Board Book Making - Research into Bookmaking

Making a board book

I had now idea how to construct a board book.  I had looked at books in shops for their style and content, but not closely enough to re-construct one myself.  I bought a board book in a charity shop so that I could take it to pieces if necessary.  The pages seemed to be hinged by the printed paper attached to the boards.

I asked Jim and Jess how they would make a board book and they confirmed that that was the method .  Jim suggested trialling photographic paper as it has a laminated feel to the surface that would be durable and suitable for small children.  I made a dummy book using photographic paper, which does have the strength to hold the pages together, without tearing at the spine.  The only problems are that (1)the book will have to be lazer printed as normal ink jet print rubs off from photographic paper, and (2) that the surface of the photographic paper feels sticky.  Kerri pointed this out as part of her feedback during group tutorials, which was useful, as it made me look at different types of paper stock.

As the book is constructed by folding the printed page in half and sticking the board on the back of each side, it makes construction easy as there is no pagination needed to form the book.

What you do need to do though,  is build a 'hinge' into the book cover to allow it to open. This is done by sticking the card that forms the spine onto the inside of the cover, sticking a strip next to it of approx 1.5cm width, and then the card for the back of the book next to it.  Leaving gaps between the strips allows movement.  The two strips are not glued, but the back cover and front are, so when the book is assembled the unglued strips act as a hinge.

This is the back of the book and spine under construction.  The rest of the book is already glued in the background.

I had asked Jim to guillotine the finished dummy to neaten it up.  When I looked at the dummy book compared to books in shops, I decided to use a different board to make the finished book from, as the book-making board in college is grey and gives the book a grey edge.  I decided to use daler mounting board as the main cardboard, as my finished book is bigger and chunkier than the dummy, and I thought it would stand up to toddler wear and tear more.