'Swap' No 0006

So, not a swap as such, but I saw these customiseable Scout Books by Pinball Publishing, advertised on web, and just had to order a free example. I do have my own business, so these may come in useful for that one day. They are very nicely made books, and you can upload your own artwork for the covers, etc. Pinball have recently reduced their minimum order to 50 books for $150, so all in all, a pretty good deal.

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)

Swap No 0005 - My Handbound Books

Over to Canada this time, to Rhonda at My Handbound Books. I was a little slow off the mark in posting my end of the swap, and consequently, my package from Rhonda arrived before I'd posted mine!

But, i was blown away with Rhonda's generosity. I received 2 chopstick bound books, beautifully wrapped in a handmade, hand printed band. See Rhonda's tutorial to make these here. There was also another notebook, a print, and a selection of marbled and paste papers. All are stunning. Rhonda's tutorial to make paste paper is here.

I thoroughly reccomend Rhonda's blog, its fascinating, and an inspiration. Theres so much on there that I'd like to try and make myself. If mine are only half as good........

I sent Rhonda my usual swap, but as I'd seen what Rhonda had posted before I sent mine, I included one paper from each of the six papers I've made, and as a special treat, I sent Rhonda a pair of the wooden boards I'd made and kept for a rainy day. I'm looking forward to see what Rhonda makes with them.

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)

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.

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

Swap No 0003 with Lisa from Parallel Botany

I received my swap items in the post from Lisa at Parallel Botany today. I sent Lisa one of my Bank-Note-Books with bank note paper endpapers, and some sheets of my handmade papers. Heres an image below, and Lisa's kind review of my items can be found here. Lisa sent me one of her delightful par avion notebooks. The cover is Lisa's own handmade paper, and features a brilliant watermark of the books title. The pages inside are a delightful mix of pamphlet stitched plain, lined, squared and other papers. In addition, Lisa sent me an assortment of her other handmade papers, including a notelet and envelope (too good to use!), and some gorgeous joss papers. I'll have to think up something to make with them.

Please visit Lisa's blog - Parallel Botany - It's well worth a browse, and bookmark.

Tortoise Shell Japanese Stab Binding - Book No 0009

Just a quick 5 minute book this evening. Blue hand made paper, waxed linen thread, with small leather label (with a hole in for no other reason than it was in the scarp i picked up!)

Book No 0009 - 4x4 inches (10x10 cms)

My First Book with Content - Book No 0008

Today I made this book. I used a programme called Poladroid to turn photos of my 3 year old into old time Polaroid lookalikes - complete with fuzzy image and even the white paper border around. Try it, it's realism is taken as far as that the images take time to 'develop' on screen, and the software needs closing and restarting after 10 images, as in the film cartridge needs changing! So, once I had 18 images, I printed 2 to a page on a photoshop layout (if enough interest - I'll upload the template) on standard glossy 4x6 inch (10x15 cm) photo paper. These were folded to make 9 'signatures'. I then accordian folded a piece of white / silver striped paper, and sewed one signature ('open' end) to each mountain fold. I 'straddled' the fold with the open ends of the folded signature and pamphet stitched them on. I varied the spacing of these sewings, to avoid all 9 knots being in same place inside the spine. I then cut the card cover, and cut the window in the spine. Then I sewed though each valley in spine and looped out and around the paper spine. I did end up tying off directly onto the loops of pamphlet stitch used to hold the signatures! I'm not sure that's a recognised way of doing that, but it worked here!

Book No 0008 - 4x3 inches (10x7.5 cms)

And here is a Poladroid of the middle image above, just so you can see what the software does.

Anyone for a Copper Coffee? - Book No 0007

Inspiration can grab you anywhere. I was on my way to a site meet for my business, and stopped for a coffee at a fuel station on the way. It suddenly occurred to me that the corrugated card insulator used to stop you burning your fingures on way back to your car, could be used as book covers. So, I took a few spares, much to the confusion of the attendant!

So, as coffee is best shared, i made a dos-a-dos book. The 16 page signatures are just ordinary copy paper. On one side the paper edges are dipped in coffee, and on the other, completely immersed in coffee.

Both sides are pamphlet stitched with copper wire. One side stitched internally, the other externally.

Book No. 0007 - 5x3 in (12.5x7.5 cm)

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).

10 Minute Diversion - Origami Book - Book No. 0006

OK, grab a coffee, a piece of paper about 12 inches square, and run this video.

Here's one I made earlier.

Book No. 0006 - 1.5x1.5 in (4x4 cm)

To give credit, I originally saw this on Folding Trees blog.

Little & Large Bank-Note-Books

Heres a few more Bank-Note-Books that I've made for possible swaps (see here if you'd like to swap something book related you've made for one + a few of my handmade papers).

The larger one is a 1923 100,000 Mark German note, pamphlet bound with copper wire, using my Bank Note Paper for end papers, and some very nice cream laid paper for the pages. It is 3.5 x 4.5 inches (9.5 x 11.5 cms). The smaller ones are just over 1.5 x 1.5 inches (4.5 x 4.5 cms)

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

Bank-Note-Books - A Variation

Here I've Japanese Stab Bound a set of 3 Bank-Note-Books. The banknotes are, unusually, identical in size, and with the colours, I think they make a fabulous set.

My First Overseas Swap

I completed my second swap today, and my first overseas swap. With Judy from Iowa, I swapped one of my BankNoteBooks and 3 sheets of my handmade paper: for only Judy's second ever handmade book. I'm touched, and its delightful. Its Japanese stab bound, and made from an old macoroni package, with pages cut and folded at different sizes from (I'm assuming) a brown paper bag, with the stitching incorporating bead work. I'm extremely pleased with this swap.

My First Swap

. I completed my first swap today. With Lubna - see Looby Ruby. I swapped one of my BankNoteBooks and 3 sheets of my handmade paper:

for one of Lubna's delightfull stab bound Mini Books 4.5 x 3 in (11x7.5 cm)

If anyone else is interested in a small swap see here for details.

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