The Process-Ben's Book pt. II
Following my last message, Ben and I shared a brief phone conversation which I will sum up for you. To start with, here is a little context for the discussion that ensued.
In repairing a book that someone has had in their personal collection for some time, there is always the issue when rebinding, or recovering it, as to what the repaired item will look like. Most books that come to my attention, do so because they are in terribly worn, aged, and damaged condition. Their present look in no way resembles their original luster. But it's this look, and the description provided by the owner that I have to go on. When you have a book like Ben's, that would really benefit from a complete re-do of the entire cover (for both aesthetic and structural reasons) you have the choice of trying to replace the original material with something completely new and different, or with something that is at least suggestive of the original book. While you can have a lot of fun with "new" and "different," I find that a lot of my clients appreciate a new look that tugs at their nostalgia for the original piece. To that end, for personal items, I tend to save things like cover images, titles, and other such identifying qualities to allow the client to feel like they are getting their book back. Just a better one. This by no means is always an appropriate choice, and one might argue, why would you slap together fragments of an original look, when you cannot recreate the entire original? I agree it's not for everyone, but this is part of the discussion that goes on with a client. To find out exactly what they want to see, and feel when the project is complete.
In the case of Ben's book, we were both in agreement that creating something of a similar color and feel to the original, would be the way to go. However, matching a dirt covered shade of yellow-green cloth is no easy task. While I don't generally keep a big variety of book cloth colors on hand, cloth can be purchased from a few local retailers, and many more varieties can be mail ordered within a week's time. The problem with mail order (aside from shipping expense) is that you generally have to order more than you need, which is not always the most cost-effective solution. To try to keep costs down, I proposed a chartreuse colored cloth that was available locally, and easy to purchase in small quantity. After viewing a swatch, and talking it over with Ben, he convinced me that this was not going to work for his book. It was important to him that we not only save the yellow title piece from the original front cover, but he also wanted to retain another printed graphic from the cover that would pull with it, some of the original green cloth. While I was thinking of choosing a color that had a similar vibe and intensity, it became clear that we needed to find something that was maybe a bit different, but that would be more of a compliment to the pieces that Ben wanted to retain. The conversation ended up being very productive, and resulted in clarifying for me, the elements that most spoke to Ben about the book, giving me a better sense of how to invoke that nostalgia in his rebound piece.
Moving forward we are still in search of the perfect cloth for this piece. We will be looking at some more swatches, and will likely end up ordering something to find the best fit. In the meantime, I will be moving forward with the repair work to the text block, and get some of the structural repairs underway. Pictures soon to follow.
In repairing a book that someone has had in their personal collection for some time, there is always the issue when rebinding, or recovering it, as to what the repaired item will look like. Most books that come to my attention, do so because they are in terribly worn, aged, and damaged condition. Their present look in no way resembles their original luster. But it's this look, and the description provided by the owner that I have to go on. When you have a book like Ben's, that would really benefit from a complete re-do of the entire cover (for both aesthetic and structural reasons) you have the choice of trying to replace the original material with something completely new and different, or with something that is at least suggestive of the original book. While you can have a lot of fun with "new" and "different," I find that a lot of my clients appreciate a new look that tugs at their nostalgia for the original piece. To that end, for personal items, I tend to save things like cover images, titles, and other such identifying qualities to allow the client to feel like they are getting their book back. Just a better one. This by no means is always an appropriate choice, and one might argue, why would you slap together fragments of an original look, when you cannot recreate the entire original? I agree it's not for everyone, but this is part of the discussion that goes on with a client. To find out exactly what they want to see, and feel when the project is complete.
In the case of Ben's book, we were both in agreement that creating something of a similar color and feel to the original, would be the way to go. However, matching a dirt covered shade of yellow-green cloth is no easy task. While I don't generally keep a big variety of book cloth colors on hand, cloth can be purchased from a few local retailers, and many more varieties can be mail ordered within a week's time. The problem with mail order (aside from shipping expense) is that you generally have to order more than you need, which is not always the most cost-effective solution. To try to keep costs down, I proposed a chartreuse colored cloth that was available locally, and easy to purchase in small quantity. After viewing a swatch, and talking it over with Ben, he convinced me that this was not going to work for his book. It was important to him that we not only save the yellow title piece from the original front cover, but he also wanted to retain another printed graphic from the cover that would pull with it, some of the original green cloth. While I was thinking of choosing a color that had a similar vibe and intensity, it became clear that we needed to find something that was maybe a bit different, but that would be more of a compliment to the pieces that Ben wanted to retain. The conversation ended up being very productive, and resulted in clarifying for me, the elements that most spoke to Ben about the book, giving me a better sense of how to invoke that nostalgia in his rebound piece.
Moving forward we are still in search of the perfect cloth for this piece. We will be looking at some more swatches, and will likely end up ordering something to find the best fit. In the meantime, I will be moving forward with the repair work to the text block, and get some of the structural repairs underway. Pictures soon to follow.
Posted by Jen at 1/22/2010 8:21 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: the repair process Ben's books conservation bookbinding book repair book cloth nostalgia
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: the repair process Ben's books conservation bookbinding book repair book cloth nostalgia
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