The Process of Making a CookBook

(Front Cover)

(Title Page)

In addition to creating this fantastic blog, we also went about the tedious process of creating an actual printed cookbook. I have created blogs before, and I have always wanted to learn how to bind a book, so I thought it would be a good idea to do something different and learn how to make a book for this project. Thankfully one of my good friends, Brien, has started his own journal and book making company, Deux Mis, and he even interns at the special collections in the library at College of Charleston helping to restore old books. I really like how the book came out and the simplicity of the design. Creating a book such as this takes a while but is not actually too difficult. One of the hardest parts is actually formatting the text. In the book, the pages are folded meaning that in your word document you cannot just simply pair the text you want on the left page with the text you want on the right. Instead you have to do a very meticulous formatting in which you switch off every other page (I will spare you the details because I am still confused about how we actually got it to work).

Anyways, once we formatted the text, we simply printed it out on nice paper (the printing process took us at least five tries to get the formatting right). After we printed the text, we went to Artists and Craftsmen and picked out a heavier piece of paper for the front cover. From there we travelled to Chalmers Street to an ancient office filled with loads of old texts, such as a book about how to treat the insane from 1900. We then poked ten holes in the fold of the book and simply weaved some heavy gauge thread through the holes tying the book together. Finally, we used an old paper cutter from the 1800s to trim the edges of the book, and then let it sit in a press, essentially a machine that pushes down on the book, overnight. Finally, we created a stamp for the title, stamped the book, and the process was finished.

We intended to make a copy of the book for everyone in our Autobiography class; however, the materials cost us about 6 dollars per book, and while we love our classmates, we are poor college students. However, if you would like a copy of the book, just let us know and we can make one for you. We decided to make the blog so that the book would be easily accessible to everyone in the class and on the internet. We hope you enjoy and try out some of our delicious recipes.

Love,

Charles & Crystal