It’s official.

It’s official. I’ve lost my mind because I’ve crossed the tipping point of the book project or maybe I should use the word “tabbing point!”

Here’s the thing; Mulberry paper is strong but soft in terms of it’s rigidity. Not quite the flimsiness of a tissue paper, but not as stiff as the pages of a notebook. It’s somewhere in between. And because of that characteristic, I decided to add a colored support sheet behind each DPS (double page spread) of the image/recipes I am printing. That decision was made a while ago.

And now as I move forward, printing the recipes, and prepping other components in what will be “The Great Bind,” of putting these books together, I decided that the mulberry pages were still vulnerable to damage by the human hand. This is coming from a person who is extremely hard on books. As a side note, do not loan me a copy of a book you expect to get back in the same condition. I don’t even ask, to tell you the truth. I currently still have Diane’s book about trees, barely reading it because I fear dinging a page, getting some unknown paint or food stain on it, or worse! I don’t even own a dog but it could look like the dog ate it if it’s in my hands. And yet, here I am making an edition of hand bound books.

So, in conversation with my young friend Michelle, who is currently visiting, I mention the tabs and we brainstorm and search the internet for options. She also happened to have those metal book darts with her. While it looked that was a perfect solution, it turns out that when placing a dart to hold the mulberry with it’s red support page, the mulberry and its support sort of create a bubble when the page is turned. So, it was back to the drawing board!

This is where I crossed my own line in over-achievement when I decided I need to make 300 hand cut tabs. Using the same Gold Geometric Lotka paper as the end sheets of the covers, which I cut into strips, then cut those into 3/4″ wide tab, folded them in half, rounded the corners with a punch, then trimmed them down so they are only slightly more than a half an inch. These tabs will be glued so they gradate down the edge of the book like the old Betty Crocker cookbooks. The tabs on their own were a little awkward in terms of design so to make them blend in a little better, I decided they needed to be covered with 10 inch long strips of the same Geometric Gold Lotka paper which is 5/8″ wide. I am fortunate enough to still own a paper shredder that is not a cross-cut one, and still cuts strips!

I then made a rough template so I know exactly where each tab goes and then, good gravy I tested one out. Let’s just put it out there. Cutting the tabs may prove to be the lesser of two evils here. Because the strips are thin, I have to go super slow to avoid getting glue on the other part of the paper. The good news, is the test one is good enough to keep. 272 to go.