The Journey of Creating my Photobook
May 3, 2025The journey of creating a photobook has been very challenging, but I am so glad I persevered and stuck with it. I feel very happy looking at the final book and knowing I created it myself! There were many times along the process I felt tempted to order one online, as one thing after another kept seeming to go wrong, but each mistake was a learning opportunity and taught me something new to try next time.
When I first started creating dummy books, I struggled with glueing down the fabric and endpapers. This is something that I practised and practised with, looking at tips to prevent any wrinkles on the endpapers. I used a bone folder to smooth down the pages and ensure that they were wrinkle-free.
In terms of fabric, I found one that I liked and created a few dummy books with it, but I found it very hard to create neat edges and corners when glueing it down. This is where I researched how to turn fabric into book cloth, and this was a massive turning point. It was so much easier to create a finished book with neat corners using the book cloth.
Something that I experimented with throughout the process is endbands. I tried multiple methods of creating these myself, by stitching them and also by creating them out of the fabric. The stitched endbands needed a lot of practice, which is something that I did not have time for at the stage I was at. I liked the handmade fabric endbands, however, they were the same colour as the book, and I felt that it would be nicer for them to be contrasted with the colour of the book. As this was near the end of the project, I decided to order some premade endbands to use on my book to give it that polished look. I did feel as though ordering these and not making them myself was almost admitting defeat, however, I just had to keep in mind the final outcome, as I wanted to make sure this was something that I was proud of.
Something that I tried to do on my book but that didn’t quite work out was foiling. I felt that it would be nice to have foiling on the spine, but I struggled to do this. I spoke to Lou in the print centre and emailed various printing companies, but the only way I could find to make this possible was using a foiling kit. I trialled this using 1, 2 and 3 layers of foil to get the desired effect, but every time it came out slightly different, and I noticed that over time it began to rub off. I wanted to have foiling on the spine, but this was something that I had to sacrifice to prioritise the overall finish and look of the book. On reflection, I do feel that having something on the spine would help to elevate the overall look of the book.
When looking back now at my first hardback dummy book compared to my final one, I feel that I have come a very long way in a short amount of time. I feel very proud that I stuck with it and came out of the process with a polished final hardback book! Although this is something that I don’t necessarily think I will be continuing in the future, I am glad that I went on this learning journey of creating this book and persevered with it! I now have a newfound appreciation of photobooks and the work that goes into them!
Tutorials Mentioned
Adding the Professional Look: Sewing Headbands onto a Book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-U0Eq2gkfE&t=219s
Bookbinding 101 - DIY head / end bands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXdN-Ny5EzU
How I make bookcloth from any fabric
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDWSCmMK5bw
How to decorate your rebound book covers without a Cricut!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vchVTuXsMw