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Flattening the paper
The paper, which is Arnhem 1618 Printmaking Paper, is 100% rag, acid-free, and arrives in rolled sheets of 22" X 30". It has two deckle edges, which my modern sensibilities wanted to keep....
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Determining the best size for pages
I ended up taking a rough mean of the two song books. The page size of MS 1790 (Mary Tudor Song Book) is 8.7" X 5.7", MS 5465 (Fayrfax MS) page size is 11.7" x 8.46", and MS 1070 (Anne Boleyn Song Book) has pages that are 11" x 7.5". I decided that a good mean was 10.25" x 7" - smaller than my primary exemplar (MS 1790), but (hopefully) not so large that I would feel ovewhelmed filling it with music.
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Measuring the paper to cut
...a nerve-wracking process! Each page would need to be 10.25" x 7", and I needed to make sure that the grain would end up top to bottom on every page, and leave enough room. for binding and trimming. I left the deckle edge to be trimmed off later
, but, in retrospect, I should have trimmed it off at this point.
, but, in retrospect, I should have trimmed it off at this point.
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Folding the cut folios
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Folds with deckle edge remaining
The deckle edge helped me remember which way the grain was going as I was cutting.
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Folios
Several folios folded with the grain to make a smooth fold.
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Four finished folios
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Quaternions
I decided to use four folios per quaternion. With four quaternions for the text block, and two pages for endpapers, this gave me 60 pages for writing.
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Text block ready to decorate
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Calligraphed quaternions ready for illumination
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First two pages of finished text block
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Hand-made wooden press
My wonderful husband made this press for me from pictures of book presses!
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Book press, ready to press folios
Look at how beautiful that thing is!!!
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Text block marked for holes
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Holes marked to cut
I decided to go with the spacing of holes mentioned on page 181 of the Archaeology of Bookbinding
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