Last Year

Every year I start by apologizing that I have not been updating my blog. There were a few things last year that I had intended to share here on my blog, though.

Hedi Kyle Workshop
I had the pleasure of attending this workshop last June. Hedi Kyle was in the neighborhood and conducted a workshop at NSCAD. She introduced several techniques and structures and folds that she has come up with over the years. Some of the things we did are included in her book, Art of the Fold, but she also had us doing some newer things too that aren't in that book. So that was a good time. Here's a sample of some of the things I made in that workshop.

Centre for Craft Nova Scotia
As usual, I taught a number of workshops at the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia over the course of the year. This included bookbinding, box making, and marbling. So, here are a few pictures taken during those workshops, showing what the students accomplished.

'Know How' Instructor Exhibit, Morgan Conservatory
Last year, the various instructors teaching at the Morgan Conservatory were invited to submit work for a small exhibit called "Know How," which was on display there last summer. I made these two books for that exhibit. They are both full leather, split-board library bindings. The larger book is a classic 1980s detective novel by Teri White, called "Bleeding Hearts." The smaller book is a blank companion journal, made to match.

Cleveland Museum of Art
When I was in Cleveland to teach at the Morgan Conservatory, I had a chance to visit a Medieval Monsters display at the Museum of Art. Much of the exhibit consisted of illuminated manuscripts like these.

Every day projects
In between the workshops and such, I spent most of my time just doing the work, day to day. This included making journals to sell in a couple of shops, hand binding lots of theses for local university students, plenty of book repair (mostly cookbooks and bibles), a few small editions, custom boxes, etc., etc.

I've probably forgotten something interesting, but that's a little taste of 2019 and a few examples of stuff that I could have posted about here on my blog, if I had been more organized. Onward into 2020!

Book #357

Piano-hinged Collapsible Star

The structure of today's book is another one that Hedi Kyle devised for using the piano hinge technique to attach the folded textblock and two separate cover sheets. I had this technique on my list, from very early in my 365 bindings endeavor but messed it up several times; however, after some experimentation, I think I finally got it to come together as intended. There are instructions for this structure in Keith Smith's book, Non-adhesive Binding Vol 1.

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 #85

Pocket Folder Notebook

For today's book, the cover is made using the same folding technique as yesterday's booklet. This time, though, a signature is sewn into the middle fold to create a single-section notebook and all those little pockets are still available for storing various odds and ends.

Book #84

Pocket Folder Booklet

Once again, my book of the day is a folded structure of Hedi Kyle's invention. As you can see, my closed booklet is very unassuming, but inside there are several nooks and crannies for tucking or attaching other papers.

Helen Hiebert's book, Playing With Paper, has instructions for making this structure.

Book #82

Fishbone Book

This was entirely new to me until just a few days ago and it was fun to experiment with it. This fishbone fold structure is another technique from Hedi Kyle with instructions on the Green Chair Press blog.

Book #41

Piano Hinge Binding

I made a piano hinge binding for today. This is another binding structure devised by Hedi Kyle.

There are piano hinge instructions in Playing With Paper by Helen Hiebert.

Book #23

Crown Book

Another nod to Hedi Kyle today. This is a variation of her Blizzard Book structure that incorporates a cover. The cover is made from the same sheet of paper as the folded spine. Since it is called a crown book, this particular example that I made has the Keep Calm crown on the first page and then it lists steps in the bookbinding process. Keep Calm and fold paper and measure twice and press overnight and collate, etc...

Book #22

Blizzard Book

One of Hedi Kyle's well-known structures is this, called the Blizzard Book. The pages of this structure are bound together using an intricately folded spine piece. I made this one with folded pages but the pages can also be individual flat cards so the structure lends itself well to accommodating simple printed pages.

Hedi Kyle's instructions for making this are in "The Penland Book of Handmade Books."

Secret Belgian Binding - not a secret anymore

A few years ago, I posted on my blog a list of historical bindings that I wanted to revisit. One of the bindings on that list was the Secret Belgian Binding. The history of this binding was obscure and, other than it being somehow Belgian in origin, nobody seemed too sure about it. As it turns out, it's not even an historic binding!

Hedi Kyle and Emily Martin were both at PBI last month, and they have been the unofficial experts on this binding. So, as I'm sitting across the lunch table from these two, I made some mention of the Secret Belgian Binding. I don't remember my question, and it doesn't matter, because the two of them became excited about telling me the important news: they found the person who invented this binding! Anne Goy invented the Secret Belgian Binding - and she does indeed, live in Belgium.

In the 1980s, Anne Goy developed this binding because she really liked the look of the Japanese stab bindings, but wanted a structure that would open fully. She showed the binding structure to a few people, they showed a few people, and they showed a few people, etc. Eventually the origin of the structure was obscured but its popularity had spread across the globe.

Thank you, Anne Goy!

The other classes at PBI

Sadly, one cannot attend all the classes offered during PBI. One has to settle for three. But one does have the opportunity to fondle and drool over the work done in those other classes. Although excessive drooling is frowned upon.

There was a wide range of classes offered. People were folding papers, studying pigments, making pastels, making paper, marbling, making conservation boxes, paring leather, sewing endbands, sanding and drilling, and just generally being very creative.

First coveted class, was Hedi Kyle's paper folding. A few samples from the class:


Luckily, the people who did take this class were very generous to share some of their new folding skills afterwards so I did pick up a few new tricks.

Another coveted class, Shanna Leino's Armenian binding. Delicious samples:


She also shared some info with the rest of us who were unable to be in her class, so I have some notes on this binding...must try it soon.

And holy papermaking! Andrea Peterson's papermaking class did such amazing things with pulp!


And in the end, I think everyone wishes they had been in Dolph Smith's class. They produced fabulous works of art in this class - the books were difficult to photograph because they were very sculptural and multi-dimensional, but here's a couple:


Obviously, a good time was had by all!

Blizzard Book

I recently got a little Blizzard Book kit from Green Chair Press. This book structure involves no sewing and no adhesive. All folding. The spine is folded to create little pockets. Then the pages are single sheets which simply slide into the pockets. This Blizzard Book structure was invented by Hedi Kyle - apparently during a blizzard, hence the name.

The kit from Green Chair Press included the materials to make one book, about 4cm x 4cm.

At one point I thought I might not get through it, the folding of the spine was not going well at all. But I survived and produced this little book shown here. I like it.

Secret Belgian Binding

The Secret Belgian Binding was my next project on the list of historical bindings to do. I wish I knew more about the history of this binding; there is very little information available online and none of my books have any details.

I learned this in a class with Susan Mills. I believe the binding was unearthed by Hedi Kyle, and it has been dated between the 14th and 16th centuries. Story is, this type of binding had been long lost and forgotten until Hedi came upon it and she figured out how it was done. It is thought that it was a special binding method of a particular binder so it was never widely known. If you have any more authoritative information about this, please let me know. Don't bother sending me the Wikipedia link because I wrote that myself.

Now I remember why it has been so long since I did it. It's too tedious! But, nonetheless, I persevered and completed these two black and whites this week. I cheated a little bit. The covers are covered with self-adhesive papers - so I didn't have to wait for any glue or paste to dry. But they turned out fine, the proportions are nice, at 480 pages thick, and nice to hold. I still don't want to start making them very often, though.