make a book, book binding how to, sketchbook, recycled
Last weekend, for the first time in ages, I was able to play in my studio. Not only that, I made something -- something I like. It was NOT an easy project, and I'm happy I stuck with it. I made a longstitch book with a leather cover cut from a pair of old motorcycle pants from the 1930s. It is the second book I've made from these pants. You might remember the first one, here.
For this book, I decided to use paper from an old, turn-of-the-century ledger book for the inside pages. Seemed like a cool idea. All of that incredible pen-and-ink handwriting from a century ago, to become overlaid with sketches and writings from the here and now. Layers of meaning and marks and generations.
I designed my own stitch for the spine. Here is the template lying on the leather, waiting to be punched:
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Then I punched the signatures (for those of you who are not bookbinders, a signature is a single group of folded sheets):
In this photo you can begin to see a hint of the problem I encounter later.
It's starting to look like a book! Time to start sewing!
OK, this is when the trouble started. Because the paper is over 100 years old, I was halfway through sewing the second signature and the paper started breaking between the holes. Another problem causing strain on the holes was that my thread was too thick.
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So I switched to a thinner thread and decided to reinforce the signatures. I wanted to be rather ad hoc and not over-think it -- the way you see old books or old sheet music repaired with no thought for aesthetics, only function. So I reinforced the inside and outside of each signature with drafting tape, which you can see in the fourth photo from the top. I was happy with it and liked the way it looked. But when I went to punch through the drafting tape, it also ripped. Arrggh. At this point, I was thinking I might have to abandon my ledger paper idea. I thought to myself, 'What do I have floating around the studio that is strong enough to reinforce these signatures without ripping?' And I found a roll of espresso brown bookcloth. So I cut it into strips and reinforced the outside of each signature with it:
OK, now we're cooking with gas!
On just one of the signatures, though, the holes were still ripping on the inside of the fold. So I decided to further reinforce them with some vintage postage stamps:
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It still ripped through one of the stamps when I sewed, but no matter -- it's a strong enough binding, which was the goal.
I finished sewing, tied it off with a couple of tiny, square shell buttons, and finally, the result!
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
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I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I've listed it for sale in my Etsy shop. It would be such a wonderful journal or sketchbook for someone who does altered books or journaling.
Sharon