bookbinding

 One of the things I clearly intended to do during this year's studio residency at Signal Arts Centre, was make some more books. I had a fabric sampler folder and thought I would make a number of cloth covered books for Signal's annual Christmas Craft Fair. Having this in mind, I bought a pair of pinking shears in order to cut the cloth but the other very important aspect of bookbinding is measure, measure and measure!

I decided fairly early on that I was going to do a simple Japanese stab binding technique and, after matching various coloured threads to various patterned cloth designs, it was a fairly simple operation. this picture shows how a piece of wire acts as a specific placeholder until I get my needle and thread to it.

On larger books I also use pieces of cardboard and lion clips to hold the covers in place while I bind. On this one I decided to use some beads for embellishment.

Here are the cloth-covered books I made for the craft fair. They are all A5 in size, but the top two are bound as landscape while the others are portrait.

I used brightly coloured paper as endpapers in the blank notebook/sketchbooks.

I had a few bits of other material so I made an A5 leather-covered book and 2 A5 vinyl-oilcloth books.

The Christmas Craft Fair runs at Signal Arts Centre daily (Sunday included) from 10am-5pm until December 24th.

A Short Walk to Fort Carré - bound print portfolio

Since I decided on the prints and their order (blog post here), I gave myself till the end of February to get the portfolios completed. I had already created the portfolios, from heavy-weight acid-free blotting paper, at the end of my residency at Signal Arts Centre last year. Before binding, I cut pieces  of acid-free tissue paper as interleaves for protection of the print pages.

I scored the margins of the print pages

before affixing the tissue interleaves with Filmoplast, an acid-free tape.

I realised I also needed to score the margins of the portfolios, and mark the spots where the binding holes would be drilled (an awl can be used, but a drill press is faster and less fiddly).

After the holes were drilled small bits of wire were put in place to ensure that the pages would not move during binding.

Japanese stab-binding (full instructions here) is both simple and elegant. I chose a teal cotton embroidery thread (6 strands) to complement the colours of the prints.

Once everything is in place, the binding doesn't take long.

Completed edition of three: A Short Walk to Fort Carré.

Handbag book gift

I have made a number of "handbag books" by cutting the leather from my Mum's old handbags, which I received after she died a few years ago. I decided I would make a sketchbook for my child as a xmas present from one of MY old handbags. I chose a black vinyl handbag because of it's size (for a decent sketchbook) and because I thought it would look cool! I also thought it would be great to have a working pocket on the front cover, and there was a zipped pocket on the bag.

Of course once the bag was decided upon, the paper had to be prepared. This simply involves taking measurements and using a metal ruler to tear the paper to size for a deckled effect. Full details on the Japanese stab binding technique can be found here; this is the binding technique I planned to use for this bag. I blogged about the turquoise handbag books that I made from one of my Mum's handbags in 2018 and that can be found here.

Once I had all the paper prepared, including endpapers, I put everything together as a package and marked where the binding holes would be. The holes were made with a drill press - much easier than an awl!

Since my endpapers were yellow, I used yellow cotten embroidery thread for binding.

In order that the pocket was neat on the inside and did not cause any damage to the sketchbook paper or endpapers, I affixed some paper to the inside covers (and weighted down) prior to preparing the final package for binding.

Signal studio - wind down

My residency at the Signal Arts Centre studio came to an end recently -- don't know if it would have been possible to keep up such a supremely productive pace! I previously blogged about this year's residency here and here. I also had a residency last year, which I blogged about here, here, and here. I am booked in for next Oct, Nov, and Dec too!

In my last few weeks I had borrowed a press and printed up all the lino blocks I had cut. This is a test print, showing also the "window" I made from a heavy cardboard in order that the paper would be lifted off the press base. I adjusted the press roller for the depth of the lino blocks, but the cardboard had the effect of raising the press base such that printing a relief block was not awkward.

I printed all the lino blocks for my intended bound portfolio of prints, "A Short Walk To Fort Carré"

In those last few weeks I also completed a number of blank sketch/notebooks using my modified version of medieval tacket binding. I have blogged about how to do this type of binding here and here.

I also prepared nine pocket size blank sketch/notebooks to include in Signal's annual xmas craft fair. The photo below shows them before using the Japanese stab binding technique. Three have leather covers, three have vinyl covers, and three have acrylic sponge covers. Earlier in the residency I had also made a number of "handbag" books using this binding technique. Several years ago I blogged full instructions to make this type of book, which can be found here.

Once I had all the lino prints done, I wanted to make use of the press during the last couple of days of my residency. I had some oils and one of the carborundum plates I had created during a printmaking workshop I attended in September. I blogged about that workshop here.

As I was cleaning up and clearing out the studio, one of the final "clean" things I wanted to do was cut and create the covers for the series of lino prints I now realised I would not bind until the new year, but I at least wanted to get them made. I always get nervous about measuring and cutting (it's so final!) so I took it pretty slow.

The covers are made of a heavy duty, 100% acid-free blotting paper, and will fold around the print series, bound together using the simple Japanese stab binding technique. The portfolio of prints will be in an edition of three.

On my second last day of the studio, I decided to create a monoprint. Using undiluted alkyd paints on a square acetate plate, I painted the familiar figure. Unfortunately I did not blot my paper dry enough, and it ripped in the press. Rather than daunt me, it just made me realise a few things for next time, as I want to work more with that image.

This is the studio shortly before I moved out: almost everything off the walls, and a lot of work brought home already. On the table near the window, prints are being weighed down to flatten. After a final tidy, I said goodbye to an inspiring workspace and returned the key.

Turquoise handbag books

One of my first projects of the new year was to return to the "handbag" books. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a number of my Mum's old handbags and decided to turn them into sketchbook/journals. The purple bag only netted me one book (and lots of problems to solve!), but I figured I could make two books from the turquoise bag.

First I opened the side seams, removed the lining and zipper and loosely cut the usuable portions of the bag. I then did some measuring and squaring and made more exact cuts. These would provide soft covers for two books. They seem to be leather?

I ripped and folded some pale yellow paper and found some decorative origami paper to use as endpapers. Each book would have 100 pages and endpapers.

Additional items needed are large lion clips, pva glue & plastic card applicator, cardboard pieces to act a protectors between the lion clips and books, cotton thread, large-eyed large needle (a darning needle is ideal).

Because this particular handbag had folded features that I wanted to retain, I also required an additional thin paper (I have a roll of thin acid free rag paper which is ideal, but a regular bond or photocopy paper would also work). I cut to size and glued this paper to the inside of the covers. The result is bumpy, but it serves its purpose. I decided to cut extra pieces of this paper to wrap around folios and provide additional endpapers

I don't have a photo for the next step: the yellow papers and only slightly larger origami endpapers were wrapped by the longer white endpaper; the spine of the white endpaper wrap was glued to the spine of the paper bunch and left overnight. This paper grouping was then wrapped by the covers and lion clips placed as below. Markings where the binding holes would go were made using a marker and the holes were drilled (using a drill press).

The final step of binding is quite simple: thread from hole to hole in a basic Japanese stab binding technique (instructions here). I used the full six stranded thread, doubled while sewing and repeated; this means that every binding line shown here is 24 strands.

 Before xmas I had made some buttons in my ceramics workshop and decided that these made a nice additional detail on the handbag books.

I actually ran out of the green embroidery thread that I was using for binding, so for the second book I attached the button with some turquoise thread that was in my sewing box. For this button I simply threaded the needle under binding threads and through the buttonholes, tying knots without going through the binding holes of the book.

For the second book I decided to place the button near the bottom hole instead of the centre hole.

New notebooks - pouch binding - part 2

As I mentioned in last week's blog, I had decided to make some notebooks/sketchbooks from my Mum's handbags. I also mentioned that I had taken the Future Learn online course "Japanese Culture Through Rare Books" offered by Keio University and was inspired to make several pouch bound books, which utilised recycled paper. Last week's instructions were about preparing the pouches (i.e., creasing and folding paper such that the pre-used side was inside and the outer, clean layers would form the pages). This week is mostly about creating the covers, in this case a hard(ish) cover. The final binding is originally a Japanese technique - "stab binding" - which I have blogged about previously.

When I removed the lining from the purple handbag, I found that the underside of the vinyl had a fuzzy, kind of sticky, coating. My decision to use this for a hardcover was clear as I definitely didn't want this part of the handbag visible in my final book. I cut two pieces of vinyl to a size slightly larger than the cardboard base covers and clipped the corners. The pictures are mostly of the back cover, which does not have any bumpy surfaces.

I used an old plastic membership card to spread PVA glue over the entire surface of the vinyl underside.

The cardboard base was placed on the vinyl.

The vinyl was folded over the cardboard.

It was necessary to use lion clips to hold the folded vinyl down while the glue was drying.

A sheet of paper was cut to the size of the two covers plus the book spine (hold the pouches together tightly and measure the spine; in the case of pouch binding, it is the "open" side of the pouch, opposite the fold, which will be bound). Glue is first spread on the back cover. Again, an old plastic membership or bank card is ideal for spreading the glue.

The right side of the paper is gently pressed onto the cover.

The procedure is repeated for the front cover, making sure to let the far right side of the paper meet up with the far right side of the cover. The spine space between the two covers is apparent. Note that the front cover of my book is quite bumpy. I had to be careful not to rip the paper when adhering it because

 there were pleated and wired details on the original handbag that I wanted to keep on the bookcover.

I spread out the bookcover concoction and placed it between several clean pages, before weighing down with some heavy books until the glue dried completely (overnight at least).

Once the cover was dry I prepared everything for binding. I used some marbled origami paper for end papers. The lion clip is holding everything in place while I get ready.

Putting holes through the covers and folios is very important. I cannot stress this enough. For a book of this size (A5) five holes will do nicely. The lion clips are necessary to hold everything in place while the holes are being made and while the book is being sewn.

The sewing technique is Japanese stab binding. Make sure to make the holes large enough all the way through the layers (front cover, endpapers, folio-pouches, back cover) in order that you may sew through the same hole several times with your binding thread. Here I am using 3-strand cotton embroidery thread, folded so the first sew is 6 strands and the second sew is 12.

I cannot stress enough the importance of making the holes wide enough -- I ran into a problem with not being able to go beyond the initial 6 strands in the middle hole of my book. I didn't mind working with the idea of bypassing the hole since this is a personal book (not for a gift) and my first attempt at pouch binding as well as my first attempt at a hardcover book. However, for stability and security as well as for design, I think it is a better idea to ensure the hole is a good size to begin with!

The final book is sturdy and quirky. I like it!