Book #339

Tied Tapes

Today's binding is a standard 'sewn on tapes' variety, but then bound to the case by tying the sewing supports through the spine piece. This particular example has recycled leather on the cover and matching leather sewing supports. There are a lot of examples and variations of this technique in Laplantz' book, "Cover to Cover".

Book #338

French Doors

This is called a French Door structure. There are two spines and two covers, opening in opposite directions. In this particular example, I also have overlapping pages.

Book #337

Hidden Stab Binding with
One-piece Z-fold Cover

The title of this one is probably all the description needed for today's binding.

Book #336

Panel Book

This book I made for today uses another structure devised by Hedi Kyle. It is an accordion that has a (apparent) floating panel at each of the mountain peaks. Perfect for displaying these illustrations that I salvaged from a discarded book which depict the very dated antics of Freddie and Flossie Bobbsey -- each with a helpful and descriptive caption, like, "Freddie was busy emptying ashtrays."

Book #335

Stamp. Pal. V 1075

This book is another model based on the books examined by Langwe in Limp Bindings from the Vatican Library. The original was a religious treatise from the 1500s. The stitching technique is quite tricky and I did not really master it. There is a bead, or chain, formed at the top and bottom of each row of stitching - and mine are not very consistent. The original book had 23 sections and I used only ten - it occurs to me that the chain would get easier to form and look more consistent as more sections are added.

Book #334

Arch. Cap. S. Pietro,
Campomorto, libri di grani e bestiame 10

The title of today's binding is another of the books examined by Langwe in her book Limp Bindings from the Vatican Library. She described the construction of this ledger book from the 1730s and I have used her notes to make my model shown here. In fact, this might be my new favorite limp vellum binding. The textblock is bound using unsupported link stitches with an integrated headband and then the textblock is very effectively tacketed to the parchment wrapper. It all comes together really well.

Book #333

Twisted Span

Today's book is bound with a 2-section sewing that Smith calls the twisted span. It is described in his book, Quick Leather Bindings.

Book #332

Bound Concertina Album

Today's binding is an album structure that utilizes an accordion for the spine. The valleys are bound together using sewing supports, and then folios are individually sewn to the mountains for the pages. It works well with the two-piece cover too - and I got that idea from the book "Cover to Cover" by Shareen Laplantz.

Book #331

Stem Binding

I have decided that this stitching pattern looks like little stems, like flower stems. If you are looking for instructions for this one, check Smith's book 1, 2, and 3 Section Sewings and look for the one he calls Pinched Ps.

Book #330

S. Maria in Cosmedin X111 2

My book for today is another model based on the research of Monica Langwe, as presented in her book Limp Bindings from the Vatican Library. It is a collection of loose sheets, letters, etc, contained within two gatherings. The two gatherings are then tied inside a lined parchment wrapper with turn-ins, yapp edges, and leather ties.

Book #329

Arch. Cap. S. Pietro, Puntature Bis 35

The name of this binding, shown above, is the name of a 16th Century notebook that is described by Monica Langwe in her book "Limp Bindings from the Vatican Library." Using her notes, I have created this model of that book using the same simple stitching, inside wrapper, and outer decorative paper covering.

Book #328

Armenian Binding

Today's book is one of the bindings that took a little longer than most. I made this using notes that I got from Shanna Leino and a little information from research papers that I found online. I really like how the double cords are attached to the wooden boards - then the sewing is typical of others bindings with recessed double cords. The Armenian headband and the fore-edge flap are the other distinguishing features. Admittedly, I simplified the headband by doing only a single row whereas the early Armenian bindings were triple! Next time. Next time.

Book #327

Victorian Puzzle Purse

People have been making these fancy folded puzzles for hundreds of years and for a variety of purposes - inculding love letters and Valentines. For mine, I printed the one that is shown on Nancy Rosin's website where you can also find instructions for folding. Happy Valentine's Day!

Book #326

Side Bow

And another 3-section binding from Smith's book - and I quite like this one.

Book #325

Brackets

Another 3-section binding that I found in Smith's book.

Book #324

Raised Cords for Single Sheets

There are times when it is necessary to bind a stack of sheets, rather than signatures. Keith Smith wrote a book about that too - Sewing Single Sheets, which is Vol 4 in his series of books about non-adhesive bindings. That's where I learned this particular binding, which is sewn on raised cords. When I was making the cover, I knew this was going to be Book #324, so I let that fall on there just for fun.

Book #323

Accordion Album

Today's book is in recognition of the Chinese New Year. My five-year-old came home from school yesterday drawing cherry blossoms and dragons and informed me that I needed to make a book for the Chinese New Year. So this is what I did last night. I learned this accordion album from Gabrielle Fox's book The Essential Guide to Making Handmade Books, which is a really thorough introductory book. I also had the pleasure of taking a class from Gabrielle a few years ago and she is a great teacher. I tweaked her accordion album structure a bit to incorporate a hardcover, but otherwise it is the same. As you can see, each of the pages has a different cherry blossom picture. The cherry blossoms on the third page were some that my daughter had drawn.

Book #322

SSSs

Yet another 3-section sewing that I tripled to bind a 9-section journal. When there are just 3 sections, it really does form a simple S shape.

Book #321

Ascii Robot Binding

This is actually a 3-section sewing that Smith calls Hs. I used it to sew this 9-section journal and shuffled the pattern for the middle three sections and I think the result looks like an ascii robot.

Book #320

Ts and Xs

This is another of the 3-section bindings which creates a pattern of Ts and Xs.

Book #319

Flat Back with Recessed Cords

Today's binding is quite a miniature book, actually, so the binding is a little overdone. But nonetheless, it is a flat back sewn on two recessed cords.

Book #318

Tête-à-tête Binding

Now I am just renaming things all over the place. This is another 3-section sewing that I learned from Smith's book and if you are looking in his book for instructions, it is called Diagonal Ts.