Quick and Easy DIY Book Press

Years ago when I was teaching CES Institute of Religion classes at Dartmouth College there was a bookbinding class in the conservation room at the library.  This class was prior to our Institute meeting time, so I attended as often as possible.  We learned many different book structures. This was so enjoyable. I still have some of those models cached away somewhere here in the bins!

From the time I was about ten years old my parents gave me a journal or Daily Reminder each year for Christmas.  I did write in those books from time to time...drivel mainly but sometimes more reasonable things.  I have used other journals throughout the years, including an expensive Ten-Year Journal that a friend recommended.  That one, even though it only has a few lines for each year, was not filled up.  Still, I love journals. 

Now I use an electronic journal called Day One.  We spend the money so I can have the software on my laptop, iPad, and phone. This way I can write on whatever device I am in front of at the time I want to write something and it is synchronized to them all.  One of the best things about the Day One journal is that I can go to my Camera Roll and send photos to the day's entry.  This -adding photos to a journal-is something I learned from Sister Bullen, our Mission President's wife.  She made a wonderful pictorial history of their missionary service.

As each of our children was baptized, we gave them a journal in which to begin to record their lives.  We have continued to do that for our grandchildren.  Our youngest grandchild is being baptized soon and I wanted to keep up the tradition.  But with a twist:  I thought I would try book-binding a journal for him.

One of the tools you need, if you can get it, is a book press.  I was watching Jennifer at Sea Lemon on YouTube for her tutorial making a hardcover casebound book and thought I could do that.  She uses a book press that she had made from two bamboo cutting boards. I found the same style ones she used and Amazon fulfilled the order quickly!  A trip to the hardware store for the carriage bolts, washers, wing nuts, and rubber feet and I had everything I needed. I also got some nice clamps to help with the process.  Dear One kindly drilled the holes for me and we were ready to roll with a book press.

Other parts to the process of making this book were making the book cloth, which Sea Lemon shows in a video and sewing a text block, also in another video.  These were fun and satisfying to do. 

The text block is being pressed after glueing in the end papers

This is the book press Dear One and I made.  It works great.  I could even press gigantic books in it.