Wooden Board Binding 13th-15th century, at PBI 2017

The thrid workshop that I had at PBI this year, was making a wooden board binding based on those made between the 13th to 15th centuries in Europe. The instructor was Renate Mesmer who is Head of Conservation at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The workshop spanned four full days but as Renate warned us on the first day, four days is not enough time to make this book. And indeed, nobody finished it. At the end of the four days, the participants had books at various stages of completion, but none were done entirely or complete with clasps. We did produce a stunning white library shelf, though, in my opinion.

We bound the sections with a herringbone sewing on double raised cords. And headbands. We did a fancy headband with many cores. Not sure I could duplicate it today.

I have this complex headband finished on just the head of my book. Although I also did a quicker bead-on-the-front headband in matching colours, at the tail of the book.

Working on the boards alone, took quite a long time. It's hard, working with hardwood. This photo shows the book after the boards are laced on and you can see most of the work done on the boards (shaping the spine edge, the indents at head and tail and fore edge, as well as the holes for lacing, pegging, etc) the spine lining, headbands, etc.

We did a full covering with alum tawed calf. The covering and tying up were the last steps that I completed.

Ideally we would have made and attached two fore edge clasps and then finished the interior paste downs. I did start a bit on one of the clasps but the four days just were not long enough! Nonetheless, thank you Renate, for such a challenging class!

I have more photographs from this workshop on my Facebook page if you would like to see them.

Book #356

Ethiopian Binding

Today's binding is an Ethiopian binding. The signatures are bound with an unsupported chain stitch, and although many of these wooden books were left uncovered, some were covered partially or fully in leather. The split braid leather headband was another traditional feature; this was my first time making them. I was so pleased with the split braids that I photographed them before attaching them to the book.

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 #271

Raised Cords & Endband

For today's binding, I did a raised cord binding with an integrated endband; so, the endbands are sewn as part of the primary binding unlike many endbands which are sewn after the primary sewing. This was my first attempt at this partcular combination, so the endbands are rather sloppy. I wish I had time to do another one right now, but this will have to suffice for today!

Book #89

Islamic Binding 2

Today's book is a typical example of Islamic bookbinding, consisting of full leather over boards with a fore-edge flap that tucks under the front cover, and hand-sewn Islamic endbands of course.

Chaekkori at The Cleveland Museum of Art

Last month, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art and toured the various collections rather single-mindedly. We were looking for books. Or book-related things.

There were a few actual books on display. Of course, they were on display for the purpose of showing the illuminated pages inside so the books were enclosed in glass cabinets. No consideration at all for the bookbinders who might be visiting! So we examined them as much as possible looking at things like clasps and headbands and discussing which ones appeared to be repaired, rebound, or with original binding features.

Books are also a very common prop in paintings through the ages, apparently. So we played a little game of "name that binding" as we found various styles represented in paintings...

... and sculptures throughout the museum.

Of course, the history of the book began long before the codex format. We found carved stone (1200 BC) and papyrus scrolls (1000 BC) from Egypt...

...as well as Chinese handscrolls on silk, porcelain plaques from Korea, and paper documents from India.

Finally this is Chaekkori, Korean for books and things. A ten panel folding screen from Korea (late 1800s) featuring bookcases filled with books and other scholarly items meant to represent a Confucian study.

Apparently the Cleveland Museum of Art also has a lot of non-book-related items too! Next time I'll try to see some of them. It is a VERY large place, though, and I didn't even come close to seeing all the collections. Next time!

Girdle Books

Another project that I was working on in the last few months, was making a few more Girdle Book journals. I have made some before and each time, I tweak the process a bit. As always with the girdle books that I make, I'm not technically binding these like they would have been done historically - I'm playing the 'artistic license card' with a lot of the details. You can read a bit more about this structure in an earlier post. This time I sewed my own endbands which, I think, is a nice touch. This is how it looks after the text blocks are ready with endbands completed.


Some of them looked better than others in the end, here are a couple of the better ones up close.


I wanted to use my own marbled papers for the endpapers too so the endbands were made to coordinated with them.



I used leather for the coverings and added either metal corners or raised bands and each one has a clasp.

More headbands

After I saw PiedCrow's tutorial for sewing headbands, I decided I could not delay any longer. I learned to sew headbands way back, like 5 years ago. At that time I did a few, but stopped and eventually decided I would never remember how to make them. Iris's instructions were great - it all came back to me. Just like riding a bike. So thanks for doing that Iris! These are all full leather bindings. With two of them I decided to make the covers a bit more three dimensional by adding raised letters and a crane.