As with many crafts, it is the little things that make the difference. There are often aspects of a craft that the beginner overlooks that the professional does out of habit. In furniture making, it is often the bottom of the piece. For jewellery it can be that the back of the piece is not finished as well. These are the areas that the professionals seek out to determine what the actual skill level of the artisan is.

For bookbinding, I am beginning to think it is the edges of the book. They look pretty good if cut well and left as raw paper. But they look so much better with even the simplest of edge treatments.

A range of options are available, such as sponging color on to the edge, marbling the edge, applying gold leaf and so on. For the very highly skilled, the edge can be carved or shaped into letters, motifs or symbols.

To start the process, the simplest is sponging colour onto the edge. For all edge treatments, they are best applied after the block is trimmed, but before it is rounded or cased. Simply apply a dye such as a food colour using a coarse sponge. Use one or more colours and stop when the effect looks right. Even a solid colour can look good with the right book.

The next level of sophistication is to marble the edges. This process has been used primarily for account books, but can be just as effective on any book. With the use of a marbling kit such as the one pictured, mix as many colours in a water bath as you require. Swirl the colours together, but not too finely as a better look is achieved with areas of large blocks of colour mixed with smaller.

The effect can be quite subtle when similar colours are blended, such as the blue and green edge on the blue book in the picture. Mixing brighter colours can make a more visually striking effect, such as the book block shown. This one uses a combination of yellow, black and orange. Until my technique improves, the marbling effect appears best on small spaces such as the edges of books. Doing full end papers will take a bit more practice for me, as the larger areas need greater care in mixing the colours and balancing out the visual effects. Try not to leave any of the water surface uncoloured, as this will leave patches of white paper, which can simply look unfinished.

Both of the techniques mentioned above are easily and inexpensively achieved by a beginner or craft bookbinder. Gold leafing, however, is another step up again, and is best left to either an expert, or another day.