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)

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)

Tibetan Handmade Book

I recently bought this gorgeous little Tibetan book online for less than £1. It has 7 sections of 20 odd pages. The pages are handamde paper with petal inclusions. The paper covered cover is held by a multi-coloured cord, and small wooden toggle. That's a strip of bamboo on the front.

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.

Handmade Paper Sample Book

This is another online purchase. This was less than £1. Its a book of sample handmade papers. There are 12 different papers - 3 sheets of each - total 36 pages. They are a wide and varied set of papers, inc: a snake skin design, a marbled paper, printed papers, embossed papers. Some thick, some thin, most are coloured papers. All cord bound in a beautiful, marbled paper covered, stiff boards. Overall book size is 8.5x6.5 inches ( 22x16 cms ) Does anyone recognise this book? I've purchased a second set from a different vendor also for less than £1. So they must be made in bulk somewhere. I've an idea i will strip out the papers leaving one of each, and adding pages from the lots of other handmade papers i have, so building up a big sample book of papers I've used.

Charlotte Clowes Handmade Paper Still Life Picture

I bought this online recently for less than £5. It's a Charlotte Clowes original. The seller didn't advertise it as such, just calling it a handmade paper picture. See here for Charlottes website. Its beutifully made, and very vibrant - much more so than these images show. It's 9x9 inches (22x22 cms).

Hell Bank Note Bank-Note-Books

While looking on Ebay for some bank notes to make into my Bank-Note-Books, i found these Hell bank notes. The biggest is huge, it's 18x8 inches (45x20 cms), and the smallest is 5x2.5 inches (12x7 cms). They are designed to be burnt as offerings in Chinese worship. See wikipedia and BigWhiteGuy in Hong Kong for more info. I won't be offering these as my swaps, see here if you would like to swap something book related for my other Bank-Note-Books (and a few of my hand made papers).

Green Chair Press - Blizzard Book Kit - Book No. 0005

I purchased this little book making kit "Making Blizzard and Crown Books" from Green Chair Press. It arrived safely within days of ordering. It contains, as a kit should, all the parts needed to make the 6 page folded blizzard book as shown below. The materials were top class, and the instructions easy enough to follow. A delightful book. I will now get on and make some bigger versions, and Crown versions. I also bought the "Single Sheet Books" kit at the same time, and will report back on those as soon as i've made them. Thoroughly reccomended

Book No. 0005 - 1.5x1.5 in (4x4 cm)

Click here for the Green Chair Press Blog

2 Handmade Paper Purchases

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Heres a couple of images of some framed papers i bought on Ebay. I've taken them from their frames to have a better look at them. .

This sheet has gold leaf? in it, is very soft, and quite thick..

This sheet has threads and silver foil in it, appears to be sized, and is partially translucent.

Both are delightful examples of the papermaking art.

Does anyone recognise them?.