Little Memory Books

Small coptics. I used paper left from another book and made these books 2X2in. I wouldn't try making a book much smaller than this. It only needed one set of holes.
After I had the books I wasn't quite sure what to do with something so small and then I got the idea that I could make it a little memory book with a thought or two on each page.

Linocut Booklet

A twist on those simple Japanese bindings. I used my own linocut artwork for the cover and red waxed linen thread. The filler paper is just xerox paper that has been torn along three sides, giving it that feathered edge.

www.cjswoodlandshed.etsy.com

Heather's Guide to Turning Mistakes into Style Elements

Hey guys, we all make mistakes, but you can fix them and take your book to the next level in the process. Here are two books that i messed up on... but you'd never know if i hadn't told you, huh?

This clamshell box had a couple of glue stains on the front, so i added the 3 citrus decals to the front as well as the ribbon that matches the sweet-bound book inside the clamshell. the ribbon and the decals make the entire style of the box more cohesive. You can make decals from cut-outs of existing prints or design your own by cutting shapes from solid colored paper.

Here's my coptic binding. See those ties on the front edge of the book? Yeah, i totally punched my cover holes all the way through both covers before i realized that i had them stacked the wrong way. Way to go, Einstein! Now you have to start ALL OVER! Not so fast. I duplicated the holes on both sides of the covers and i tied extra waxed thread into bows. These keep extra notes from slipping out on the go, or slide a pencil in between there and you've got yourself a great little Journal gift!

Don't think you have to give up and start over when you make a mistake or two. Just use your happy little brain and create an aesthetically pleasing solution!
Hope this helps,

Love, Heather!
(Evans)

Sweeeeeet

I made this sweet binding using maps I got from Mr. Grape in the library and left over linen tape I had. I also made my fabric hinges using tissue paper heat-n-bonded to muslin, which is an idea I stole from Rachel. Then I had a small amount of fabric from my hinges left so I decided to make a really small clam shell box. And yes, that is an ipod shuffle in it, so you can get the idea of the size.

Good ol' punching tray





























What the flatback binding looks like inside.

















My kit of bookbinding supplies.

This is my book. I took cross-stitch sheets and bound them coptically with double-thick covers. On the front is a cross-stitched cat that I created. Inside is the story of the "Crooked Man", which is a tradicional nursery rhyme. This is my final project and my favorite book because it was my most creative.

Coptic

Here is one of my coptics. I really loved this paper, and the way working with dark thread turned out. I like the knob too, even if it is a little impractical. It's cute. -Betsy Sieber

I loved the coptic, so I made 2 of them. one coptic, one sweet binding, and my flat back(not shown) are all matching to go into my clam shell. I had a lot of fun making these crazy patterned books!

Children's Book

I wrote and illustrated in children's-book-fashion the love story of my husband and me. I made the book for our future children (I am expecting our first baby now). I wanted the book to be able to survive the destructive little hands of kids, so I made each page out of binders board. Because of this I could not use any of the binding techniques we have learned in class (no signature to thread in and out of). So I invented my own single-sheet binding.

Needlepoint Flatback

Here's my flatback book. The cover is made out of a hideous needlepoint housewarming gift I got back in May.

It's got six signatures because six is rather a good number. Especially where I come from.

It probably would have been a better idea to laminate the needlepoint first, before attaching it to the cover (I used an iron-on heat and bond deal to attach the yarn to the board) to eliminate the possibility of edge fraying and falling off. Next time.

Here's another shot of the front and back:

book press

There is one way to press a book, and more than one way to use one.


If you've ever taken a Shakespeare class at BYU you recognize this book. It's a good one in many ways, both for containing the complete works of William Shakespeare, and being large enough to press just about any book...although you probably viewed this as a downside if you had the class, I know I did at the time. At any rate, a book/stack of books and a board, like a drawing board, are very helpful in pressing ones books

I had some trouble with this one, and though I LOVE my flatback i think i should have gone smaller on my first attempt :)

scrappy scrapbook

daisy shell box

l  I had alot of fun with this one!

i made a matching baby book sweet binding to fit inside... also covered in daisy's :)

Green Coptic

I wanted to do a book out of mostly recycled materials so I made this. I made the bookcloth out of an old rice bag and the pages are made out of old newsprint and paper grocery bags. The paste downs are from pages in a magazine. I ended up really liking it though I admit that it was a little bit difficult to work with the burlap sack.

In case you are wondering, yes that is Barack Obama and yes that is David Archuleta's signature.
--Matt Dinger (you won't recognize my name from my blogger id)

my favorites

Here are some of my favorites from this semester.



An almost all pink book for a favorite 3 year old. It was just by chance I found some great pink paper. The end papers didn't work quite how I wanted because the paper was a little too thin, but it was a fun experiment anyway.




This is a modified sweet binding. Instead of using a whole panel of binders cloth around the first and last signatures, I used only strips, and it was of the same wallpaper as the covers. I loved the effect of the twist in the ribbon. I watercolored the edges of the paper.




And this little matching set is just too cute. They are quite small, and the paper on the covers really is shiny like it appears in these pictures. The eyelets on the coptic are actually pieces from an old necklace that I never wore anymore. (It is fun to figure out how to use stuff I already have!)

Christmas Gifts

I decided that because finals are crazy and Christmas is just around the corner that I would use some of these projects as an excuse to make gifts for friends and family.  I decided to use a sweet back bound book as a journal for a friend (with a button and thread as a decorative closure) and using the clamshell box as a handmade box to hold family photos.  

Here are my favorite books... I am glad I took this class!

 my pretty floral sweet binding
 I had fun carving the cover on this coptic binding
 green aerial maps in flat back binding
 covered with khaki skirt scraps
 brown and yellow maps (with a few green accents) in coptic binding...
covered in soft microsuede

Just plain cute

I learned how to recover a tiny Book of Mormon! It was a lot of fun. I gave it to my sister-in-law for her birthday and she said she loves to just sit and look at it. I made this sweet binding with a hook and loop sort of enclosure; I used a fabric covered brad used for scrapbooking instead of a button.

Comic Coptic

For my final project I decided to bind some Spanish Superman comics that I had on hand. I covered the front and back with Superman scrap booking paper and stitched the book with blue thread. Some of the comics were a little thicker than others and I debated whether or not I wanted to take some of the pages out of the thicker ones. I ended up leaving the comics in their original condition so some of the signatures are a little thicker than others but it ended up not making a huge difference in the binding.

Comfortable Creativity

So, I always thought that I have a creative side. It seems that at times, my creative side is best expressed when I am comfortable with something. Here is a photo of my first flat back. I have to admit, I like the half tattered edges. Now onto the joy of filling it with ideas and designs, my thoughts spilled out onto pages and now into seams hand sewn and pressed in bone. 

Give Away Book

I had fun making this book. I think it was a flatback stitch, etc, and then I put leather over it, a kind of a 3/4 binding, but with leather. It doesn't wrap around the binders board itself, just around the whole book. Obviously it's also deckled. The finished product looked really cool.

yellow sweet binding

I love the sweet binding. This is my first sweet binding. I really like this style of book because there are so many elements to it that can make it unique. For this book I had another vision in mind, but it turned out a little more creative because of problems that arised. :) I was orginally going to make it a litter bigger and because that didn't work out, the ribbon I had purchased didn't fit. So I ended up just using one strand of ribbon, which I think turned out really cool and because it is such a small book it wasn't really a problem. With the button I just glued it on for looksies.

Everyone Loves a Sweet Binding

I made this sweet binding as a gift for a friend. She didnt really appreciate it, so that sorta sucked, but it was fun to make. I think the stitch is so beautiful that I used skinny satin ribbon to replicate it on the cover of the book.

After covering the binder's board with bookcloth and before I attached the cover, i used a ruler to mark 2 columns of holes down the binder's board. I think i placed them 1/2 inch apart horizontally and maybe 1/4 inch apart veritcally (I can't remember for sure). At first I just poked small holes with my awl, and then after I had marked them all, I used the awl to make holes all the way through the cover. I made the holes just big enough to fit a needle threaded with ribbon.

After poking all the holes, I trimmed the volcano things off the inside of the cover and burnished the board flat with my bone folder, just like you would for a coptic binding.

To sew the ribbon through the cover, I started from the inside at the bottom left hole, leaving a tail of ribbon inside the cover a couple inches long. I went directly across to the coordinating hole in the right hand column and then on the inside, up to the second hole from the bottom on the right side and back out to the front. On my way back over to the corresponding hole on the left side, I picked up the stitch that connected the two bottom holes, careful not to pull the tail of ribbon through the cover. I just repeated these steps until I got to the top, and tied the two ends of ribbon together on the inside of the cover. I could have debossed the cover, so when the endpapers were glued down, it would have been smooth, but I decided not to worry about it.

Sorry for the long explaination. I just thought I would write it all out in case anyone else wanted to give it a try. This was probably my favorite book I made this semester, and I'm sad i gave it away.

Another Sweet Binding

Here is my sweet "sweet binding." I chose different colored paper and alternated them to create a nice striped effect. I used linen tape for the binding and brown thread. I hope you like it...

Printing Signatures

For this project I printed text on my signatures for a flat-back book. I created the format in Microsoft Word by going into page setup and selecting landscape and book fold. I wanted a book with 8 pages in a signature (4 folded pages) so I selected 16 pages for each booklet (because they are double sided). Then I made the margins bigger on three sides so I could deckle the edges latter.

You can make a small book using regular printer paper and cutting it in half. Because I wanted to make a bigger book, I had to cut paper down to 8 ½ by 11 so that the grain was going the short way.

The hardest part was printing the book. It took me a while to learn how to print on both sides of the paper. Most computers will give you instructions while you are printing, but I recommend doing a test print with a smaller signature first.

Using What You Have

I don't know about everyone else but I know that, while I love bookbinding, it can be hard to do it when the materials can be so expensive, so when I want to make books but don't have the money for supplies, I go looking around to see what I have that I can use. For example, I used a New York City metro map for the signatures in this book. Not really a book for writing in, but still a fun book. According to Natalie, there's a Mr. Grape, who has an office on the second floor of the library (I think) who will give bookbinding students old maps for free. Something to look into...even though I haven't.

Another way is to use old paper from art projects or other books. I found that I had a bunch of glassine from when I was in printmaking classes and so I used it in a book for either tracing or keeping pieces in to protect them.


More map use. Bus and Subway maps can look really cool and can usually be found for free.


These are just a few ideas on reusing things, I'm sure there are many more out there and better ones as well.

"Sweet" Binding Examples

Rounded, coptic, flatback, sweet.....

Sweet binding, flatback binding.

Sorry that the pics are a little bit blurry, but here's a few examples from my classes. These were just quick shots I took at the final to post here on the blog so you can get ideas. Some students used leather, some used linen tapes, and others have used ribbon. It always amazes me how impressive your final work is!

Here's another fun example of something you can print on the interior of a text block. Great example! Amy was this yours? Sorry, I should have posted all these earlier, so I could do my credits more thoroughly! Email me or send me a comment, and I'll add your name to your work. :)

Little Embossed Coptic

Thought I'd share this little book that I made for my shop.

Paste Paper Examples

Some great examples and links (click on the photo for original source information) for paste paper.

Wheat Paste

To make Wheat starch paste you need: wheat starch (usually about $1 per bag), water, blender and a fine mesh sieve.

1 "part" wheat starch
7 "parts" water

Decide on a measurement. When I make this for class I use: 2 cups = 1 part and it makes tons.
You decide how much you would like 1 part to be. It could be 1/2 cup or 1T, or 2 cups, or whatever, but that is the ratio of water to starch.

1. Reserve 1 part wheat starch, and 1 part cold water. Mix to make "slurry."
2. Boil 6 parts water, when boiling slowly add "slurry" while constantly stirring, and boil until semi thick (about pudding consistency - this should not take long).
3. Pour through sieve into air tight container.
4. Chill overnight, it will set up and be almost like jello, but weirder.
5. Blend in blender or food processor until smooth, adding water one teaspoon at a time if necessary to make desired consistency.
6. Pour through sieve 1-2 times more to remove any tiny remaining lumps.
7. Use, and store in refrigerator for up to a week, or until it goes bad.

Lecture Update

Deborah Wender

• Time: 7:00 PM
• Date: Thursday, September 6, 2007
• Place: Library Auditorium

Click here for a link to BYU's website: About the Event

There will also be a class offered at the University of Utah the following day.

For more info and for information on book arts classes offered at the Univ. of Utah visit their web page.

Book Presses

Traditional Book Press

Cassandra's Homemade version

A great and easy (not to mention economical) way to have a press at home is to have some boards cut down at a local lumberyard, and use C-clamps to "press" your books. In the pictures on this post Cassandra used c-clamps, but I've also seen many people make presses using long bolts and drilling holes in the corners of the board.

Japanese Bound French Fold Album

This album has French folded pages, meaning that there are folds on the fore edge of all of the pages. The actual binding is a simple Japanese style. The hinge is bookcloth, and the rest of the cover is covered with paper.

Japanese Binding with ribbon

A quick project for any single sheets you may have left over from a book. The holes were punched with a 1/8 in punch and then bound with satin ribbon. (thanks Mark W for all the photo help).

Visiting Artist

Tuesday June 12, 7pm

Julie Leonard
* Time: 7:00 PM
* Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2007
* Place: DeLamar Jensen Lecture Room, 1130 HBLL

While working as a book designer in Boston, Julie Leonard began studying bookbinding, decorative paper techniques, and hand papermaking. She was awarded a three year artist-in-residence position at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina in 1990 and maintained a bindery in the area until 1997. Julie holds an MFA in Design and Graduate Certificate in Book Arts from the University of Iowa’s Center for the Book. Julie divides her studio time between producing limited edition and unique artists’ books and fine press edition binding. Her work has been exhibited and is held in collections throughout the nation.
© 2006 L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Julie will also be holding a workshop at the U, for more details read the Deseret News Article on the upcoming visit/lecture. For BYU's Harold B. Lee Library blog link, click here. Take a look at this link for future book lectures.

Unique Ideas & Lecture Series

Bonny sent me a link to these (over on the right in the Fun Links category). They are called scary nightmare journals. So interesting, and creative.





Another fun idea, the artist says: "I started by removing the old marked-up pages, and replaced them with crisp new acid-free heavyweight #60 unlined drawing paper, handmade art papers, and tracing papers. I've included several of the more salvagable pages from the original text. These would make a great foundation for your own collage work, or you could use a bit of white gouache to create a space for your writings. Perhaps, you could let the bits of story inspire your own writings.

I then replaced the old plain endpapers with ones of a lovely art nouveau floral pattern, that matches the color on the cover. The cover itself remains unchanged."

The link is "vintage cover" click there to see more of their work.



This is the flyer for this year's set of book arts lecture series. Come and bring a friend. Or two.

Baby Book

This book is for my Sister-in-Law's new baby girl. I bought some nice vintage-looking flowers when I went home last month and bought the frabric and ladybug buttons specifically for this book. It took me nearly an hour to finally pick out some fabric! But it turned out nice and I hope she uses it! When you have children...keep a baby journal of them..my mom did and they have made all the difference in our relationship.

Bonny's work winter semester 2007

Coptic Bindings


Sweet Binding (exposed spine)


Accordian Fold


Clamshell Boxes


Bonny was in my class winter semester and made all kinds of fun bindings. Here's a few she sent me from her final projects. She liked to go above and beyond. Instead of just one final she turned in at least five.