Tag Archives: case bound

bookbinding, embroidery and textiles, projects, stuff i've made

A couple of small projects done

Bijou Books: The Biscuit 2.0

biscuit books v.2.0

Version 2.0 of the biscuit book is a great improvement on my first attempt at the thing. Coptic binding turned out to be the best binding for these, allowing the biscuit to retain its boxy profile and keeping the biscuit covers nearly flush with the text block.

The covers are double thickness, made of two thin pieces of board. Two boards were covered in a pink polka-dot paper (with the design facing the text block), and were attached to the text block during the coptic binding process. The second pair of boards were covered in felt, stitched into biscuits, and then glued over the first boards, concealing the coptic board attachment stitches.

WIP (biscuit books)

biscuit books v.2.0

The double-layer covers also allowed me to conceal the ends of two lengths of ribbon, used to tie the book closed.

biscuit books v.2.0

I was asked to make these as Christmas presents for the four granddaughters of an elderly lady I work with in the mall. “That’s what they’re getting from Nana this Chrissy: your little cookies, and a packet of sour plums each.”

Hmm…sweet and sour…there’s a secret message for you from Gran in there somewhere, girls.

Miri’s Journal

miri's journal

And, of course, there’s Miri’s journal, which I put together yesterday. By no means perfect, though it came out looking okay, as a book. I am not unhappy with it, anymore, and I hope Miri will like it, too. There’s always the next tagebuch, and the chance to make something different and better, in a few years’ time. She really uses them, Miri, which is why I delight in making them for her. It is the touch of a person’s hands, and a lifetime of being lovingly used, that burnishes and enriches the existence of a piece of craftsmanship.

miri's journal

miri's journal

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bookbinding, classes + workshops, Darwin, Australia

Learn to make six different books in 24 hours

Term 3 Introduction to BookBinding

Six different bindings—from the very simple pamphlet to a hardcover case-bound book with ‘made’ endpapers—in just 24 class hours!

Great value for your time and money, the Introduction to Bookbinding class covers six of the most useful binding techniques—often split by other teaching institutions into individual curricula—to give you a firm foundation of skills that, for most students, will be all they’ll ever need to know about the craft. No previous experience necessary, and beginners are most certainly welcome.

By the end of the term, students will have made a small stack of beautiful and diverse journals, and often take home an abiding and passionate love-affair with the craft, as well.

Use your handmade blank book as a personal diary or perhaps a travel journal on your holidays. Record your secret recipes for future generations, or keep an intimate history of your child—from birth to 18th birthday—as a testament of your love. Gather your favorite quotes and poems into one volume. Use it as a sketchbook in which to express those creative ideas, or as a scrapbook for ephemera, clippings, photos.

In an age when most store-bought presents will get thrown out when they lose their novelty, a handmade and personalised book just gets more and more precious over time and with use. While most things become ‘junk’ after a few months, a book filled with years of your handwritten words, fragments of art and snippets of life becomes an ‘heirloom’.

I will provide the paper for all of the books, as well as book board. I always have plenty of extra tools that you can borrow, and often can supply thread and adhesives, as well.

You will need to provide your own fabrics to be used as covering material for each of your books, and any decorative papers you might want to use as endpapers…don’t worry about that now, I’ll explain it in detail on the first day of class.

For a list of the basic bookbinding tool kit that you will need to get together (many of these items are probably already within your home, but the ones you don’t have on hand can be purchased cheaply from Spotlight, or possibly borrowed from me) click on the link to download a PDF:

Basic Bookbinding Kit (PDF)

Introduction to Bookbinding starts on Tuesday, the 7th of August 2012, from 6-9 P.M. and runs for 8 weeks.

For more information, or to enrol, contact the Casuarina Senior College Adult Night Classes office at (08)8920 1200

photo of finished books by my students, via the CSC ANC website

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bookbinding, paints and pens, stuff i've made

book 891

…her granddaughter gigs with Fire ’n
Ice, a skinhead punk-grunge group that performs in sheer
black nighties and clown wigs—she plays mean electric hygrometer
in the first set and then, for a twofer,

(very American, that) plays paper-and-comb. Far
out. She’s so fluent in various World Wide Webbery that nitrogen
in a thousand different inflections is her birthright, and almost any translation,
mind to mind, gender to gender, is second nature. “I earn
my keep, I party, I sleep” is her motto….

excerpt from “Sestina: As There Are Support Groups, There Are Support Words” by Albert Goldbarth

A new journal, finished today.

Covers are hand-painted in acrylics. Flat-back, case-bound, with headband. Closure is a neodymium magnet in the hand-stitched tab, and a thin piece of steel (mosquito coil holder ;) ) recess-mounted in the front cover board.

Dimensions are W 12cm. x H 17 cm. x D 4cm. Textblock is 200 leaves (400 pages) of Edición 110 gsm in avorio (ivory), endpapers are in aubergine.

Hey, this is the very first item to appear in my shop! Quite nervous about this whole selling online thing…there’s so much to learn and read up on, I’m feeling overwhelmed. How the hell do others do it?

Nothing else to say for the moment…I’m in my making zone and nothing else matters right now. What are you hanging around for?

Go! Make something beautiful…it is later than you think.

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