The basic materials for bookbinding with kids are just that: basic. There's nothing particularly complicated or expensive about any piece of the process, but it can take some searching and organizing to bring all of the components together. For this, my greatest assets in Lucknow were Ram Advani and Raju. Ram Advani is the owner of Lucknow's premiere book store, a man beloved by all of the many scholars who visit the city. He's always got an empty chair, a cup of tea and plenty of excellent conversation for those who visit his shop, and from the moment I met him I knew I'd found a kindred spirit. When Ram heard about the project I had planned for my students, he offered his assistance with anything I might need. And that's where Raju came in. Raju is Ram's very able assistant - a man who knows where to find things and how to get things done in Lucknow. Raju and I made several trips together to stationers' shops in the city where we gathered glue, scissors, markers, paint, bookbinding cloth, cardboard and paper. The cardboard was our biggest challenge. I wanted something nice and heavy (that wouldn't bend) and we found it - in large sheets that had to be cut to size. For that task, we were directed to Lucknow's small but fascinating bookbinding district, an area where I found artisans doing exactly what I was planning for my kids: covering cardboard with cloth, sewing pages, creating cloth spines ... methods still in practice around the world, but definitely not in mainstream publishing. I loved my visit to the papercutter's stall, where he used a huge old cast-iron contraption full of gears and pulleys and levers to cut 100 perfect sheets of cardboard and a big stack of page-sized paper. Tiffani had the job of choosing fabric for covers, but that's tough only because India offers such an overwhelming selection of gorgeous textiles. With all of our materials together, we were ready to work with the kids.
-Beth
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