Book #242

Loose-Leaf Book

Today's book might not be considered a book because it is not a codex. In "Books, Boxes and Portfolios," Zeier considers collections of loose pages to be books and defends their status as true books in spite of contrary opinions elsewhere. My example is a traditional Japanese case that I made specifically to house a collection of art prints.

Some boxes

One of the courses I took at the Dawson Print Shop was a full term of boxes and portfolios and I did many boxes in many forms... a lot of small decorative boxes that were never photographed. But when I was sorting my digital photos, I found some that actually were photographed and decided to share them here as well. A couple of "magic boxes". The cover can be lifted from both sides, revealing either one or two of the three interior compartments: A drop back box, custom made for housing a set of journals: And a couple of Japanese boxes. I skipped a step when I was making this red box, and had to fashion an inferior closure as a result. But it works for storing my thread. The blue and gold box is one that I made by request for someone who wanted it for a collection of wrist watches. I've been uploading some of these older photos to Flickr as well. You can see these and a few other boxes in the "box making" set. I've also added several photos of leather journals and other early work like the things from my last blog post here. And by "early work" I mean, well, anywhere from 2 to 6 years ago. I took a lot of photos but I rarely dated the photos or the books so often I'm unsure exactly when something was done... I am trying to be better about that now... Trying to get better photos now too, some of these older photos are terrible!

Samples of work 2001-2006

Blue and sage leathers inlaid, lined on the inside with handmade paper. Long stitch binding through the spine and decorative stitching on the covers in white linen. Hardcover multi-signature coptic sewing. Black leather with raised letters on the front. Portfolio case custom fit to this book. I backed the fabric myself. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering. Japanese box. Dark green book cloth with paper lining. This is now my bookbinding toolbox. Japanese wrap-around case, custom fit to these two Japanese butterfly books. Rebound copy of Jonson's Lives of the Poets. Leather spine and new cloth covers. I found this cloth at a drapery store and backed it myself. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering. Rebound copy of the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music. This was originally a perfect-bound paperback. Brown bookcloth spine and hand marbled papers. Leather label on the spine with gold lettering. Rebound copy of The Cat in the Hat. Scanned then printed the image for the new front covers. One of my first attempts at making a girdle book. 'Our Stars' - Accordian fold artist's book with flaps and pockets, pull-out tags, found images, and quotes. Japanese multi-page scroll. Accordian fold with little pamphlets sewn into some of the valleys. This was made as a birthday card with photos and text. Little Red Riding Hood tunnel book. A case structure, with the tunnel book attached on one side and a pamphlet containing the story attached to the other side. Expirimental binding: sections sewn onto stiff hemp twine. Leather cover. Photo album and matching photo storage box. Japanese chyiogami paper. Japanese stab bindings, hemp leaf pattern.