A Book a Week 2014. Week 32

Week of 11 August

Connor's Books

We took a quick 2-day trip to Chicago to see my best friend, Paula and her family. Her son Connor was about to leave for a year in Japan, studying ceramics. He learned that he needed to bring a bunch of little gifts to give people (teachers, hosts, new friends). I brought a basic tool/supply kit along so we could make some books for gifts.

This picture was right out our hotel window, looking toward Navy Pier. I like that you can see my Devon reading, and my Emeline taking the photo.

Connor wanted to include some Americana-like pages. He found a book at the gift shop that explained things like how the government works. I like to create books in which my supplies determine the shape. This is what I came up with:

We also made small books with other shapes and sizes and styles, some pamphlet, some Japanese, some stick-and-rubberband:

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 26

Week of 30 June

More Pamphlet Stitch

My sister's family came to the farm to see my bees and kittens. It was a short visit, due to busy schedules all 'round, but between pancake breakfast and soup lunch, we squeezed in some pamphlet stitching with my nieces.

 

This time we did a 2-section pamphlet using Readers Digest covers, which I love so much! Look at the pretty colors Megan and Kira chose!

 Here's Megan's up close. I have an orange-y red book tape that was a perfect combination with the salmon-y pink cover. Inside, Megan used a washi tape that coordinated as well. Look at the pretty Ex Libris she saved from the RD text block:

 

Kira went with a blue and maroon theme.I had book tape that matched perfectly with the existing RD spine:

 Here's what Kira did with washi tape - super cute owls! She saved her RD Ex Libris, which has a pretty fall leaf theme:

One more view of the stitching. We did a 5-hole 2-signature book. We used 5 sheets of paper per signature, and poked 5 holes in the spine with which to sew the pamphlet stitch.

My nieces enjoyed it so much they wanted to make one more thing, so we did just a mini pamphlet book with one signature and 3 holes for stitching:

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 15

Week of 14 April

Bird Watching Book

My older sister moved to a beautiful new home in Northfield, MN, that is in a community that surrounds a pond. See it there behind me and my sisters?

 She has been enjoying watching wild life make use of the pond and grow their little families. This spring she noticed some new birds hanging out at the pond, and was thinking she should start keeping track of what she sees. Naturally, it was a challenge for me to make her a book in which to keep track.

I went with a modified 4-signature pamphlet stitch:

A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 1

During 2014, I am going to post each week about a book I have made, altered, or repaired. And I'll even do it retroactively, since it's Jan 27 already. Here goes:

Week of 6 Jan 2014. 

Here is photo documentation of the books we made at the library. Using our new empty Makerspace room, our goal was to make 100 blank books out of recycled materials to catalog and make available for patrons to check out and hand write their own local history. Our project was called Your Community Your Library Your Story. We used discarded fiction books from our library, sawed off the spines, pulped the text blocks to make new paper and used the discarded covers as new ones.

Here you see I used book repair tape to join the covers. 

We used a simple 5-hole pamphlet style binding.

You can see the stitching on the outside.

Fun to see the finished books, all different colors.

 Me and Deanna. See how proud she is?

I had a smaller project for people to make and take home. Here you see little 3-hole pamphlet stitch books, with folded paper covers and pretty colored crochet yarn.

Here's a stack of our handmade paper, and you see, I even dyed  the binding thread blue.

I was pressing the paper with some of my favorite books and awesome train case (that I use for my book binding tools.

Nicole even color coordinated her book with her cute outfit!

 Proud book binders.

Even Andy learned to sew. Nice work!

Your Community. Your Library. Your Story

     Rochester (MN) Public Library opened up a Makerspace last month. A Makerspace is new trend nation- (probably world-) wide that provides a public space combined with tools, equipment and education where a community can learn to make things. Makerspace.com describes it well and provides a playbook for opening your own.

     Recently, libraries have been opening Makerspaces in varying levels of sophistication from a physical space (think Harry Potter's room under the stairs) to a room full of machinery, computers and a 3D printer (think Professor Snape's Potions classroom). No matter the level of sophistication, library Makerspaces all have an element of teaching and community involvement.  RPL's version leans more toward the under-the-stairs version (being only a physical space), although it is bright and sunny and is mostly windows, one wall facing the busy skyway so people can see what we're playing with and encourage them to join us. 

   The library wanted to make a big splash of our new space by having a series of projects. I wrote a proposal to include crafts which are library-focused, using personal skills of mine: papermaking, screen printing and book binding, one craft per week.



Here you can see two of the work stations.





We branded the project (Your Community Your Library Your Story) and the Makerspace (Dream it, Make it) (see branding on card). Our library has started using Save the Date cards for events. Here is what we used to help advertise

     Our goal was to make 100 blank books out of recycled materials to catalog and make available for patrons to check out and hand write their own local history. We used discarded fiction books from our library, sawed off the spines, pulped the text blocks to make new paper and used the discarded covers as new ones.
  So, here they are - ready to check out!!!
I can't wait to read them.

Pamphlet Stitch Binding

In bookbinding, the Pamphlet Stitch is the simplest to learn, and has great potential for creating many types of beautiful and interesting books.

 Fold your cover paper and text block, making sure the direction of the grain is along the spine. I have a handy hole poker. It's best to poke the holes from the inside out, and use a ruler to make your holes evenly spaced.

You will be stitching through most of the holes twice, making crazy 8s through the paper. You can vary the way your binding looks by where you start your stitch - inside or out, middle, top, or bottom. I like to use a variety of found threads. One of my favorite is colored crochet thread, as you see in the photo below.

You can see that I started the sewing on the inside of this book; the outside has a clean finished look, thread coordinating with cover paper.



Below is the inside and outside of a 3-hole pamphlet stitch, with the beginning and ending stitches on the outside. This was a book of poetry my daughter made in 8th grade.

This was a fun, simple project I did with my Girl Scout troop. We made a simple pamphlet book, adding beads as decoration on the outside.



























This is an example of a wedding invitation set that I made. I used pretty endsheet paper that had ripped bits of sheet music. I used a pamphlet stitch with gauzy ribbon as the thread.

























I don't know why I like tiny things so much, but I have made tons of these mini pamphlet books, using them as gift cards or giving them to little nieces and nephews. The one on the right is a matchbook fold. You can make them in a 4 x 6 size, with a really long string that you can wear around your neck.

My cousin made this pretty pamphlet, which has a picture of his mother on the front, and some stories he wrote about her.

And finally, here is an example of a Two-Section Pamphlet Stitch Binding. You make a pleat in the cover, so if you set the cover out by itself, it would form a "W" shape. You sew a section onto each folded spine piece.   I also folded the paper so that it made a pocket on the inside front and back of the book.

 Here is the finished travel book. It is a very simple pamphlet stitch, where I cross over stitches from each section.

Find these stitch samples and more in the instructional book Non-Adhesive Binding: Books without Paste or Glue, by Keith A. Smith.