That one week in July where everything just clicked

I had a stretch last summer where every single book I was working on seemed to fight back. The grain direction on the cloth was wrong on two projects straight, the endpapers bubbled up on a third, and I just about tossed a stack of boards across the room. But then on Friday, I sat down with a copy of Moby Dick I'd been rebacking, and the spine went on perfect, the joints flexed just right, and the gold tooling came out crisp with no mistakes. Has anyone else had a day where it all just works after a rough patch, or is it just my luck that it cycles like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

bens8113d ago

Oh sure, the bookbinding gods just like to remind us who's boss sometimes.

charlienelson13d ago

Man, isn't that the truth? I had a whole month last fall where every single repair I touched went sideways. Leather split on a Shakespeare folio, my paste mix was too thin and soaked through everything, just a mess. Then out of nowhere I got an old edition of Walden that needed a new spine and it all just fell into place. The glue set perfect, the cloth laid down flat, and even my lettering came out straight for once. It's like the craft gods finally decided to cut you a break after kicking you around for a while.