sheet was in place, I used a bone folder, sliding it down the length of the ruler a few times. This creates a crease straight down the sheet… click for larger view:





The clean crease allows the page to fold in half without damaging the paper grain.





The fold is pressed a couple times on each side with the bone folder, creating a sharp fold. And voilà! Pretty soon you have a whooooole stack of pages.





Curious to see the next step in the process? Come back soon!


Have no clue what Struwwelpeter is or what I’m doing with it? For all posts having to do with the project, go to the CATEGORIES column on the right and click on ‘Struwwelpeter project’.