A book based on a journey, part 3

Wrapping up the book project took much longer than I expected. I reached a stage where I knew what I wanted, but physically making it really dragged on. I drew up rough designs for each page and then created them as collages that incorporated my photographs, drawings and text.

The text ended up having two parts: computer text that explained the factual steps of the journey and handwritten text made up of personal anecdotes and relevant quotes.

Unfortunately, my very cheap glue made the collages too fragile, so I ended up scanning them into a computer and printing them off. While this stopped them from falling apart it did mean that I lost the varied textures of the original pages. I printed relevant sections of a London street map on to the backs of the pages.

I bound the pages using an excellent bookbinding tutorial from Toby Craig as a rough guide. I started off trying to bind them with cotton thread, but this proved too prone to getting tangled and I ended up using dental floss, giving the book's spine a lovely, minty-fresh smell. The cover was made with some heavy card I had lying around. While I left the front blank except for the title, I drew an abstract design based on a London street map page on the back.

So, am I happy with it? No. I'm pleased that I finished it in time and that I put lots of thought into it, but if I could start it again I'd do it all differently. It was fun though, and it was definitely a useful experience. If nothing else I'll definitely have another go at hand-binding a book in the not-too-distant future.