A look inside one of my notebooks

I have a number of notebooks I have made that I use for myself, usually books I have been unhappy with in some way and didn't want to sell or give away. Here is one:



This isn't the original cover - I stencilled the original but always thought it was ugly, so I covered it with some old stamps I had on hand. It's still not finished - I think it needs a little more spontaneity in the top half and I'm waiting to acquire some stamps to fix that. I keep this particular book at work and take it with me into meetings to doodle in, because doodling sharpens my mind and helps me focus on the subject at hand. Here are some scans of what I have put inside the book so far (click on thumbnails to see full size):




Some are works in progress, others are fully finished.

Little red book

My latest project:


I used red clothing leather that is too stretchy to use for covering book boards. I have a whole hide of it that I am keeping for when I have time to take a leather-sewing course, and then I plan to make myself a purse out of it. What remains I will use to make more books similar to this one. There are 4 signatures, each made from a sheet of paper approximately A4 in size, folded in half and half again. The signatures are long-stitched into the leather cover, with beading added afterwards. Finally, I added a closing strap. The flap is part of the natural contours of the hide, only I rounded them a little.

Fat little notebook

Here is my latest creation:

The boards are covered with black-dyed wolf-fish leather.


It's 13 signatures, bound with coptic stitch. For some reason, I find it much easier to get even stitches when I use sewing thread. When I use bookbinding thread like I did here, the stitches tend to come out uneven.

There is a little surprise inside the boards:

Coptic map books

Here is another recycling project I have wanted to try for a while: map books.



Both are bound in the same way: 4 signatures stitched together with coptic (chain) stitch and the boards covered with pieces of maps. The book on the left has an added spine covering of tanned and dyed salmon skin with natural contours left intact. I may add leather to the second book as well. Ideally, I would like to find fish leather in one of the colours used in the maps - green or tan for preference.

BTW, the book on the left looks skewed because tension in the leather keeps it slightly open. It should get better after a few hours in the book-press.

Finished the beaded doily book

I covered the boards with hand-made paper of a colour similar in tone to that of the beads. I then cut the doily down to the right size and carefully pasted it down onto the front board. After gluing the boards to the leather spine I strengthened the bond with rivets.

I am mostly happy with the result, but I think it needs something to brighten it up, possibly some splashes of colour on the doily.
I think I will make another one - in pink.

Another recycling project: notebook

This is my latest project:

The signatures are long-stitched into the spine, with beading added later. The leather came from some garment, possibly a pair of leather pants.

I will then add the boards, gluing them on and probably strengthening the bond with rivets or brads. As to the cover decoration, I have plans for this paper doily:

Recycling project: leather notebook

The cover of this notebook is made from recycled leather. You can see from the flap that wraps over the front where the piece of leather came from: it used to be part of the sleeve of a leather jacket. My grandmother had already taken the jacket apart and all I had to do was trim the edges of the round part to make them more even, and cut the piece down to the right size for the paper. I then sewed the signatures in using long-stitch, making a cross-stitch pattern on the spine. Finally I added the beads to the spine and a strap for keeping the book closed.

I think I may finally be ready to start making books to sell. It remains to be seen how I will do it - perhaps I will sell at craft fairs, or if I am lucky I might find an arts and crafts store that's willing to sell them on consignment. Or I might open an Etsy store.

New cover for the travel journal

Out with the old...


...and in with the new:





How it was done:
I began by cutting out a piece of paper the size and shape of the area I needed to cover, and arranged clipped images on it until I was happy with it. Then I photographed the layout so I wouldn't forget it. I then ran a dull knife gently under the glued edges of the leather spine where they rested on the boards and gently lifted them about 5 mm and gently pushed them up. Then I set about gluing down the collage. I made the front cover collage on a piece of office paper which I then glued down on the cover, gluing the edges of leather down over the edge of the collage. This was a bit thick and bulky, so I did the back cover collage straight onto the boards.

Finally, as it is difficult, if not impossible, to put gilded lettering on the spine, I made a label from a piece of millboard, wrote the year and the contents of the book on it, and attached it to the exposed stitching with bookbinding thread. In the future, I may replace this thick label with a thin one that can be tucked into the book like a bookmark.

The collages:
The images I used all came from tourism leaflets and brochures. The front cover images all relate to the northern part of Iceland, and the back cover images to southern Iceland.

New travel journal

I’ve mentioned my travel journals before, and now I have a new one to add to the collection. It covers my recent week-long camping trip around the country.


A look inside the journal.

This book was a journal-from-scratch project like my last three travel journals. This means that I didn’t pre-make a book, but brought loose signatures with me and journalled on those, and then bound up the book when I got home.


The Polaroid Zink printer has made journalling from scratch much easier – I used to leave blank spaces on the pages of my journals for photos I would later print out at home and paste in, but it was always a hassle, especially when I forgot what photo I was planning to insert where or had left too small or too big a blank. Having a printer with me has all but eliminated that problem, and while the photos are small and the quality not always the best, they allow for more spontaneous journalling.



I decided not to do a full hollow-back binding for this one because it is only 2 signatures and I like experimenting with different techniques, so I made a long-stitch binding similar to the red notebook I blogged about earlier, using the same stitching pattern.

I was feeling singularly uninspired when I designed the boards, using some scrapbook paper I had found that has a map of Iceland on it:

On the back I chose a similar-coloured paper that looks like a watercolour wash. The plan was to glue something interesting onto the back.

Then I decided that instead of traditional pastedowns, I would collage the inside of the boards with photos of places I visited, clipped from tourist brochures:


Now I am unhappy with the outside of the boards and am considering a collage there too. I will post more once I have finished the project.

Taking inspiration from found and second-hand materials

I am a great scavenger and often pick up things without having a specific purpose for them. Sometimes they linger for years before I either find a use for them or get rid of them, but the particular item that inspired my newest book was put to use within a couple of days of discovery.

I often visit a charity shop that sells all sorts of second hand stuff – just about everything save clothing and shoes. They have a give-away table where items they know or think they can‘t sell end up, and I have often picked up interesting old books there. On this occasion, however, there was this blue strap thing with eyelets. I think it was probably a belt or it might possibly have been part of a guitar strap:


It was about 70 cm long and made of lined faux leather. Having recently finished a book that was sewn straight into its spine, I though I might do something similar with this, so I took it home with me. On second thought I decided that it was probably not strong enough to take stitching without tearing, but maybe I could attach it to a book as decoration.

A couple of days later the idea was fully formed and I started looking about for other materials for the book. I had decided that it would be coordinated in tones of blue, and chose pastel blue paper for the pages. My stash of decorative paper did not include any blue paper that was a good match for the faux leather, so finally I settled on using pink paper on the boards, and found a suitable paper sample I‘d got with a scrapbook magazine. It was printed to look worn, which suited the faux leather piece, which doesn't exactly look brand new. I chose pink thread to sew the book with, and found some left-over mill-board in just about the right size. Finally I went out and bought some brads in the same chromium finishing as the eyelets.


And here is the finished product:


The details count – I didn't set out to do it, but as it happens, all the lines of stitching were visible through the eyelets.


I still have about 60 cm left and am considering what to do with it. Maybe I‘ll go out and look for perfect blue paper for the cover and make that all-blue book.


P.S.
On my way back from buying the eyelets, I visited the charity shop, and bought a cheap piece of art glass which I am planning to set into the front cover of another book. I‘ll feature it here once it‘s ready.

Riveted

Here is my latest creation – a riveted book:



The book is two thick signatures sewn into the tail end of a spotted wolf-fish skin. I have allowed the sides of the leather patch to retain their natural contours:


The method for this sewing pattern is shown here:
Leather journal photo tutorial
The directions are a bit confusing because there are so many photos, but persevere and you'll soon figure it out. I found it helped to print out the whole thing and cross out the photos that weren't helpful.


Here is a close-up of the stitch:

Ignore the knot - it appeared as I was making the last stitch and I was unable to unfasten it so I left it where it was so that I wouldn't have to unravel the stitching and start over. Look at the beautiful texture of the leather!


Here you can see better how the book is constructed:

Before glueing on the boards, I punched the holes for the rivets where I wanted them in the leather and aligned the boards on the book, marking with a pencil where the rivet-holes were to go. Then I punched the rivet-holes in the boards, applied glue to the underside of the leather (wiping away the glue that welled up through the rivet-holes before it dried), re-aligned the holes in the leather and boards and pressed gently to attach the two, repeating on the other side. Then I put the book in the press for about 10 minutes to allow the glue to dry a bit and finally I applied the rivets. The rivets strengthen the adherence of the boards to the leather, and are also decorative. The paper covering the boards is handmade (and not at all easy to work with).


Here‘s how the spine looks on the finished book:

New coptic book

Here is my latest creation:



The book is made up of 6 signatures of rough hand-torn sketching paper, 72 pages altogether. It is held closed with an elastic band.



Inside there is room for a pen and a loop of elastic to hold it in place.



The boards are covered with red library buckram and lizard-skin patterned book paper and it is sewn together with waxed red sewing thread, using Coptic stitch (also known as chain stitch).



I'm thinking about adding pockets inside the covers, to hold stuff like postcards, stamps and boarding passes.

Links galore!

I have added a number of links on the side-bar. Some will take you to inspirational websites and blogs by book artists, while others will take you to practical instructions on such varied subjects as how to make paste-paper, how to re-bind a Moleskine notebook, or how to make a book from scratch. I will also be adding links to other paper crafts and books arts, such as origami and altered books, and to totally unrelated arts and crafts.

The exposed-spine instructions are ready!

I started writing these instructions about 2 years ago, but one thing and then another (and another, etc.) kept getting in the way of finishing it, but now it is finally ready. Click here to download it from Scribd.

Third exposed long-stitch binding

Second exposed long-stitch binding

Finished this one tonight:

The leather for the cover comes from the same larger piece as the previous book, but the strap is black and can be wrapped twice around the book.



The closure is made from an old button, and can be used either like a buckle (first photo below) or by wrapping the strap around it (second photo below), or a combination of both methods (see previous photo).



The book is sewn with white bookbinding thread and the exposed stitches are decorated with buttons:

Golden book

This is an anthology of Icelandic verse, both modern and traditional, that is used to teach older elementary school kids about poetry. I am thinking about stencilling the title on the front, but will have to experiment with the remnants of the paper first, to make sure the paint will stick.



I was originally going to cover this book with traditional patterned book paper, but when I was showing the other members of my bookbinding group my latest paper purchases I put this crumpled gold crafting paper down beside a piece of the burgundy-coloured Rexine I had already put on the book, and saw how well the two went together.

The paper is grainless and so is probably handmade. It is beige on one side and gold on the other. It seems to have been wetted, crumpled up, smoothed down again (but not completely), then dried and gold paint sprayed on one side.

It was a bit tricky to work with, as it sucked up a lot of dampness from the glue, which made it delicate. I couldn't use a bone folder to smooth it down because I wanted to retain the crumpled look, so I gently pressed it down with my fingers and allowed it to dry standing up. The boards warped slightly, so I knew it would have to be pressed. When I did the pastedowns, I therefore wrapped the book in a coarse bath towel before putting it in the press to dry. It worked: there is no warping and the crumpled effect is still there.

I think this look would be great on a guest book or photo album, or even on a little notebook.

New project: Simple exposed long-stitch leather notebook/journal

When I started learning bookbinding my grandmother not only gave me all her bookbinding tools, but also a couple of shopping bags full of leather and leather scraps. Much of it is clothing leather that isn’t suitable for fine leather bindings, as it is too thin and stretchy, or leather you can use to make belts and purses but that’s too thick or stiff to cover books with – unless you make the cover out of leather alone, which is what I have done in this project. I intend to do some research to see how best to stiffen the thin clothing leather for use as book covers, as I have a couple of small skins in a gorgeous red colour that would be perfect for notebooks or journals, and also some interestingly worn scraps that I suspect were once parts of leather jackets.


Here is the book I made:


This is the first book I make using this particular binding technique, and while it has a number of little imperfections, I am still happy with it as a first effort. Instead of first stitching and gluing together the signatures and then putting pasteboard covers on them, I sewed the signatures directly into a cover made of thick, unlined leather. It gives the book a rugged, old-fashioned look and since the cover is all leather it combines the flexibility of a soft cover with the durability of a hard cover.

I thought I had come across instructions on the web for exactly this kind of binding, but when I started looking for it I could only find variations on the technique, most of which either use different materials or are more complicated, so I wrote my own instructions. Since I didn’t plan to write instructions some of the images are (very bad) drawings while others are photos.

This is a glue-free type of binding, and you only need a handful of tools and basic supplies to make it.

Supplies:

• Paper
• Sewing thread or bookbinding thread
• Leather piece big enough for the cover. The leather you choose should be fairly thick.
• Leather scrap for the closure. This can be soft, thin clothing leather.

Tools:

• Cutting mat
• Ruler
• Craft knife
• Folding bone
• An awl or a thick, sharp needle
• Sewing needle or bodkin (you can use a regular tapestry needle)
• Pencil or tailor’s chalk

Good to have:

• Scissors
• Beeswax

For those not familiar with the metric system, cm stands for centimeter and mm for millimeter. Here is an online converter you can use to convert the measurements into inches.

First decide what size book you want. As the cover should be slightly larger than the pages, by 5 mm or so, the leather cover should be 1 cm higher than the pages of the book will be, and twice the width of the pages plus 1 cm plus the thickness of the pages (which includes the thickness of each signature plus a little extra space you need to put between the holes in the leather so they will not split open when you start sewing (this depends on how strong the leather is, but let’s say about 3 mm between holes). I am going to give a set of fixed measurements, but all you need to do to make your book bigger or smaller is to replace the variable numbers with your own measurements. The actual book I made was a bit bigger.

Let’s say you want a book that is 10 cm high and 7 cm wide. The cover should be about 5 mm larger on each side than the pages, so the signatures should be 9 cm high and 6 cm wide. Each signature is made up of several folded pieces of paper (I used 4, which gives me 16 pages), and there should be an even number of signatures in the book. In this case I used 4 signatures. You will then need a piece of leather that is 10 cm high and 14 cm wide.

The fastening strap should be at least three times the width of the closed book, to allow for wrapping around the book and tying a simple knot at the front like I have done.

Mark and trim the leather to the right dimensions. Then fold and, if necessary, trim the signatures.

Mark the centre of the leather piece in the centre where the top and bottom of the spine will be. Drawing a line between the two marks can help you with positioning, but you can also work with a ruler. Make 2 marks on each side, 2 mm and 5 mm from the centre.

Lay a ruler between the corresponding marks on the top and bottom and mark where the 2 external seams will enter and exit the spine, from the top: at 2.5 cm, 4 cm, 7 cm and 8.5 cm. Also put marks on each side of the spine 1 cm above and below each side of the centre of the spine (5 and 6 cm from the top) for where the slits for the leather strap will be (the strap is 1 cm wide), and mark where the strap will be fastened to the front of the cover, about 2-3 cm from the centre of the front edge of the book, in line with the where the spine slits will be. Like this:


Mark where the red dots are.

Then pierce the leather with the awl to make four sewing holes side by side where you put the markings for the thread.

When this is done, make 2 vertical slits between the central markings on each side of the spine and the 2 x 2 markings at the front, like this:

Cut where the red lines are.

Now make the sewing holes in the signatures: Pierce through the centre fold from the inside at 0.5 cm, 2 cm, 3.5 cm, 6.5 cm, 8 cm and 9.5 cm from the top.

If you want to increase the number of stitches, always make an even number of holes so that you begin and end the sewing of each signature on the outside.

Thread the needle with enough thread to use for the whole project, approximately 4 times the height of the book plus about 10 cm, or 50 cm altogether. If you are using sewing thread and have beeswax on hand, use it to wax the thread to protect and strengthen it. Bookbinding thread comes pre-waxed.

Sewing:

1. Take what will become the last signature in the book and draw the thread into it through the bottom hole from the outside, and out through the next hole, leaving a tail of about 5 cm for tying.
2. With the leather cover open in front of you, lay the closed signature down on it and draw the thread out through the first hole in the cover until the signature is flush with the cover (hold on to the tail so you don’t draw it all the way through).
3. Poke the needle in through the second hole from the outside, and into the third hole in the signature, and then out of the fourth hole in the signature and out through the fourth hole in the cover, and back in the final hole in the cover and the fifth hole in the signature.
4. Finally go out through the sixth and final hole in the signature. The thread is now inside the cover but outside the signature. Holding on to the tail, gently take up any slack in the thread.

Here is what the pattern should look like inside the signatures:

Take the next signature and repeat the above in reverse order, then repeat the whole process. Before you tie the tail ends together, again take up any slack in the thread, starting from the middle signatures and working outwards. Tie the ends together flush from the outside, making sure you don’t pull the signatures too close together. Trim the tails.

This is what the stitching should look like from the outside:



Now prepare the closing strap:
In this project the strap is 1 cm wide, to fit in the slits in the cover. First take the strap and make a small lengthwise slit near one end, like this:



With the closed book in front of you, right side up, take the strap and thread the end with the horizontal slit in it through the vertical slits in the front of the cover, from the left. Now draw the strap through the slit in the end and pull the loop tight. Here is what the loop-knot should look like:



Bring the strap over to the left and pull it through the slits in the spine, bring it all the way around the book to tie or tuck the book closed at the front. Your basic book is now finished.

Variations and embellishments:

• Make the closing strap much longer and wrap it twice or even several times around the book.
• The end of the strap can be left the same width as the rest, or it can be tapered off.
• You might even want to decorate the strap, say with a small tassel on the end or some beads, or perhaps with writing.
• Add beading to the exposed stitches. Just pick up as many beads as you want when you bring the thread out and proceed as usual.
• You can also draw all the strands through the same bead or beads.
• Add decorative stitching to the exposed stitches. You can, for example, take a thread of the same or different colour, draw it out through one of the sewing holes from the inside and then weave it between the stitches, then just take it back inside the cover and tie it off to finish. Or you can, when you sew in the second signature, wrap the second long stitch around the first one or more times, and repeat with the following stitches. You need to be very careful to keep the thread taut inside the signatures if you do this, because you will be unable to fix any slackness afterwards.
• If you add a third exposed stitch in the middle of the spine, you can use that instead of the slits to secure the strap.
• You can use a ribbon or a shoelace instead of the strap, but you will need to sew, glue or tie it to the cover instead of using the slit method, or if you insist, make a slit and prevent it from fraying with buttonhole stitching.
• Add decorative stitching to the edges of the cover with contrasting sewing thread or a fine leather thong. Saddle-stitching and whip-stitching look good.
• Make a number of slits in the front cover and weave the strap through them for decoration.

This blog has a number of examples you could use as a starting point for book embellishments or variations. I especially like the idea of making patterns on the spine by using variable stitch lengths.

Tutorial

The long-awaited tutorial is being proofread and will be ready soon. I will e-mail it to those who have posted requests with e-mail addresses.

I am now trying to decide whether to offer it on request only or if I will make it downloadable.

Finished the poetry books project

Here are the books:








I'm quite proud of the results.

Travel journalling from scratch

My travel journals

I have kept a travel journal every time I have been abroad since I took my very first trip out of the country at age fourteen. Until recently I used ready-made books that should have become more durable and higher in quality as I got older and more fastidious and had more money, but didn’t as I was often in a hurry when shopping for a journal. I would usually just grab the first hardcover notebook I could find, regardless of what it looked like.

At one point I was given a handmade blank book that had originally been intended as a guest book, but which served me fine as a journal and proved to be the most durable journal I had ever owned. Without opening it you can hardly tell it’s been to India and back, most of the time stuffed unprotected into my daypack where it rattled around with all my other daily necessities. It was also the first of my journals to have non-lined pages, which I really appreciated as this was the first journal I made some effort to draw in. The second journal I used on the trip after the first one was full was an even more impressive blank book with a padded cover, metal corner protectors and an attached ribbon bookmark that I bought for peanuts in Turkey and only managed to fill halfway before the trip ended.


My first two really good journals

When I started binding books I decided it was time I started making my own journals. I had always hated the fact that I never managed to fill any of the books I used as journals, while still rarely having enough space left for journalling another trip in the same book. Ever since the increased travel time and airport/border unpleasantness following 9/11 came along I don’t like going abroad for less than a week at a time, and since my writing output varies from day to day, calculating the number of pages I need is not easy. Rather than take the risk of running out of pages when putting a second journal in the same volume, I would buy new a one.

With this in mind, I decided that I would create the journal as I went along, rather than attempt to make one before setting off. That way I could control how many pages I had left over at the end for extra stuff, additional writing, photos, etc.



My first completely hand-made journal. The maps are pages from an old Atlas. I'm on the lookout for an American flag sticker of the right size to cover the text box on the front. The leather is morocco.

For those who want to do the same, I hope my method will give you some inspiration:

I bought several blocks of good quality sketching paper (100 g/sqm) to use in the signatures. Each block contained 25 sheets of A4 paper, which would make 100 A5 pages once folded into signatures. For a 19 day trip to the USA I took 2 blocks, knowing I would have to be very prolific to fill all those pages. I kept the paper in the blocks until I needed it. I stored them in a clear plastic envelope to protect them from dirt. Also in the envelope went some maps and clippings from various travel magazines and brochures that I intended to use in the journal when I visited the places in my itinerary. Some I got before I set off but most I gleaned once I got there.

Since my drawing and sketching abilities are limited, I always supplement the writing with clippings and postcards as well as drawings, and on this occasion I also used some travel-themed stickers meant for scrap books. These also went in the envelope.

I would make up each signature as I needed it, using 4 sheets of paper to make up a 16-page signature. These I kept in a smaller plastic envelope, held together with a paperclip.

I also brought a vinyl travel cosmetics bag filled with journalling supplies: a bone folder, small scissors, a small box cutter, a glue stick, book tape, double-sided tape, paper clips, a variety of pencils, pens and markers in different colours, a putty eraser, pencil sharpener, and correction fluid. These supplies were enough for me to be able to journal to my heart’s content.

Once I got home, I stitched the signatures together, put the boards on, and half-bound the books with leather and maps.


The second book. This one contains 2 journals, bound back to back. The 'front' on the right is scrapbook paper with a map of Europe with my destination in the center of the cover (the trip was to Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina), and the upside down 'front' on the left is the appropriate section of a North Dakota (USA) highway map. The leather is spotted wolf-fish skin.


Finally, I have started making a scrapbook of the India journey. I was planning to hand-make an album, but them I came across such a perfect album that I bought it instead:


Isnt' it lovely?

My latest project

Last November one of the men in my bookbinding group brought in some books from a popular series of poetry books published around the middle of the 20th century that collected together works by various popular Icelandic poets. They were originally available both hard-bound and in cheaper soft cover versions. Someone had been working on binding these books in hard covers but had died before finishing the task, and the widow or widower had asked the guy to take them to us and see of anyone wanted them. Since they were being given away and none of the others wanted them, I accepted, and got a total of 8 books. 5 already had covers and just needed headbands, spine-lining, hollow-back spines and finishing, and three also needed covers. The books are small and not very thick, so I decided it would be perfect to use the tail ends of the fish skins to cover the spines.

When the member of my bookbinding group cover books with fish leather, we do it a bit differently from when we use morocco. In partial leather bindings the leather is usually put on the boards before the paper, and the paper overlaps the leather a little when glued down onto the boards. This method can be used with fish leather, but we all like the naturally irregular and scalloped edges of fish leather, so we often begin with the paper and apply the fish leather over it, to preserve the natural look of the leather edges. These are often quarter bindings, i.e. only the spine and small part of the sides are covered with the leather and the rest is all paper, including the corners. This is what I am doing with these books. They are not going to be read or even handled much, and so I don’t think they will need leather corners. Here are the first two that I have finished:









The leather in both cases is spotted wolf-fish, and the paper is scrapbook paper. Each book will have a different coloured spine and paper covering.

Shopping spree

I always treat myself to a Christmas present, and this year I decided to splurge on some bookbinding leather. I started by buying a small vegetable tanned goatskin (morocco) in a lovely rich reddish brown colour, that will do for a number of half-bound books. I have already started using it (see image above). I balked at the prices of the fish skins the leather shop had on offer, having recently checked out what they cost from the local manufacturer. Doubling the factory price is a little over the top, in my opinion, especially since I know they get bulk discount.

It just so happens that my parents live not far from the leather factory and I always spend Christmas with them. As I had some vacation time left over from the summer I took a couple of days before Christmas off from work, which enabled me to visit the leather factory before it closed for the holidays. They don’t make leather specifically for bookbinding, but their fish leathers are eminently suited to it. These leathers come in various colours and finishes like matte, distressed, patterned, metallic, pearly, and one that is so smooth and shiny that it looks lacquered.

When I arrived I was welcomed by the export manager who escorted me into the warehouse and left me to browse by myself among piles of lovely fish skins in all the colours of the rainbow, plus a few that would have surprised Mother Nature.

I came away with 10 spotted wolf-fish skins in various colours, one lovely pink salmon skin and one hot red Nile perch skin with a finish that makes it look more like ruffled velvet than something that came off a fish. I also bought a number of the same types of skins from the huge pile of cheap second-quality skins. This will last me for years of amateur bookbinding, or I may just start binding books for resale...




Spotted wolf-fish skins.


Nile perch (top) and salmon.


Wolf-fish seconds.


Salmon seconds. The narrow ones look kind of like snake-skins.


Nile perch seconds. The white ones have a pearly sheen to them, the red ones are matte.

And here is a link to the company: Sjávarleður.

Home-made multi-purpose book

This is a book-making project for beginners who want to experience the pleasure of designing their own book, but don't feel ready for the glue, needle and thread.

A couple of years ago I found myself in need of a book that was sturdy enough to travel well, had plenty of pages but was cheap enough that I could use it for anything without feeling like I was wasting money, be it making notes, writing shopping lists, sketching, etc. All the big notebooks available around here cost from 1200 kronur (about 15 US $) upwards, and some as much as 3300 kr. (more than 40 US $), which is not just daylight robbery, but several other kinds as well.

What I did was to take a stack of about 200 sheets of A4 white acid-free printer paper which I cut it in half to make about 400 sheets of A5 paper. Then I made a simple cover from bookboard that I put Rexine corners on and covered with brown wrapping paper and glued some white paper on what was to be the inside of the covers. Then I took the stack to a print shop and had them spiral bind it, at a cost of about 600 kr. (less than 10 US $), and voilá! I had a cheap multi-purpose book that I don't hesitate to use when making shopping lists, but still has paper good enough to make drawings, sketches, and even watercolour pictures in. I am slowly beginning to decorate the brown paper cover with drawings as well.

You can use any kind of paper for this kind of project, and even mix different kinds of paper together, which is what I am planning to do for an art journal project. To cut the paper down to the size you want you can do a few sheets at a time with a rotary cutter or box cutter and a ruler on a cutting mat, or you can use a paper guillotine to do a bigger stack at once - you will find one at any print shop, some artist supply shops, paper shops and probably at copy centers as well, although they may not allow you to operate it yourself. You can even tear the paper carefully in order to get decoratively uneven edges on the pages.

As to the covers, if you don't have bookboard, you can use cardboard or posterboard or any thick paper or even plastic that will protect the inner pages. Just be careful to use something the machine that punches the holes for the spiral can handle (the first print shop I went to had old equipment that couldn't handle the bookboard, so I took my business elsewhere). I recommend paper, since it is easy to personalize with decorations, such as drawings, collage or stickers or anything you can think of.

Blank book

Another blank book I made recently - quarter bound with leather, my very first attempt at using leather in bookbinding. The leather is Arctic wolf-fish skin, dyed black. It has an interesting grain and shape, and so I did not trim the edges to make them straight, but covered the boards first with this interesting paper and then applied the leather to the spine, overlapping the paper to show off the uneven edge to best advantage.

I will probably use it as a journal on my next holiday, or I may give it to someone deserving, to be used as a diary, travel journal, sketch book (although this is not the best kind of binding or paper for that), or recipe book.



A woman in my bookbinding group has been covering books with salmon-skin leather, which has an even cooler texture, but when I went to the leather shop to look at skins, the only salmon leather they had didn't have a nice texture, so I didn't buy any.

I did buy some other kinds of leather to use on books: a small pale golden-tan goatskin (morocco), a red-dyed spotted wolffish skin and a lizard skin that I would love to use in one piece to cover the spine of a book. It would have to be a big book, like a photo album or a scrapbook. I also saw some snake skins, but decided not to buy one until I have the right book for it. They also had some cool crocodile skins, but those were unfortunately too lumpy to be used to bind books, but I think a piece of such skin would make a fine embellishment on a book cover (provided the book was not to be stored in a bookcase where it might dent the other books...).

Reading journal

I made this reading journal for myself in December and have been using it since the beginning of this year. It’s 336 pages long, a traditional hollow-back half-bound book, with Rexine on the spine and corners. The paper covering is gift-wrapping paper with decorated gilt letters copied from old books and manuscripts. That paper was a total horror to work with, and it wasn’t until the second attempt that I managed to get it smoothed onto the boards without tearing it (the trick was to use very thin glue, brush it on very quickly and smooth down the paper onto the boards before the glue weakened it). Since it is so delicate, it should become interestingly worn as time passes and it gets some handling. I have had both good and bad experiences with using gift-wrapping paper in book-making – this was one of the bad ones, but it's so beautiful that it doesn't matter.

I used regular office paper for the pages (weight: 80g per square meter), which is fine for journals as long as they are not intended for heavy ink drawings or watercolour art.

I'm back

After I finished two of the books I discussed in my previous post, I decided to take a break from bookbinding (and blogging about it) over the summer. I have started a second bookbinding course, and when I finish the books I had left unfinished from last winter's course, I plan to start learning to make leather bindings. This will call for learning a new method of making covers for books (one that allows raised patterns on the spines and covers), which I am excited about. My grandmother gave me three bags full of bookbinding, craft and clothing leather, so to begin with I will not have to worry about having to buy expensive leather to work with. I did have to order a paring knife, which is on its way in the mail.

I am now in the process of taking apart some books that I will make traditional bindings for, and I plan to make a photo essay about the steps involved. It will not be a detailed tutorial, but will be a way for beginners to become familiar with the process and learn some vocabulary.

Marzanna, if you read this, I'm sorry I never replied to your comment. I didn't want to publish it since your e-mail address was in it. The tutorial you asked about is almost finished and I plan to publish it as soon as it is done.

Books I’m working on

I have been taking a break from bookbinding while I put in new flooring and reorganised my reading/work room, but I found I couldn’t keep away from it for long. Last night I set to work on covers for two blank books I had already cut and folded and made a third bookblock and a cover for it. The covers will be dry and ready for binding when I get home tonight.

The first is made from acid-free textured drawing paper for which I simply covered the boards in white drawing paper to be decorated at will. I will add “dustcovers” from clear vinyl over the white covers to protect them from dirt. I still haven’t decided whether to bind these onto the book or to make a cover that can be slipped off, or perhaps just make a wrap cover.

The next is 8 signatures of different coloured paper in pastel colours. The covers are made from woven coloured paper. I may add some stamping or drawing before I varnish it. I also made a woven piece from some pages of the same book as the “Victoria” cover and plan to use it as a cover for a notebook.

The third is a CD book. I cut a CD in half with a utility knife, used it as a cutting guide for the paper and cut out signatures the exact size of the half CD. I will drill sewing holes in the halves and coptic bind the book. The question is: do I use the shiny side or the other side for the outside? Both are quite decorative.

I also prepared blank covers and made up signatures from high-quality drawing paper for a fourth book. I will probably cover those boards with brown paper and leave them blank for the prospective owner (myself or someone else) to decorate.

A project I have on the backburner involves a stack of A5 sheets I printed frames on in Word, using all the different choices possible and shuffling them around. I will probably cover the boards on this one with brown paper which can be decorated at will. I then intend to have it spiral-bound and will keep it with me for those occasions when the small notebook/sketchbook I always carry with me is not big enough.

A book gets made

If you are interested in a full text tutorial, please let me know.





































































Voila!

"Victoria" - torn paper cover notebook

This is my third coptic book. I made the cover by tearing up pages from an old paperback that had yellowed nicely. I pasted the pieces onto the boards and covered it with Mod Podge. This was a bit tacky when dry, so I gave it a final layer of matte acrylic sealer. By changing the way I held the book and using a slightly different method than before when I was attaching the second cover and last signature, I was able to get a tighter binding while still getting a nice chain-stitch pattern on the spine. Since coptic bindings are generally on the loose side I don’t think I am going to get them any tighter, but next time I am going to try using a curved needle and see if it makes a difference. By using a curved needle I will not have to keep the book open in two places while I sew, but only in one.


If you're wondering how a booklover like myself can possibly tear up a book - well, it had several pages missing when I got it in a box of books from somewhere and so had ceased to be readable.

Second coptic book: "Lemons"

This is my second coptic book. I’m not quite happy with how the stencilling turned out and am thinking about how to improve it. Perhaps I will make a leather cover for this one.

As in the first book, the stitching is not as tight as I would have liked, but the shaded thread I used lined up beautifully and made a nice pattern on the spine:


I think I should be able to get an even more interesting pattern by using two needles and two contrasting colours of thread. I could probably work it out myself how to make two-needle coptic stitching, but I would prefer to find some instructions :-)

Here is a close up of the stitching:
The stitches are not quite as well defined as I would have liked, but I suppose that will come with practice and perhaps stiffer thread.

First coptic-stitch notebook: "The Alphabet"

I finished my first coptic (chain) stitch notebook. The boards are sewn on together with the pages in this kind of binding, instead of being pasted down onto endpapers that are bound in with the pages like in the previous books I made. This makes for faster assembly. Endpapers are optional, but of course a pastedown endpaper is necessary to cover the inside of the boards. The pastedown can either be the first page of the book, which will strengthen the construction of the book, or a separate piece of paper cut to the right dimensions. I am relatively pleased with the result, except that the gaps between the signatures are rather large, but I expect that with practice I will be able to make tighter bindings.

When opened and laid flat, the edges of the boards touch and protect the spine. However, it is usual to put books like this into a loose protective cover, traditionally made of leather, which I plan to try soon.

The cover is coloured heavy paper and I used an alphabet stencil and acrylic paint on it. My mother remarked that is doesn’t look like a book, but rather like a piece of painted wood, which I think is right.

On the spine you can see where I drew the thread a little tight and cut through the spine of one of the signatures. This is always a possibility when sewing books. In this case I will probably cover the spine with ribbon to hide the mistake.

Polka-dot notebook

I have finished another notebook:


Back


Front


I covered the boards with an advert from a magazine. If the cover looks familiar, you obviously live in a country that has Target stores.

Since I am not selling this book but will be using it for myself, I don't think Target is going to go after me for violating their copyright, but if you are going to make books like these and sell them or even give them away, you had better make sure that the stuff you use on the cover is
a) in the public domain (i.e. copyright free),
b) under a creative commons licence that allows this kind of commercial use,
c) you can obtain a licence from the copyright holder, or
d) you hold the copyright.

I am working on using my own photographs to cover books to be sold, but using photographs or photos printed at home on photopaper is not easy, as PVA glue doesn't hold them. Using regular photocopy paper is a problem too, as laser printed photos on regular paper are rather delicate (I use this for origami and the paper shows through in every fold) and the photos I have printed with my inkjet printer tend to smear. I will probably have to invest in some special paper and ink if I want to do this, or find a suitable glue that will bond photographs to bookboard.

2 more notebooks and a couple of ideas for future books

I have finished two more exposed-spine notebooks using the same method as in the previous books, except I did not glue the ribbons down onto the covers but tied the short ones into bows instead and left the long ones loose to be used for tying the books closed or to be used as bookmarks. I put glue on the ribbons on the spine to make sure they couldn’t accidentally be pulled out.


The notebook on the right is covered with a traditional snakeskin-patterned book paper and has black ribbons and the one on the right is covered with gift paper with drawings of old books (making it a bibliobook) and has shiny beige ribbons.

The snakeskin book has brownish-gray endpapers with flecks of darker fibres and the bibliobook has marbled endpapers in shades of red:


I was preoccupied with something else when I assembled the bibliobook so I accidentally put one cover on upside down and didn’t discover it until the glue was dry:

Instead of trying to fix it, I decided to use it for myself and write only on the right hand pages until I reach the end, when I will turn it around and again write only on the right hand pages, so the text on opposite pages will be topsy turvy. That way, when full, the book will look like the covers were attached like that on purpose...

I am currently working on a photo-tutorial on how I make these books, which I will publish once the sample book is ready.

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I am also working on an A5 notebook that will have blank pages and a decorated cover and will be spiral-bound.

The next thing I think I will try is using coloured thread to sew the books and make a decorative pattern on top of the ribbons. The next book I have lined up will have red ribbons and a predominantly red cover with some white, so I think white thread will be ideal.

I think it's time I learned to use coptic (chain) stitching to sew books, as it is a very decorative stitch, especially when using coloured thread. You can even use two or more colours, depending on the number of needles you use. It will take a while until I am ready to exhibit any such books here, since there are no courses available here and I will have to learn it from books, and as everyone knows (except my friend whose first crochet project was a Christmas dress for her daughter - beautifully done and finished in record time) practice makes perfect.

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I am also thinking about using the covers from old paperback books as covers for notebooks. I buy a lot of second hand books and every now and then I come across one that either has some pages missing or falls apart in my hands and is not worth repairing. I already use the pages from such books for origami experiments, and I think using the covers would be a neat recycling idea - certainly better than having them pulped and made into toilet paper (if you didn’t know what happens to books when the paper gets recycled... well now you do).

Exposed spine diary

My mother asked me to make her a one-of-a-kind diary in A5 format, but with lined paper. This meant I could not use the blank paper I have been using for my small notebooks. I solved this by buying a cheap diary and stripping off the covers. Then I picked the signatures apart, with the inevitable loss of one sheet of paper from each signature due to the outermost sheets of each signature being glued to the next signature. The paper in those books is very thin, so I added an extra sheet of heavier paper to each signature to protect the spines (in the future I may just guard the spines of the signatures with strips of paper instead of adding whole sheets to them). Then I sewed the block up on ribbons and added colourful endpapers:






I reused the old boards to make the new cover, stripping off the black paper and the red bookcloth nearest to the spine and covering the boards with scrapbook paper. I left the red corners, which harmonised nicely with the warm browns and oranges of the paper, to show the book's origins. I then glued the boards down onto the endpaper and glued the two shorter lengths of ribbon onto the boards for extra strength. I also added some glue to the spine to hold the ribbons in place and fill in the sewing holes for extra strength. The longest ribbon can be used to tie the book closed.





I am still perfecting the technique. Because I have no book-cutter (guillotine) to use at home the edges of the pages are inevitably uneven, and because I have to cover the boards before gluing them to the textblock, I have to be very precise both when I cut them and also when I place them so that they are not uneven and the textblock doesn't stick out from the covers. But on the whole I am rather pleased with the result.

The next step will be to try ornamental stitching on the spine.

The travel journal

I am not a hard-core diarist, but every time I do some serious travelling I keep a journal. I started out using notebooks and have tried several varieties: hard-bound, softcover, spiral bound, ruled, unruled, square ruled, etc. After years of this I went on to use a book that really spoiled me: a hand-bound hardcover book that had originally been made as a gift guestbook but the maker had not wanted to give it as such because he was not quite happy with it (the Rexine covering had a couple of bulges in it), so he gave it to me instead to use as a journal. That book was such a luxury to write in and unlike the notebooks there was nothing flimsy about it. After being lugged around for four months of rough travelling, the only thing that distinguishes it, seen from the outside, from a new book is the dirty edges of the pages and the slight bulge in the cover due to all the stuff I have glued into it.

Which brings me to a slight dilemma: I glue stuff into my journals all the time. Boarding passes, bus and train ticket stubs, postcards, clippings from tourist brochures and newspapers, postcards, photographs, flowers, stickers, stamps, etc., etc. This is fine when using a spiral-bound notebook, as they can usually take the swell or be made to by removing some pages, but I hate using spiral-bound notebooks for journalling. Don’t get me wrong, they are fine for some other purposes, like taking notes in class or keeping a diary at home, but when travelling, especially on a road trip, the spirals inevitably get squashed, making the book hard to open flat without much swearing and a pair of pliers, the ends of the spirals unbend and get hooked on stuff – usually favourite pieces of clothing – and the boards, which are usually just thick cardboard, quickly start to look scuffed and ugly.

For my upcoming holidy in the USA I want another hard-bound book with nice, thick paper to write, draw and paint on. As I have been learning bookbinding I can easily make myself a journal, but what kind? I want one that will give me the following:

a) it can take the swell of all the extra things I will stuff into it without it showing on the outside,

b) I will not be left with many empty pages at the back – my journals are always a few pages short of being enough for my next round of journalling but I still feel guilty for not using all those blank pages – and

c) it looks good, preferably unique or at least appears to be one-of-a-kind. That is the problem with the ex-guestbook: it isn’t ugly, but it is covered completely in brown Rexine (fake leather to the uninitiated) with “Guestbook” gilded on the front.

I have solved problems a) and b) in one stroke: I will make up a number of signatures (the little booklets that are sewn together to make a book) before I set off. I will get a small two-ring binder and keep each signature in a plastic pocket, ready to be written in and decorated. Fastening the pages together with one staple in the middle may help to prevent loose pages getting mixed up. I will make many enough signatures that there will be no danger of running out (and even if I did, paper in standard sizes is widely available). When I get home I will bind the signatures into a book and the thickness problem will thus take care of itself because all the additions will already be in place. Those signatures left over I will bind into a new blank book, ready to be used as a journal or notebook, or perhaps I will store them to use on my next journey. The problem I foresee here is mostly to do with remembering to have big enough margins in the book so it can be trimmed after sewing to make the pages more even before I put the covers on. Of course, there is something to be said for making sure a book looks hand-made, but I’m afraid that the insertions will make the edges look not just interestingly uneven but downright tatty, so some trimming will be necessary.

As to c), the only ‘problem’ is that I have too many ideas. I am currently vacciliating between these:

1) half-bind the book (i.e. cover the spine and corners) in some interesting Rexine (I have just enough of some rather nice cloudy blue stuff, the colour of the ocean on maps), and then use a map to cover the rest of it. Just to make sure it’s made from good, strong paper I would sacrifice one of my National Geographic maps (might as well use them for something). Seal the paper, then get the title and year professionally gilded on the spine, and voilà!: I’ll have a memento of my journey to be proud of.

2) half-bind the book as described in 1) and make a collage cover from travel brochure photos and stamps.

c) Cover the book completely in one colour of Rexine and start a series that can be referred to by colour.

Of the three, I like 1) and 2) best, as they will give me some outlet for my artistic proclivity, but 3) would be very hard-wearing and classic-looking. The hardwearingness hardly matters as it will mostly just sit on the shelf to be taken out now and again to help me remember some point of the journey it describes, but the classic look is, well, classic, and at some point in the future I may grow tired of the artistic version – but of course the artistic version will also show what kind of person I was when I made it...

Notebook experiment

I have just finished making a small exposed-binding notebook that I plan to use to test the durability of scrapbooking paper as a covering for books. I have been warned that it is quick to show signs of wear, but I want to know whether it is nice, well-loved kind of wear or just ugly wear. The idea for the book came when I saw that I had some leftover pieces of binder’s board that were not in any standard book size. If this book goes well, I plan on making more.

I am also testing the relative durability of different kinds of paper and sealers. I glued strips of the different papers onto two pieces of binder's board, used three different sealers (acrylic matte medium, acrylic gloss medium and Mod Podge) and left one side untreated. I tossed them into my purse, there to rattle around with the rest of the contents for a while.

*****

My bookbinding instructor is a traditionalist. I showed her the notebook and she was horrified, especially at the semi-exposed spine and the ribbons. Judge for yourself.:




A bit clumsy, to be sure, but hardly enough for her to be rude about ;-)

*****

Technical note: The book is bound on the three ribbons which are then glued down onto the cover to give extra strength to the book. On the inside, triple endpapers and strips of mull have been bound in with the first and last signatures and the boards glued to the outermost endpaper page. The ribbon covering the spine was added because I didn't space the sewing holes quite right and one of the ribbons was a bit wriggly.

A good start and a problem with Rexine

One of the reasons I always wanted to learn bookbinding was that my grandmother had learned it and I always admired the look of her hand-bound books (the other reason is my love of books). When I told her that I was going to enrol in a bookbinding course, she said she would give me all her equipment and materials, which she had not used for more than 15 years. When I told her I had enrolled in the course she went and unearthed several bags of stuff from where she had stored it, deep in my uncle's basement, and brought me everything. This included tools like saws, scissors, files, several bone folders, a cobbler's knife, a sewing frame, two portable book presses and a gilding press, two rounding hammers, and materials like mull, thread, binding cords and tapes, headbands, binder's board, carton paper for making hollow back bindings, heavy endpaper paper, marbled paper for covering books, several meters of Rexine and three bags full of leather and fish skin leather. Not all the leather is bookbinding quality, but some of it is (including two whole skins) and the rest I can use to make bags and other stuff out of. This generous gift has saved me tens of thousands of krónur in buying materials.

All I needed to buy to begin with was bookbinder's glue, waxed sewing thread (the thread granny gave me had turned yellow), needles, and white paper to use in endpapers. The books I already had, and some of my sewing/quilting equipment turned out to be useful for bookbinding purposes, such as the cutting mat, circular cutter and heavy quilter's rulers.

I still need or want some more stuff, but I will wait a bit to buy it as I am going to the USA in the summer and can probably get some of what I need there at lower prices than here. I also want to learn to make marbled paper and paste paper for covering books with, as the only supplier for such paper in the whole country is not exactly cheap. Their supply of paper is limited and so is their colour choice for Rexine and their selection of bookcloth is very limited, which is not surprising as they primarily sell leather for crafters and artists. Book glue, brown paper and bookboard I can get at reasonable prices from art supply stores, but I can see that if I am going to be able to have my books looking like I want them to look I am going to have to find a reliable online supplier of bookbinding materials. I am sure Rexine is made in other colours than the conservative burgundy, dark green, dark brown, navy blue, bright red and black currently available here.

*****

I mentioned in my previous post that I'd had problems smoothing down the Rexine on the spine of some of the books I was binding, but it seems it may not have been my inexpert handling of them that caused the problem, but something else, namely the age of the Rexine. I forgot my Rexine at home yesterday when I went to class and so I bought some from the teacher and it was so much easier to handle than the old stuff I had been using. It was much more supple than the old stuff and instead of a couple of minutes working on one corner of a book with it, it took barely 20 seconds to get the corners done like I wanted them, and the spine coverings were so much more easy to do and the adherence to the boards was very good. As a matter of fact I even covered a whole book in one piece of Rexine and it went splendidly. However, I think I will not throw out the old Rexine, but will try to find some other uses for it, for example as a covering for a paper folder I have made to keep my scrapbooking paper in. Since that is for my personal use I will not really mind if the covering isn't perfect.

Welcome to my bookbinding journal

I should really have started this journal several weeks ago when I first began learning to bind books, but I have been too busy putting together books to give much thought to blogging, as may be seen by the scracity of new entries in my book blog.

I have been interested in learning this art/craft for ages, but never had the time to do anything about it until now, and I’m loving every minute. Not only am I learning to make new books and rebind old ones, I have also landed in the midst of a happy and friendly group of people, some of whom have been attending these courses for 20+ years, by now more for the company and access to professional equipment than any need to learn more.

After 10 classes I have finished 5 books and have eight more that only need to have their covers lined. Four of the finished books are rebinds and one is an e-book that I downloaded from Project Gutenberg. All are traditional hard-cover bindings, sewn on cords and half-bound with Rexine (a type of fake leather) and paper.





The binding of the books went well for the most part, except I obviously was not quite quick enough to smooth down the Rexine on the spines of four of the books, as it has come unglued here and there and makes unsightly small bulges on the spine, but my consolation is that they are not valuable books and I can always redo them once I have more experience.





The e-book was the most time-consuming of all of the books. I laid it out in Word and did various things to make it as readable and professional-looking as possible (e.g. changed the font and the font size), then printed it out with a laser printer (it took a bit of experimenting before I figured out how to collate the pages for printing, two on each side of an A4 sheet of paper) and assembled it. I now have to decide what colours I want on the covers of the other 8 books. I have Rexine in blue, red, two shades of green and two shades of brown, leather in black and various shades of brown, and fish skin in dark green and black, plus a variety of marbled paper, elephant-skin paper and scrapbook paper.
Choices, choices, choices.