I've always been a fan of book arts and I've even taken a few classes with Theresa over at Paper Source. There is a great place in Chicago to take classes in book arts and letterpress -- Columbia College -- and I've been thinking it's time to take a few classes or maybe even get a degree (!) I thought I should get my feet wet on my own first though before I took any drastic steps.
I have quite a few supplies around here from other crafty pursuits, but I wanted some good tools to get me started on the right foot. So I placed an order with Talas and Paper Source. They both had a good selection and good prices and I'm happy to report that they both shipped my things very quickly and I received all items just as I ordered them -- so I can highly recommend both.
I decided to start off with something easy. I had a nice Italian text block (the text block is the pages that go in a book -- it's usually made separately from the case, or cover) sitting around and I whipped up this soft spined book in very little time.
There's something very satisfying about making books and I'm sure you'll see more here on the blog. First I'm going to read Keith A. Smith's Bookbinding for Book Artists
which is supposed to be an excellent book on the subject. I can't wait to try my hand at some different techniques!
