Endpaper Challenge Week 1

When I was in London in the summer, Flora Ginn was telling me about making endpapers. I had no idea about what she was talking about! I thought that if you say you are making your endpapers that means that you are making the decoration for the paper such as marbling or paste paper.

So feeling rather confused about the whole endpaper ordeal, I started talking to Adelene about endpapers. Both Flora and Adelene metioned to look at Arthur Johnson's manual for methods to make endpapers. Arthur has 14 methods in his book, with instructions and an illustration, it starts from rather simple endpapers to complex one with leather hinges. Adelene and I decided to go through all of 14 methods and do one book each week leading up to around Christmas time.

The first week's endpaper challenge, starting from the easiest, is described as: “…Method 1, the double fold of the handmade paper adds strength to the hinge and the sewing thread is protected under the board paper. It is tipped on the first section for 3-6mm as well as sewn.” I chose to use a marbled paper by Jemma Lewis and did a quarter binding with book cloth and a green Japanese paper. I tipped on the folded endpapers to the first and last sections before sewing, I did not round or back the spine so this is a flat back case in binding.

Structurally this endpaper method is strong but then it's very easy to have a pencil case crease along the thickness of the fold. I don't prefer this method because of the crease, I think it would work with a thinner endpaper, where you wanted to use something thinner but then you need it to be structurally sound.