Tales from Shakespeare (no publication date) was not my favorite project. I ended up making the case three times. Yes, three.
I wanted to to give this book a fresh, cheerful look, so I went with a beautifully-textured yellow cloth. Since the pages weren’t badly aged, I felt comfortable with off-white end pages. The headbands are brown and cream. The top of the book block had ugly red edge painting that clashed with my color palette, so I sanded it off. This process took much longer than expected, and the result isn’t perfect (I didn’t want the top edge to end up lighter than the others), but I think it was worth it. The spine title was cut from the removed half title page. Interestingly, there were two half title pages, the second being after the contents page.
So what lead to three tries at the case? I The spine width. I’ve never had an issue making this measurement before. Each time I failed, I attempted to salvage the boards, but there was just too much carnage for my liking, even for sanding.
The first case was too tight in the spine and I was unable to make French grooves; the second time, it was too roomy and the boards were pushed forward, throwing off my square (board overhang that results in a boarder around the book block). The third time, I ignored all that happened before and made the measurement as if the world was a purely happy place. The final case fits like a glove, but it refuses to have French grooves. I decided to yield for the sake of my sanity.
The end result is fine, but I have to admit that this book is asking for a front title. (Spine titles are more important for finding what you want on a bookshelf, and it’s easy enough to use materials from the book to achieve them.) I’m not ready to invest in stamping and the like, and cheaper methods probably aren’t archival, so I’m hesitant there. This will take some thought.
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