Suede & Leather - Book No 0015

Another experiment here. I cut 3 strips of soft red suede, and wove them through slits cut in plain leather cover. I then long stitched the signatures into the covers, as per Keith Smiths "Long Stitch through Slotted Wrapper Cover" (Vol I, pg 141). Not entirely successful sewing, I need more sizes of threads. The thread I used was too thin, I think, as I couldn't line it up very well on the spine. No matter, it feels great now it's finished.

Book No 0015. 6x8.5 inches (16x21 cms)

Keith Smith Pamphlet Binding - Book No 0014

Here's another Keith Smith double pamphlet binding I've recently made. I'll post some time soon about approx 250 sheets of mostly handmade papers I've recently bought online for c£60.

This pamphlet is entirely made from some of those papers. As have been my Books 0008, 0009, 0010 & 0011.

Sewn with black thread, the outer cover is a very beautiful stiff paper with a leather like look and feel. The inner cover is a marbled paper of sorts. The pages are made from torn down mulberry papers of 2 alternate colours - yellow and orange. Keith Smith calls the binding Pinking Shears with Bars (see Vol 2, Pg 74). Unlike my previous post, I'm really pleased with this book.

Book No 0014. 5x7 inches (12x17 cms)

Unsupported Blanket Stitch Binding - Book No 0013

It's been a while since I've posted. This is what I've been working on. A Keith Smith binding that he calls the Unsupported Stitch Binding. (see Vol 3, pg 219). I've modified it slightly, in that I've stepped the length of each alternate stitch.

As the sewings aren't linked to one another, I used 2 colours of thread, alternatively brown and black. The pages are made with alternate sheets made from my own handmade papers 0001 & 0002. The ply boards i made from a cheap crate i found at the local garden centre - it was one of their free boxes to help you carry your plants home in, but the ply base has particularly attractive grain pattern.

I don't consider this book a complete success. I used both straight and curved needles, but i couldn't get the boards tight. This shows up in the second image, you can see the bottom board is loose. The back board, the last to be sewn, is particularly loose. More practice needed I guess!

Book No 0013. 4x6 inches (10x15 cms)

My Series of Books so Far

And, finally for tonight, a self indulgent hastily thrown together view of some of my books made so far. I like seeing other peoples 'bookshelves', so I thought i'd lay mine out quickly. I'll probably do this again some time, but I thought you might like to see this. So, let's see an update of all your bookshelves out there, for the rest of us to enjoy.

Japanese Stab Bindings with Mizuhiki Cord - Book No 0012

A couple more experiments with the Japanese Mizuhiki Cord. I made these two simple Japanese stab bound books. One has very stiff and thick coconut fibre paper? covers, the other has stiff card covers. Both have pages made from a handmade sheet with petal inclusions.

As with the Keith Smith pamphlet binding, I didn't use a needle, but just had to re-stab the holes each time i pushed the cord through. As the cord is slippery, the trick was to bend or crease the cord at each turn around the book. This just about kept the cord tight. This time i did tie the cords off - on the back!, rather than try to tie off inside the spine area as is usual with these books.

The decoration on the coconut cover, is just the cord strung through holes pierced in the cover. The image at the bottom is the inside of he cover, where this time, I didn't tie off, but used the trick from the pamphlet, where I bent the cord back on itself at the end of the sewing, and looped it around the sewing without re-piercing the cover. This is very tight, and won't come loose in general use.

Book No 0012 - 8 x 5.5 inches (20 x 14 cms)

Japanese Mizuhiki Cord Pamphlet Binding - Book No 0011

This is the second of my Keith Smith bindings, this time I've experimented and bound it with the Japanese Mizuhiki Cord I've bought. The 24 page section is made of thin brown and green handmade paper with plant fibres. The cover is a heavy paper with tinsel inclusions. I kept the book quite large for this experiment, so I had enough space to handle the cord.

I chose a simple binding which Keith refers to as a dash sewing (vol II, pg 20). I pierced the section and spine on my sewing cradle, and as the cord is quite thick, I made sure the holes were quite big. I didn't use a needle, as the cord is stiff enough to support itself. Once I'd laced up the spine, I had the one end protruding through each end of the spine to the inside, and needed to tie them off. As this is a paper cord, I found that rather than try to tie a knot, i could just fold or kink the cord back on itself, and loop the head end down to the tail through the lacing, and vice versa with the bottom cord by bending it back up the spine, and looping it through the lacing. The third image below should illustrate what I did.

This actually makes a very strong binding, as the kinked cords won't 'unkink', and a knot is not required.

Book No 0011 - 6 x 9.5 inches ( 16 x 24 cms)

Japanese Mizuhiki Cord

I don't suppose there's any reason why I should have heard of this cord before, but I haven't, and when I saw some online, I just had to bid. There is an explanation here, for those of you who don't know about this. Wikipedia contradicts the explanation on the above link, and says "The cord is created from rice paper, that is tightly wound, starched to give it stiffness, and then colored". Oh well, I'll leave it to you guys to investigate further if required. My cords appear to be wrapped in a foil like paper. The photos below don't really do the colours justice, they are extremely vibrant.. I have an idea I will try a couple of Keith Smiths pamphlet bindings with them, although i suspect they will be difficult to use, as they are a bit stiff to use as threads. I'll post my experiments, and you can judge. There are 40 cords, each 0.9m long.

My First 'Keith Smith' Binding - Book No 0010

I now have volumes I, II & III of Keith Smiths bookbinding books. As a beginner, I'm drawn to his 1, 2 & 3 section pamphlets in volume II. They seem the ideal quick booklets to practice on. Hence this little book here.

I tore down 2 large sheets of thin mulberry paper for the single section in this book. One red sheet, and one pink sheet, and interleaved the pages. To get a nice deckle edge to the pages, I creased and wetted the folds, before gently tearing them down. The covers are a stiff hand made paper with a few petal inclusions.

Keith refers to the stitch I used as the Laced Dash Sewing (vol II, page 21).

Book No 0010 - 5x7 inches (12x17 cms)

I've also bought a simple rubber lettered printing kit, and (if I remember), will try to stamp all the books I make from now on with the following