Tricksy Folded Wrapper

This is a clever way to make a protective wrapper for a book. It is made from a single sheet of paper or folder stock. I saw this idea on outofbinding.com. She had received a package wrapped using this technique and posted photos of it on her website, calling it the turning triangle. I thought it looked like a great idea so I wanted to replicate it.

Here it is, fully open with the book in position.


A while ago, I posted the video on Instagram and several folks asked if there were instructions for making it, so I made this rough diagram to help you figure it out.

Disclaimer: This is just a sketch. The dimensions shown here are not set to fit any particular object. You should refer to the tips below to determine the actual measurements you need. Black lines are cuts and pink lines are folds.


You can click on the diagram to view a larger version.

Of course the dimensions are determined by the size of the book, or object, that you want to wrap. The dimensions are also affected by the thickness of the paper that you use for the wrapper. Thicker paper will create more obvious variations in the dimensions. I find the best approach is to have the book in place as you make each fold.

• A, B, C, D, E, F
  Each of these are based on the Height and Width of the book but there will be some small variation to accommodate the thickness of the wrapper material. A, B, C are landscape oriented. D, E, F are portrait oriented.
• G
  This piece can be used to create a flap. The height is the height of the book and the width would be determined by how much of a flap you want to have. The flap can either fold and tuck under (as in the video above) or fold it over and attach a string to wrap around. Also, it could be on the other side attached to D, depending on how you want to use it. Alternatively, it could be cut off entirely.
• H, I
  Book Width X Book Thickness, with some variation to accommodate the thickness of the wrapper material.
• J, K, L
  Book Height X Book Thickness, with some variation to accommodate the thickness of the wrapper material.
• M, N
  These should be the same length.
• The turning triangle
  From my experiments, it seems that the size of this triangle is negotiable. It can be small or large, doesn't matter. I think the key to success is ensuring that you have 90 degree angles at the two spots indicated on the diagram.

If you are familiar with other folded wrappers, this should be straight-forward. As with most things, practice is the key to making a perfect wrapper. Have fun!

Dealing with a window

Here is a little demonstration of how to cover a board that has a window in it. I am not going to include all the steps of making this book. I am just dealing with the window.

First of all, there are a few ways to do this. The method I am using here is just one option. This method should work with most covering materials. Before you undertake a project, though, it is always best to practice with the materials so that you know how they behave.

Here is my case. As you can see, the back cover already has the covering material in place. I have another piece of the cover material cut and ready for the front.

Spread paste on the back of your cover material, and put it onto the front cover, like this. Right over the window.

Flip it over, trim the corners and turn-in the head, tail, and fore-edge.

Now, the window. Cut an X in the middle of the window. Be careful that you do not get too close to the corners. Leave a little bit of the paper uncut in each corner. Here is the window, after I cut the X.

Now you can gently fold in each of the triangle pieces. Do not worry about the corners too much. For this step, just leave the corners alone. Here, you can see that I have the four triangles pasted down, but the corners are still loose.

Flip over the case and use a bone folder to gently push the cover material into the corners.

Note: There are some possible refinements to this process, such as covering the inner edges of the boards before turning the paper, but most of the time this basic approach will work quite well on its own.

Now the outside is finished. But, we still have to finish the inside of the cover. I have applied the paste-down to the back cover and I have another piece of paper ready for the front cover.

We need to cut a window in this piece of paper before we glue it to the book. If you like measuring, you can do lots of careful measuring here to figure out exactly where to cut the window so that it aligns perfectly with the hole in the cover. Or, as I have done, you can carefully place the paper underneath and trace the window.

Now you can cut out the window. It should be bit bigger than the square you traced, about 1mm larger. You can discard this little cutout.

Spread glue on the back and place it onto the cover. Now the inside of the case is finished.

Here is the book, complete with pages.

Make Your Own Leather Journal

In the past, I've offered a bookbinding kit for making a leather journal, which included all the materials and tools. After some requests, I decided to re-write the instructions so they can be used independently of the kit. So that's what I did.

This is a 9-page document, outlining the process for making leather journals like the ones shown in the photo. It's a soft-cover leather journal with a simple longstitch binding and a wrap-around cover and a strap. The document includes tips for selecting leather, detailed sewing instructions, and templates to cut out. Everything is fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions and written for people with no bookbinding experience.

The document will be sent to you by email, as a PDF file, as soon as possible after you purchase. (Please allow a few hours for me to get the notification and make the delivery). You can buy it in my Etsy shop.

No previous bookbinding experience is necessary but of course, you will have to provide the tools and materials. You will need the following tools: awl, needle, scissors, cutting mat, utility knife, and ruler. A bone folder is a good idea, but not critical. Also, you will need leather, paper, and thread.

Case Binding Video Tutorial

I get a lot of questions from people who are starting to do some bookbinding and I try to give easy answers; but, technique is something that is hard to describe in an email message. One question I get, is how to case in a textblock and keep the endpapers straight. First of all, practice many times. It's easier the hundredth time. I thought it might be helpful show a video, so here is a clip of me as I case in a text block. If this step is one that you struggle with, maybe you will see something helpful in my technique. No guarantees, though. Sometimes my endpapers are still crooked!

Bookbinding 101 - Making Paste Paper

Making paste paper is fun and messy. It is a simple process where you smear coloured paste over a sheet of paper, then make patterns in it using whatever tools you have on hand. I haven't done a lot of it, but I tried it recently and took lots of photos. And now I'm finally getting it up here on my blog.

So the first thing you need to do, is make some paste. You need to make some paste using wheat starch or corn starch, some people use rice starch or even wallpaper paste. For most starch pastes, you will probably want to make it with a ratio of about 1:8 (one part starch to 8 parts water).

Divide the paste into two or three containers, one for each colour that you want to work with. Tint the paste using either acrylic or watercolour paint. I like to use acrylic paint since it is more water-resistant when it's dry. So, add paint and mix it until it is consistently coloured. Inexpensive paint will usually result in colours that are pale so I suggest using the best quality paint you can afford.

Gather a few things to use as pattern-making tools so that you'll have them close when you're ready for them. You could use combs, forks, sticks, bone folder, rubber stamps, sponges, crumbled paper bag, your fingers, or anything that will make a pattern when pressed into the paste.

Dampen the paper before you start - dip it in a tub of plain water, or use a spray bottle to mist the paper. Let it relax then brush your coloured paste over an entire sheet of paper. I am using 80lb drawing paper here, but it can be any paper that has decent wet-strength. I also tend to start with large sheets so that there is lots of room. But you could do small sheets. I spread the paste right to the edges and onto the table to make sure the whole sheet is covered. A bigger brush or sponge will help spread the paste more quickly. Try to get a nice consistent layer of paste on the whole sheet.


Once the paper is covered with paste, grab one of your tools and start making marks in the paste by dragging it over the paper, or pressing it like a stamp, to create whatever sort of design or pattern you like. You can criss cross lines in opposite directions, do zig zags, splotches, curvy lines...etc, whatever you can come up with.

My examples are really simple - but there is an art to this process and a lot of history; the masters produce some amazing pieces.

Of course, I had to show my little boy what I was doing, so here he is at the other end of the table, doing his own paste paper. Although for him, it was really just finger painting.

If you don't like what's happening on your paper, grab the paintbrush and brush it out and start over again! Or try just adding another design over top of the first one, moving in the opposite direction.

When you are finished making the patterns, leave your paper to dry flat. When it's dry, the paper will likely be stiff and maybe curled at the edges. It can be flattened by pressing or you could try a not-too-hot iron. Though, you can also wax and/or burnish the papers if you have time, which will make them look really nice and they will be flat and less stiff.


This is what my yellow paper looked like when I was finished - and then later it was used on the covers of this little hardcover book.


More papers...


More books...



So that's how to make paste paper. Basically. If you're really interested in mastering this, there are some books available. But before you go, check out some of these links to see some great examples:

- Madeleine Durham's paste papers
- Paste papers by Sage Reynolds
- Paste papers by Peggy Skycraft
- Historic paste papers
- Paste papers by Threadborne

Bookbinding 101 - Making Paste

I've had a few people ask me about paste so here is what I know about it. I often use wheat or wheat starch paste when I'm making books. For a long time, I used wheat starch exclusively since I was able to get the starch at a local health food store for a very reasonable price; but, they don't carry it any more. Perhaps I was the only person buying it. I have seen it at the art supply store too, but for some reason the price triples when it becomes an art supply. I could extract the starch from the flour, but that's a messy process. So now I just use wheat flour. It is my understanding that paste made from wheat starch is a slightly weaker adhesive than paste made with flour; but, paste made with starch is more archival than paste made with flour.

So here is how I make paste. It's really easy. For a small batch of paste, you need:

2/3 cup cold water
2 tablespoons wheat starch or flour

For everyone who has switched to metric, that translates to:
160 ml water
30 ml flour

Some people recommend distilled water. Let the water saturate the starch for a few minutes and then whisk it until you have eliminated all the lumps.

Now put it into a pot and cook it. If you cook it on direct heat, it is important to be whisking or stirring constantly to prevent the paste from burning to the bottom of your pot.

To reduce the difficulties, I use a double-boiler to cook paste. When using a double-boiler, the paste is far less likely to burn (maybe impossible?) and it isn't necessary to stir constantly, just frequently.

Cook it for about 10 minutes. When it's hot it will be thick and runny like...glue! Let it cool completely. When it cools, it will be more gelatinous and too firm to spread around. The best way to make it smooth and easy to use, is to strain it through a cloth, like cheesecloth.

This kind of paste has a short shelf life - it will likely start to get watery and moldy within a week. It might live a bit longer if you keep it refrigerated and you can add a bit of water to your paste container - the water will just sit on top and create a seal to help delay the onset of mold. Just pour off the water when you're ready to use it.

Origami Water Lily Tutorial

This is the same water lily tutorial that had been linked from my blog for months. It was originally published on the Sixth&Elm blog as a guest tutorial but that blog is now defunct. Since it is Part 1 of the Water Lily Book Tutorial, I decided to revive it here if anybody is looking for it.

Start with a square piece of paper. Thin lightweight paper is best. Doesn't matter how big, as long as it is perfectly square. The paper I'm using in the photos is 6" square. This paper is also two different colours, white on one side and orange on the other. That makes the finished water lily a little more interesting than a single plain colour. But it doesn't matter really.


So, put the paper flat on the table in front of you. (I put the white side up because I want the orange to show on the outside of the flower and the white on the inside). Now fold it in half, straight edge to straight edge, make the crease nice and smooth, then open it back up again.


Then fold it in half again, the other way, open it up again, then flip it over.


Now fold it in half diagonally, just once. Open it up again and turn it back over.


Bring the bisected corners together, push the other corners into the middle, and the paper should fold into a smaller square. Flatten this square and smooth all the folds to make sharp creases.


Place the paper on the table in front of you with the closed corner closest to you. On the right side, lift the top layer of the paper and fold it into the middle – bring the point in to the centre of the square, then smooth the fold. Repeat on the other side.


Flip the whole thing over, and repeat those folds on the other side.


Open one of the folded corners and push the tip in towards the centre to change the direction of the fold – from a mountain fold to a valley fold. Flatten this fold and smooth the creases. Repeat on the other side.


Flip it over and do the same thing on the other side so all four points will be tucked inside. Open it up a bit, and there is your lily, yay!


Now you can make a whole bunch of lilies. I made 5. Then I stuck them all together back-to-back with double-sided tape. Now it will open up, into a big crazy star!!


Now that you know how to make an origami water lily, you can proceed to Part 2 of this tutorial and use your water lilies to make a book.

Bookbinding 101 - Getting Started

I seem to get a lot of inquiries from people who are interested in learning how to do some bookbinding. It would be nice if I could just send these people to a single magic website for some good introductory bookbinding lessons; however, that website doesn't exist yet. There are some amazing resources online for bookbinders and lots of tutorials, but I have found nothing that is as organized and dedicated to teaching basic bookbinding as a face-to-face class or a good solid analog book! For people who have never made books before, I would suggest buying either Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz or Creating Handmade Books by Alisa Golden - these two books cover many of the same techniques so you would not need to have both (ok, so you can't afford to buy a book, well, you can probably get one of these or some other similar book from your local library). The Japanese Bookbinding book by Ikegami is another great book to start with.

Aside from having a good book, I think the best way to learn bookbinding is with an instructor so if you can find an introductory bookbinding class you should get in there! Being able to ask questions is important and it is the best way to get your hands on the tools and materials so that you know what you really need to get started. But if you are trying to jump into this without books or instruction, here are some online resources that may be useful:

The CBBAG Home-study programme:
www.cbbag.ca/HomeStudy.htm

A big list of bookbinding tutorials:
www.philobiblon.com/tutorials.shtml



For people who have never made a book and want to try some online tutorials, I would recommend starting with pamphlet bindings and Asian stab bindings...for example...

• The 3-hole pamphlet binding tutorial
• A chopstick pamphlet tutorial
• Chinese 5-hole binding tutorial

Bookbinding 101 - Secret Fold Notebook Tutorial

These little books have a hardcover and the textblock is made with one piece of paper that is nicely folded up inside like some of the neat origami books that open up into fun shapes, except this just opens up into a rectangle! The paper used here is 8.5" x 14" (standard "Legal" size paper) and the finished book size is one-eighth of the original paper size. This is easy - might be fun to do with a group of kids.

So this is what you need:

• one sheet of paper for the pages
• binder's board for the covers
• decorative paper for the cover
• paste or PVA

Fold the paper in half, the long way. Crease the folded edge. Open it back up.


Fold in half in the other direction, and crease it. Do not unfold.


Fold back one quarter of the sheet as shown:


Flip over and fold back a quarter on the other side:


Open the last two folds and cut along the centre fold until you reach the halfway point. In the next photo, I’ve marked the cutting line in pencil. Cut along that line – through both halves.


Open the paper up completely.


Fold the sheet in half, the long way.


Holding the paper at both ends, push together so the middle opens up.


Let the middle flatten out to form two more pages.


Flatten the "pages" by creasing all the folded edges. Then it should fold into a nice little booklet.


Now you are ready to make the cover.

Cut two pieces of binder's board for the covers, the same width and length as the folded booklet (or just a tiny bit bigger, maybe add 1mm all the way around, but no more than that). Cut a piece of decorative paper that is big enough to cover both boards.


Apply paste to the back of the decorative paper, then place the two pieces of board side-by-side with about 1cm between them. The width of the space between the two covers depends on the thickness of your papers and boards so you might need to test it before you attach them here. But I find that it is usually about 8-10mm.


Trim the corners of the decorative paper. Turn in the edges of the paper starting with the two short sides, then the 2 long sides. Make it all smooth and neat with your bone folder and press it down into the spine area.


Apply paste to the first page of the booklet.


Place it onto one of the covers, completely coving the cardboard. Make sure the spine of the booklet is aligned with the spine gap on your covers.


Put a piece of scrap paper under the last page of your booklet, and apply paste to that last page. Remove the scrap paper, and then just close the book, pressing the back cover down onto the last page so that the last page is totally adhered to the back cover (apparently i neglected to take a photo of this step, but i think it should make sense without the visual...).

Put some pieces of waxed paper inside the book, one just inside the front cover and one inside the back cover. This will prevent the moisture on the covers from seeping into the other pages while the glue dries. Once the waxed paper is in place, close the book and set it under some weight until the glue dries. A large book or a brick will work fine as a weight. Let it dry at least 24 hours, longer if you can wait.

This little book appears to have just a few pages – but the pages open up into a large writing surface. But don't forget how to re-fold your booklet!