I made this album for the photos from my wedding, which was in July, 2003, so the album was long overdue. But my US naturalization interview is coming up in a couple of weeks, and our immigration lawyer recommended that we have our photos in albums rather than in iPhoto, so I got a little push to get it done.

For this album, I used 300 lb Arches watercolor paper for the pages. It’s a very stiff paper, and cold pressed, so it has pleasant rough texture to it. I kept the natural deckle for the outside edge and just trimmed top and bottom.

I took a page (so to speak) from the premade text blocks I used earlier last week in constructing the text blocks. Instead of sewing the pages on to tapes, I cut each page singly, a half-inch wider than I wanted the final page width to be. Then I folded the inside end in a half-inch, and glued that to the back of the page above. This added extra space at the spine to compensate for the photos I tipped in later. I’m not sure how strong it will prove to be, but since I only needed ten pages (plus two for the cover paste-downs) and I don’t see this book getting a lot of hard use, I think it will work out okay.

This book has a sturdy feel to it. I went with a flat spine and used thicker bookboard for the spine than I would for a thicker book. I also used fairly heavy board for the covers (.098 inch), which I tend to favor anyway.

Now I just wish I was a better calligrapher (or any sort of a calligrapher), so that I could do a nice title page.