A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 20

Week of 19 May

Belgian Binding revisited.
OK, I think I created a new kind of binding. Let's call it the Minnesota Binding. I needed to make my younger sister a guest book for her home. She likes blue, and I found this beautiful blue Reader's Digest cover that would work great.

I picked out coordinating papers for the signatures, and two kinds of thread for binding the spine and the signatures separately.

The holes in the board weren't quite big enough, I bent my needle!

Minnesota Binding

I was in a hurry to make this because we had to get to my niece and nephew's graduation, so I didn't take the time to look up the directions again. Something didn't look right on the outside of the spine. You can see only 1 string per hole on the front cover here. But look at my first attempt (below) at Belgian binding, there are 2 strings per hole:

Belgian Binding

 Fortunately, on the one hour drive to the grad party, I had realized the mistake and worked on my niece's book according to the Belgian Binding. I think it turned out pretty great!

A Book a Week 2014: Made, Altered, Repaired. Week 10

Week of 10 March 2014

Belgian Binding!!!
I love this binding. It has a similar look to Japanese stab bindings, but opens and lays flat, like a Coptic binding. One of the cool things about this method, is that the spine is completely free-floating. This binding is a relatively new style, created in the 1980's by Anne Goy, a Belgian artist; here is its history.

 My supplies and tools. Actually, I didn't use my Japanese Screw Punch, because it was easy to make holes in the Readers Digest book covers with my little piercer.

You sew the covers separate from the text block. I wanted some staggered holes, so I could get this look.

 You sew through each hole twice to get this nice wrap-around style.

 I made sure to keep the threads taut so the cover wouldn't be loose and flimsy.

 The text block is sewn separately, then sewn onto the threads covering the inside of the spine.

 Here you can see my seven signatures.

 Inside the back cover.

 And the pretty spine. I think I'll give this one to my sister, Julie, as a house warming gift.

A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 6.

Week of 10 Feb 2014

OK, more Japanese stab binding. I'm teaching a class in a couple weeks at the library, so I wanted to make a couple of them to make sure I have all the tools and materials gathered. I want to do a complete glue and fancy paper book as well as a found-materials, non-adhesive book. So here we go -

Here's all the tools and materials I used.
My daughter and I made the pink paper last month, using a little Rit dye and some pink lint from our dryer.
The two floral papers are from Wet Paint. They came in really large sheets, I cut pieces to suit as needed.
The tool next to the mini green cutting mat is a Japanese screw punch (or push drill) I got from Talas. It is awesome. It came with 9 bit sizes.

Above the green mat are my other favorite tools: bone folder (folding and scoring), micro spatula, and a little metal ruler. I took apart an old Readers Digest book and used the boards - they were exactly the right size.
I also make good use of my little tool kit and, of course, some PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue.

I covered the boards, then I needed to punch 5 holes. I use a couple of my sewing tools (oops, I forgot to put them in my first photo) to make holes. The button gauge makes the holes evenly spaced. The measuring gauge keeps the holes the right distance from the edge of the board.

OK, now which color thread? Emy picked the red one.

Instead of having loose threads, I tucked the tied end into the middle hole, using a bit of glue to keep it there.

 Emy chose a bead she'd always liked for the cover.

And here's the sweet inside. Didn't that paper come out awesome - we had new red flannel sheets - lots of red dryer lint!

And a really quick found-objects stab binding, for my daughter who is obsessed with chocolate:

Score the board with a ruler and bone folder.

A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 5.

Week of Feb. 3, 2014

Another repair. Ghost Towns of Colorado.

TS asked me if I could repair this book, with a note, "Please save, if possible."

As you can see, these endsheets have cool photos, but were quite damaged, partly from acidic paper, but also from library tape, stickers, due date slips and envelope glue. I decided to give it a try.

I learned, from working in the conservation lab at UW-Madison Memorial Library, to remove glued-on paper you should try methyl cellulose. Basically, it's wallpaper paste, but also an inert, low tack, removable glue. Methyl cellulose is a versatile tool in book repair, conservation and bookbinding. You can add it to your PVA glue to lengthen the drying time when you're doing detail work. It can be used straight as a glue to attach book plates which can be removed easily by wetting the plate with water.

For book repair, we use it to loosen old glues and remove glued paper. So I applied the methyl cellulose to the endsheets on the boards. It took some time (hours) before the paper started to come loose. I used my micro spatula to gently lift off the paper.

 

The boards were too acidic and crumbling to keep, but I wanted to retain the look of an older book. I had a discarded Guideposts volume, which was about the size I needed. The only problem was the title on the cover. I carefully cut out the Guideposts title with an exacto knife, and printed a new title to insert in its place.

I used a bit of my metallic coloring to make it look not-quite-new.

I even found the original spine piece underneath some book repair tape, so I reattached it to the new spine.

A Book A Week 2014: Made, Altered, or Repaired. Week 4.

Week of 27 Jan 2014
Japanese Stab Binding. traditional

Here you see one of the first stab bindings I did, many years ago. I fell in love with marbled papers back in the 1990s when I had to special order them (before the internet!) from the Daniel Smith catalog, back when they used to carry more book binding supplies and papers from around the world. When I discovered the Wet Paint store in St. Paul, MN, just down the street from Macalester College, I died and went to heaven. They not only have an amazing variety of artists' materials like paints and canvas, but they also have an unbelievable selection of large-sized printed papers (e.g. 16"x20" to 24"x36") from around the world.

 I like to use crochet thread, or any vintage fibers with which to bind books. I also like to add bits of discarded print and copper tape.

 I do crafting of all sorts, but book binding and sewing are my favorites. Sometimes I like to combine the two:

Here's some pretty Thai Mango paper: Mango and Mulberry and Kozo papers make a beautiful fly leaf.











Here is another slightly modified Japanese stab binding. I used a paste paper for this next book, and I like the button accent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                       I collect vintage images, preferably from childrens' beginning readers.

My book was even featured on the Rochester (MN) public library garage door!



 
And again for the fly leaf, the Mango paper (it comes in a very large sheet).

Here's one more book that actually contains a story:

 My brother's father-in-law used to be an art teacher. He is also a farmer and a banker, man of many talents. When his grandchildren were young, he liked to write and illustrate stories for them. Then he would commission me to create a binding and make copies for each of the grandkids. This one is about a horse he had, named Jack. I used a bit of actual horse hair in the binding. Isn't that a beautiful picture he drew?

The end sheets for this book, I think were from maybe a marbled Lokta paper. It is gorgeous.

 The binding worked well for this collection of short stories.