Byzantine Binding: Fun Bit, Part One

I do believe I promised some process explication on the Byzantine binding experiment, didn't I? Today was immensely productive, although not on that front. I made paper for the first time in several years, and had a surprising amount of fun despite remembering halfway through that in fact, papermaking is not a solitary activity. Especially if you're doing it outdoors. The post on that is going to have to wait a bit, because it's going to be a few weeks before I can call the paper finished.

Back to the book: I had two boards, with all the holes drilled. Which is a good thing - the holes for the headband attachment need to be drilled at an angle so they come out at the top of the board. I think you'll see what I mean when it comes to pictures. (Actually, it looks like I failed completely to take those pictures, so I'll make sure to get some from another set of boards.)




The first step that I'd neglected to take notes on was the board attachments. This, as you can imagine, was disastrous. Fortunately, I looked around online, and it turns out that it's not important to attach the board to the first signature as it gets sewn on. It's more important to follow the structure of the holes - for strength - and get the thread worked around the board so that there's somewhere to attach the signatures.

Then it's a simple link stitch until half the book is sewn together. Now we get to the weird part of Byzantine bindings: they're made in two halves, and then tied together with this crazy figure-8 looping knot. It turns out that I actually took notes on that part, and link stitch is pretty hard to forget once you've learned it.

But from loose signatures to book is the easy part. Next up: headbands.