Book #181

Bobbin

This is a 3-section binding technique that Smith calls bobbin because it picks up a thread from underneath like a sewing machine stitch. So I used orange thread on the inside to create those little dots of colour on the spine, picking up on the orange in the cover paper, which is some of my own shibori paper. (If you are ever flipping through Smith's book looking for something quick and simple, don't pick this one.)

Book #180

Span & Link

A 2-section binding today, stitched through a case. The cover of this book features some handmade paper from my paper making class last month at PBI, with Steve Miller. It's a flax paper that we made, starting with long fibres that we chopped by hand and then it was cooked and beaten. We did two batches of flax, actually, one was cooked and one was raw and I have to admit that I can't tell them apart now!

Book #179

Supported Blanket Stitch

I showed an unsupported blanket stitch earlier this year, and now this is the supported blanket stitch, sewn onto split leather straps. I made this particular book in 2008 and presented it here on my blog with promises to make a better one. Seven years have passed and I never actually made another book using this binding technique! I still indend to do so, at some point...

Book #178

Loop the loop

This is another of the 3-section stitching techniques in Smith's book. Stitched through a case, featuring some of my marbled paper too.

Book #177

CSB Expander

Today's book is bound using Arregui's CSB Expander structure.

Book #176

Case Binding, paper spine

Yet another variation on the case binding. The most obvious differences being the paper spine and endsheet attachment.

Book #175

Historical Model of a wooden board binding

This model was made to learn a few historical techniques: sewing on split alum tawed thongs, drawn on wooden boards with beveled spine edge, vellum spine lining and leather spine covering, etc. Modeled after sixteenth century bindings. Since this was a model, I covered only half the spine with leather so that I could still see the sewing on one end.

Book #174

Crossed Structure Hidden

This is an example of the crossed structure binding which Arregui calls the "CSB hidden".

Book #173

Chinese Stab Binding

This is a copy of POW! by Mo Yan that I bound in a traditional Chinese format in four parts, for the Nobel Museum bookbinding exhibition in Sweden this year, recognizing Mo Yan's Nobel prize for literature.

Book #172

Dashes

Another of Smith's 3-section sewings today.

Book #171

Triangular Origami Album

Today I made this little origami album. The triangular faces each have a little picture of my daughter, who turned five years old today.

Book #170

Flexagon 2

Another flexagon today. Again made from a single sheet of paper, folded so that it can be flexed to reveal different faces. This one has more faces that the one I showed yesterday. As well, yesterday's flexagon structure required one little bit of glue to hold it together whereas today's flexagon is completely non-adhesive.

Book #169

Flexagon 1

Today's structure is a simple flexagon. Flexagons allow a number of faces to be revealed, depending on how they are folded and unfolded. There are many ways to make a flexagon if you search online; but, if you investigate flexagons too much, it becomes a very elaborate mathematical challenge to make more complicated flexagons with more faces and using different shapes (be careful)!

There are some good books about flexagons like "The Magic of Flexagons" if you want to really get into it.

Book #168

3-Piece Pamphlet

This is a hardcover pamphlet binding. In her book, Cooking the Books, Bea Nettles calls this an 'Italian Pamphlet', although I am not sure if it is truly of Italian origin.

Book #167

Lattice

One of Smith's 2-section bindings for today.

Book #166

Double False Bands

This is a single-signature book, bound using another of Smith's stitching techniques where it is sewn through the spine of a case. I don't like it but it may have some potential.

Book #165

Braided Handle 1

The stitching used to bind this book is braided along the spine. This is another of the 3-section sewings that Keith Smith has devised.

Book #164

Tegumentum subflavum

Today's book is a copy of the structure of Tegumentum subflavum, a limp binding at the Tallinn City Archives. It is an interwoven longstitch sewing. This is one of the limp binding structures explored by Monica Langwe in her book Limp bindgins from Tallinn.

Book #163

Modular Origami Booklet

After making yesterday's modular origami accordion, I was curious if I could make a book using just two of the origami panels as covers. This is the result after arranging folded pages into the folds of the main structure.

Book #162

Modular Origami Accordion

Using a modular origami technique, I created another nifty accordion book. The lovely thing about this origami structure is that it creates its own photo-corners so you can easily tuck pictures into each panel.

Book #161

Envelope Accordion

I have moved far away from the historic bookbinding techniques for today. The accordion is a very old book structure, of course, but here is a more recent innovation... making the pages using envelopes. The flap of each envelope is used to attach one page to the next. The covers are standard bookboard covered with decorative paper (these are some book pages that I marbled) and the book's content can be tucked into the envelopes - simple and tidy!

Book #160

Italian Paper-covered binding No. 6

In the early 19th Century, these Italian paper-covered books had an even more abbreviated stitching, and were not bound through a wrapper. Adhesive was used to consolidate the signatures and the covers were pasted directly to the spine of the textblock.

Book #159

Italian Paper-covered binding No. 5

Using a similar abbreviated sewing pattern as yesterday's book, this is another example where the book is sewn through a primary wrapper and then the primary wrapper is covered in a secondary paste-paper wrapper.

Book #158

Italian Paper-covered binding No. 4

Later in the 18th Century, the Italian longstitch became even more abbreviated and was sewn through one primary wrapper of stiff paper. The sewing almost looks incomplete or unplanned at this point in its evolution. My previous examples were all made with four signatures, but I used six signatures for this one to make the stitching pattern more repetitive - but I think it still looks incomplete!

Book #157

Italian Paper-covered binding No. 3

The paper-covered Italian longstitch bindings underwent some evolution and in the 17th and 18th Centuries, the sewing patterns became somewhat abbreviated. This is an example of the abbreviated sewing seen during that time. Other features that were seen were wrap-around endleaves and decorative paste-paper wrappers; this example has both.

Book #156

Italian Paper-covered binding No. 2

Today's book is another example of a paper-covered binding from 16th-17th Century Italy. It is bound using the same sewing technique, but this version has only a primary wrapper so the stitching remains visible.

Book #155

Italian Paper-covered binding No.1

The book I made for today is an example of a 16th-17th Century Italian paper covered binding where the signatures were sewn using a type of longstitch sewing through a primary wrapper then covered with a decorative secondary wrapper. I scanned and printed a woodblock design from that period and used it on my secondary wrapper.

There are a number of variations of this binding which I will show over the next few days. The models that I am making for these various Italian paper-covered, or limp paper case, bindings are based on information compiled by Maria Fred­er­icks, which she shared with participants at PBI in 2012.

Book #154

Paired Diagonals

Another of Smith's 3-section sewings today, paired diagonals, which rather looks like a two-section binding, but it is actually three.

Book #153

Woven Chain

One of Smith's 3-section sewings again today, the "woven chain" stitching.

Book #152

2-section Pamphlet

Although this is not technically a pamphlet stitch, it still falls into that general category, in my mind. This is described by Keith Smith as a 2-section running stitch.