Greetings Darklings:

Today’s post will be about a woodland/ Druidic grimoire I bound myself. It was a lot of work, but it will turn out beautifully. The book is almost done. I want to tell you about all about it. 

It’s interesting that as I got the inspiration to make this grimoire, everything came together. The materials were easy to find and use. I used eska board which is a good quality and sturdy bookbinding board, PVA bookbinding glue and for the covers, I used a lovely dark green woodland themed cotton print fabric. The fabric has oak leaves, (very druidish), and acorns and pinecones. It is perfect!

I decided that I wanted to sew the pages together. It turned out that making this book would be the most demanding project EVAH! If I had known that in advance, I might have quit. But I had paid for the materials. I dragged the massive piece of eska board, which is 35′ x 36′ inches, to the library and cut the front and back out. I did not cut the spine there. I would not know how thick or wide the spine would be until I bound the pages. 

 I bought cream-colored printer paper from Staples. I gave up on tea staining the pages. It did not work and the tea stained pages were stained with herbal teas and went mouldy. I gathered thread, scissors, my late grandmother’s sewing needle and linen tape. I poked six holes in 150 sheets of the cream-colored paper. I arranged the pages in fifteen to twenty signatures. I left long thread ends and did not tie a knot in the threads. I used two threads, because one would have been too thin. I brought the needle up through the first hole and the linen tape, then down to the 2nd hole, then up and so on until I reached the sixth hole. Then I went through the holes again, starting from the sixth hole back to the first. I put linen tape on the first and the sixth hole. I stitched through the linen tape, then I tied knots in the thread and secured the thread ends with linen tape and glue. I used 150 sheets, but unfortunately, I lost count of the number of signatures I made. The pages now pass the tug test! It is so satisfying. My hand was swollen and aching when I was done. 

I bound the pages with the acorn dyed muslin fabric and used a decent amount of the PVA glue. The trick is not to use too much glue or too little, but just enough. I gathered acorns at a cemetery in the past. I used the muslin I dyed with those acorns. I measured a four-inch strip and glued it to the bound pages. I centered it and arranged it as nicely and neatly as I could. Then I glued the cream colored papers to cover the muslin and applied the glue again. The glue dries clear, so it was not an issue. I glued a beautiful owl art print to the pages. Now it looks nice and the pages have adhered so marvellously. 

I glued the fabric to the book covers once I knew the width and length of the spine of the book. Then I realized that the book covers and the book spine of the text block were not the same size. I am so happy I came to that realization before I glued the text block to the spine. I had to glue brown cardboard paper to the book covers on the inside. I placed parchment paper on top of the glued covers and placed heavy books on top and gave them plenty of drying time. I glued the owl print to the covers on the inside. The outer book covers are beautiful. It was the inside of the book that had me worried. The book covers are 9 x 11 inches, but I intially thought the covers were 9 x 12 inches. It turns out that the book covers are close to the page sizes, which are 8.5 x 11 inches, which worked out much better. 

I let the glue dry for 48 hours. I adhered a strip of brown satin ribbon to the text block. It would not stick with glue (of course), so I tacked it down with the linen tape. Now I have bound the pages and the spine to the book covers. I used edge cutters on the outer edges of all the pages before gluing to the spine. I tipped the page edges with brown acrylic paint. I wanted the book to have an old Druidic medieval grimoire look. I used up half the large bottle of PVA glue for this project. I made sure the pages were not glued together. 

I sewed embroidery thread onto the top and bottom edges of the spine of the book, like a headband. I think it looks more finished that way. I plan to glue a brown border to the front of the book. I may or may not glue on bands to the spine of the book. It would not look right. Now the spine of the text block is glued to the covers, and it is a matter of waiting. I laid down more parchment paper and then placed heavy books, so the spine dries right and the pages are held in place with a clamp. Clamps are great for holding pages together. I will never bind pages without clamps. I also see the usefulness of sewing pages in the way I did. The pages are truly bound. It was a lot more work, but it was worth it. The linen tape did not line up perfectly when I laid the signatures all together. I am extremely happy with how it turned out so far. 

I want to add stickers and I want to press small oak leaves and glue them onto the pages. First though, I have to figure out how to preserve them so they don’t spoil on the pages. I might use something called glassine. Glassine is awesome for preserving leaves. I wanted to add essential oil on the pages for a woodsy scent, but I won’t because again, the pages might spoil. I will try to find a way around that. I tried to spritz coffee onto the page edges in a plastic bottle, but the water was hot so the spray bottle warped. I will never try that again. I might try to hammer the pages with a mallet for a curved spine. It may or may not work. The pages are bound now. I want to make a long strip of fabric to wrap around the grimoire, and secure it with frog fasteners. Then it will really look like a grimoire! I tipped the edge cut pages with a little brown paint to make them look like a Druid’s grimoire. Of course, this really is going against tradition. They believed in an oral tradition and memorizing everything. But I can have fun with it. 

I like watching Nerdforge’s videos about bookbinding. She puts a lot of effort into her projects, like I do. I like smoothing the pages that I glued using my large heart-shaped selenite gemstone. It really does work. Let the pages that you glue in have lots of time to dry. It can even out and look smoother that way. 

It was a lot of work and I used a lot of glue and my patience, but I know it will turn out to be a lovely grimoire. The grimoire has to dry and set overnight. Then I want to glue the brown embossed frame onto the book. Then I can decorate the pages. I want to touch up the frame. 

I’ve downloaded a lot of beautiful and spooky junk journal pages to add to the grimoire. Now just to be clear, this book is NOT a junk journal. I do not even know how I will use it or if I will, but I do like to decorate. I let the glue on the book spine to dry for twenty-four hours. This morning, when I had my coffee, I checked the book. The pages did not fall out! The front cover of the book would not lie flat. I gently closed the book and laid weights on top. Now the book can rest after being forced to sit open all night. I will let the book rest for another 24 hours. It deserves it. 

Last night, I carved a crescent moon shape from the book board and a tab. I painted them and I plan to glue/ secure the book to secure a deep brown ribbon trim I have to wrap around the outside of the book. The crescent moon is for a decoration on the outer front cover of the book with the embossed frame. I have to glue the tab onto the inside of the back cover. I might attach one end of the dark brown ribbon trim to the tab and then wrap the trim around the book to decide how long I want it to be. Then I will glue the tab to the back cover on the inside. The bookmark is a brown color, so I know the trim will look nice with the bookmark. The colors are deep earthy browns, dark greens and rich cream colors. I chose more matte and muted tones for this project. They all blend beautifully, and really do make me think of a druid’s grimoire as I gaze upon it. The edge cut pages and the flecks of the brown paint give the book and the pages that old, antique appearance. I will let the book rest now. Tomorrow I hope the front book cover rests more flat then. 

Two weights hold down the book while it ‘cures’, ‘sets’…. is rests the word? I glued the brown embossed frame to the front cover and the gold crescent moon. The cover of the book looks beautiful. It is stunning. I am so proud of the book. 

Here are a few images:

A few tips if you want to bind your own grimoire/ book of shadows. It is worth it to sew the pages in. They are stabilized that way. The last thing you want to happen is have pages fall out. 

• Get all the supplies ahead of time. Keep the supplies and tools you need at hand. Nothing more aggravating than desperately needing glue, scissors or thread and it is all the way across the room. Or worse, you are out of it all and need to get to a store to get something. 
• I don’t recommend tea staining pages. I used printer paper and it is so much easier. It saves your sanity. 
• You can use leather to bind books. I used cloth because I do not know how to work with leather. 
• Leave plenty of drying time for the glue to dry. This is not a project that you rush through, but take your time to do right. It will turn out much better. 
• Measure EVERYTHING. I measured the spine size and the book covers size again and again. It drove me nuts, but as pages are bound, they might change. Mark on the paper,  but be neat about it. If your book needs a one-inch spine, do not make a four-inch spine. I almost did and my Mom spotted that error right away. The book was almost ruined. A ruler is your friend. 
• I used an edge cutter on the pages. I cut 3-4 pages at a time, and it saved me patience and sanity that way. I did not edge cut each page individually. It would take hours to do that way. I marked my witch name Spiderwitch onto a cream-colored page and dated the page. Now the book has provenance. I printed out a page with the words Book of the Grove on it and glued it to the book. No one can see it, but I know it is there. With the acorn dyed muslin, and my signature, it really is special now. The edge cutting of the pages really gives it a grimoire feel! 
• It is optional to staple the page signatures together, but if you want a real grimoire, you really should sew the pages in. I sewed through the linen tape. I cut the linen tape in half-inch strips and arranged them over the signatures on the top and bottom punched holes of the pages. You can use waxed thread to sew the signatures. 
• Have patience. The project takes a long time to complete. Do not rush through it. 

I  hope this inspires you to compile your own grimoire. It is a rewarding and witchy project and worth doing, and yes, with all the hard work I mentioned above. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch )O(