Bookmaking 3- The Piano Hinge!

Hello!
Not much waffle from me today, just loads of pictures!
If you've tried simple bookmaking, how about trying something a little more advanced? Not difficult though, just a bit fiddly! A book with a piano hinge...

Now, I haven't done anything pretty with the pages at all.....this is ALL about the putting together! This book can be left to be decorated once its finished, or you could embellish the pages before you put it together. Up to you!
My finished book is a 4" x 4" size, but any size can be created using the exact same technique. Any number of pages can be created, as long as its an even number. You'll see why later!
So, I measured eight pieces of card, 8" by 4", then coloured them on both sides using spray inks...

The pages need to be scored next. You can't really see what I did on the real thing, so I drew you a picture....

Fold the page on its central score line (i.e in half!), and mark off in 1/2" segments...

Cut along these lines until you reach the adjacent scored line...

Next is the first fiddly bit. Take your page, and press down on each alternate 'tab'. This way, you will create a series of valley and mountain folds. (Valleys have a deep V shape, mountains a raised ^ shape)...

Once you fold the page down the central line, it will look like this....

Do all 8 pages. When put together, they all look like this...

As you can see, all the tabs are in perfect alignment. We DON'T want them in this arrangement, however. We need an alternate tab, space, type affair, so take each second page and turn it around....

Can you see the difference?!
Now, take two pages at a time and join them together. Gently ease a bamboo skewer through each tab. You will be going first through a tab on one page, the next tab will be from the other page etc etc ...

In this pic, the darker orange is one page, the paler orange the second page....this angle may help...

Do this with each pair of pages. Eight pages mean four pairs....

(this is why you need an even number of pages!)
So, you now have 4 separate sets of pages. These need to be joined together. Take some cord, and thread it in and out of the skewers. I like to use a big bulldog clip to hold everything together whilst I do this..

Go in and out of the skewers a few times, then tie off. Do this with the other side as well....

Now you can carefully trim the skewers, and add a little glue so they stay put!

That is hot glue, painted black! It looks uglier than I thought it would, with hindsight I would use superglue around the skewers where the cord finishes!
The skewers can be painted or decorated before you use them. The skewers will be on display when you open the book on every other page......

(the next page looks like this once open....)

So.....yes it's a bit fiddly, but its a nice sense of achievement once done! Have a go and let me know how you get on!

Love Trish xx