I've made 3 8x10 bellows and recently a long bellows for 5x7. It's true, most of the coated fabrics are too thick to fold properly, and many plasticized ones are hard to glue. In the past, I've been able to find thin blackout curtain (cloth on outside, rubberized interior) that glues well and is thin enough for an 8x10 bellows to fold. However, I cannot find material this thin at my local fabric store anymore. Everything available now is too thick and too rubbery (the fold crease wont hold). For the recent 5x7, I found a "car windshield cover to keep off snow and ice" at a local discount store that turned out to be perfect. It is a light black cloth that seems to be coated to make it completely lightproof. I think it's similar to the material used to make film changing bags. It is incredibly thin and easy to fold (I made 1cm folds). This was approx 1 meter by 2.5 meters and just perfect for the 5x7 bellows. I used it on the exterior, with a thin black cotton liner (neither shiny nor lightproof) on the inside, sandwiching cardboard stays in the middle. All glued using contact cement, which worked well. It cost $5! Unfortunately, the size is too small for 8x10, but this material is perfect for anything 5x7 and smaller. There must be a supplier of this as a raw fabric somewhere.
hope this helps
Tim
Bookmarks