The Sound of One Crow Laughing

And actually order binder's board.

Here's the thing. I've said before that I'm a student of the James O'Barr school of art--you use what you have to make what you need.

Up till now, I've been using cardstock for my light bindings and canvas-covered boards like this one for my hard-covers, orr, more recently, wood. Why? Because I don't have the facilities/tools to cut Davey board. It's stout stuff, and it requires a stouter blade than my X-Acto and a steadier hand than mine on a metal straightedge. But for all its stoutness, taking a saw to it (as we did for the recent wood boards) is a bit of overkill.

Now, these things are alright--indeed, they're downright conveinient, as long as you've got or can make paper to fit inside a book made of artist's panels. And paper's easy. Find it big, pay attention to the grain, cut it down, done.

But what you gain in conveinience, you lose in artistic range. Try a case binding when you can't find or cut board thick enough to match the 1/8" thick panels you're using for your covers. Try making a springback. It's possible, but you'll be there for a while, laminating the spring up to ~3/16" to balance where the boards will be by the end of things. Settle in.

Hence the great weight of Coptic stitched books in my portfolio. Even the pretty, new leatherbound article has a double-needle coptic stitch under all (I have an excuse--it's Period! ~grin~). Now, this has served well; I'm getting pretty good at a coptic stitch. Nothing to sneeze at, to be sure.

But as of Monday, I'll be in the run-up to binding an edition of 100 books over the next year. Each one a little different. As different as I choose to make 'em, honestly. And since there's a limit to how often you can dangle pretty beads off of a coptic stitched spine before the look is Done, I figure it's about time to bite the bullet and Buy Actual Board.

It's scary, but exciting, too.

And hey, even St. James graduated from Bics to Copics.