ACCESSORIES FOR A PEDDLER DOLL (Part two: Books) One item that peddlers might have trouble selling is a book. Until this century, most common folk couldn't read or write. So I made a picture book for my peddler. It is filled with pictures of paintings and sculpture that I clipped from art magazines, (I call it an Art History book.) and it is bound in real leather, with a magazine cutout on the cover. I also made a smaller book bound in red leather, which I pretend is a copy of the Rubayat, by Omar Kayam. There is no print in my books, but if you wish to take the time and spend the money, you could always reduce some real pages of print on a copier and use them to make the pages of your book. To begin, stack 4 sheets of typing paper (or tracing paper, if you have it) and take them to the sewing machine. Using a long stitch, sew a straight line through them for the length of the paper. Then fold the paper in half along the stitching. Cut the paper into a long strip, and then cut the strip into equal sections. Stack them, lining up the stitched edges neatly together. Depending on the number of pages your book will have, continue to make these bundles (called signatures) and fold them and stack them up. Use two rubberbands and a couple of pencils to tie the pages into a tight bundle, as shown. Then paint a thin layer of Weldbond glue along the stitching. Let it dry for a few minutes. This will be the spine of your book. Cut out a small piece of paper to cover the spine area and extend about an inch on each side of the spine. Press the spine areas together. When the glue has dried, remove the pencils. Next, cut the pages (with a straight edge and a sharp craft knife) to the size you want them to be. To get a really clean edge, do not move the straight edge until you have cut through all the layers of paper. Now, make measurements of your book and cut a piece of leather from an old kid leather glove to make your binding. Start out with a larger piece that will later be cut down to size. Cut a strip of thin paper to reinforce the spine of the leather binding. Measure it about 3 times the width of the actual spine of the book (the width of the signatures.)Glue it in place. Then glue some brown paper to reinforce the leather. Make sure the leather is smoothed out completely flat. Then put some heavy books on top of this and let the glue dry overnight. Find some nice colored paper (especially marbled paper if your art supply store has any), and cut two pieces for the front and back end papers. Fold them in half, right sides together, and position them at the front and back of the book, as shown. Glue the inside of the front end paper to the front page. Do the same for the back page. Let this dry. Glue the flaps of the spine to the back side of the end papers. Let this dry. Then apply glue to the front and back of the book, but do not put any glue along the spine. Wrap the leather around the book and press it under a big, heavy book until the glue dries. When the glue has dried thoroughly, cut the leather to the correct size (slightly larger than the pages) with a pair of sharp scissors. Use a magic marker or fabric marker to darken the cut edges of the leather, if desired. Position two toothpicks or bamboo skewers on either side of the book, near the spine. Tie them in place with strong thread. Press the book as before for several hours. This will give the indentations that hard bound books have. If desired, use leather working tools to emboss your leather binding, or decorate it with pasted magazine images, as I did for the peddler's basket. If you are interested in making larger books in a more realistic manner, check your local library. There are a great number of books on bookbinding available, as this is becoming a popular hobby. You can also find books on marbleizing paper. ... in part three we will make knitting needles and paper fans! Back to Workbook Forward to next Article URL:peddleracc1.html