April 18, 2016 - Introduction

Hello Everyone,

Well, it turns out I jinx myself, I had another emergency come up last week.  Nothing serious, just inconvenient.

So, putting that aside, April/May book is going to another Hedi Kyle book structure - the Pivoting Panel Book.

Here are the photos of the demo book I created:

detail of panels

back view

The overall dimensions of the book are approximately 8" x 5 1/2" when closed, 8" x 42" when fully open.

The materials you will need are:

2 -  8" x 22" sheets of heavy weight paper.

2 -  8" x 5 1/2" sheets of gray board (or davy board)

2 -  9" x 7" sheets for the covers

and

2 - 7" x 4 1/2" end papers

The topic for this book will be "A Quiet Landscape".  I'm needing some calmness after the last few months.

Next week, I'll be back (hopefully with any luck) with the construction of the page panels.

Until then,

Happy Book Binding,

Sheila

April 4, 2016 - Update and Finished Book

Hello Everyone,

Wow!  I can't believe my last post was in August.  Time has flown by!  Unfortunately not for pleasant experiences.  We had a bit of a family crisis that required all my attention, so unfortunately I needed to stop blogging for a while.  But hopefully, that is behind us now and I can get back to work.

I was able to finish the Saints Book.  If you recall, I had received some Saint of the Day cards from a friend and wanted to put them in a book.  I had shown how the how-to on the origami fold pages and was getting ready to show how I bound them and was going to use the Secret Belgium Binding as the cover.

Long story short, I did get the pages bound, but was not able to blog at the time, and I after I had created the Secret Belgium Binding cover I didn't think it was a good fit for this book, so I went with just a simple decorative cover.

Here's the finished book:

I apologize for not being able to share with everyone the process that got me to the finished product, but I have decided it would just be best to move forward with my book making and return to my regular schedule of posting.

So next week will be week 1 - Introduction, with the new book form being a Pivoting Panel Book that I believe was originally created by Hedi Kyle.

Till then,
Happy Book Binding!
Sheila

August 17, 2015 - Week 2, Origami Pocket Fold Wallet

Hi Everyone,

This post is a my version of the Origami Pocket Fold Wallet that I adapted from Alisa Golden's version in her book "Making Handmade Books".

My version is quite a bit smaller and more rectangular.  The finished version of my book is approximately 2 1/2" x 5 3/8".

Here's what you will need:  A thin sheet of paper 6" x 21", ruler, pencil, bone folder, knife, and
stylus (optional).

I chose to use Unryu paper.  It is very thin, 25 gsm, and as you might be able to see it is translucent.  It holds up well for folding and since there is a bit a layering with this fold, this paper doesn't add a lot of bulk with each fold.  It also is very forgiving.

Folding the Wallet

Start by folding the paper in half, hamburger style.

 
Unfold it and make a pencil line 1/4" from the center fold on both sides.

Fold each end inward to the new lines.  It will leave a 1/2" gap between the 2 halves.

Because there is a lot of folding and unfolding with this structure, make sure you run a bone folder over edges that get folded, so that it is easier to refold when called for.

Unfold.  You will now have 4 sections.

Now, make a pencil line 1" from the top of page.  It should go all the way across.  Score this line with a bone folder or stylus, but don't fold it down yet.

Instead, you are going to cut the left and right rectangles out, leaving just the two middle rectangles.

Then fold the bottom edge up to the 1" pencil mark.

Unfold again.

From there, you will want to make a mark 1 1/4" in, on both the top and bottom edges for the left and right sections.

Using your ruler as a guide, score a line from the corner of the middle section to the each of the
1 1/4" marks and then fold over.

This creates a triangle fold for the two end sections.

After you have both triangles fold, fold the entire section in.  It should look like this.

Flip the entire thing over, so that the folds are underneath.

Then fold the bottom edge up to the 1" pencil mark at the top.

And now fold the 1" top piece down, going over the bottom edge that you just folded up, and tuck it into the triangle folds.

Then fold the entire wallet in half.

And your done!

This wallet actually creates 6 pockets, 4 on the pages themselves and 2 interior pockets.

interior pocket

Now, because the paper I'm using is so thin, I don't think it will hold up very well to a sewn binding.  So,  I added a center strip of black linen tape to the middle of each of my wallets.

Detail

This will hopefully provide some stability to spine.

Next week, I will be binding the wallets together with a kettle stitch to make a signature block.

Until then,

Happy Book Binding!

Sheila

August 10, 2015 - Week 1, Introduction

Hello Everyone,

I'm back from vacation and ready to start this month's book.

I recently had a friend give me some Saint of the Day cards.

So this month I thought I would tackle the problem of how to work them into a book.

Since they have the picture of the Saint on the front and a description of them on the back, I didn't want to just glue them onto a page.  So as I was looking for folder or pocket book forms, I came across the Origami Wallet in Alisa Golden's "Making Handmade Books".  I liked the fact that it has both pockets on the outside and a pocket in the middle of the signature.

Here is my sample of Alisa Golden's wallet as she has instructed in her book:

It is a bit to squarish for my needs so I had to rework into a smaller rectangular form:

As you can see, the Saint cards fit nicely, but I am concerned about the openness of the pockets, so I will need to address that issue for the final signature.

Since each signature has 4 pockets on the outside, I only need to create 12 signatures, one for each month.  I will also need to have a title page, possibly an index page and a back page as well.  I will be making a hard cover for this book.  And I'm planning to use the Secret Belgium Binding to connect the cover to the signatures.

It should be quite an exciting month.

Next week, I will give the instructions for creating my modified version of Alisa Golden's "Origami Wallet".

Until then,

Happy Book Binding!

Sheila

July 27, 2015, Week 4 - Binding and Final Book

Hello Everyone,

This week I'm binding the book with the French Link Stitch.

Here's what you need:  The signatures lined up and ready to go, a book binding needle, waxed linen thread (Mine is a brown color that I thought would like nice against the white pages.  It's a little over 5 ft. in length.) and a clip to hold the pages together as you sew.

I started with the last set of signature and worked my way forward.

Starting with the hole at the top, I inserted the needle and thread through the outside to the inside

leaving about a 4 to 5 inch tail.  (Most instructions usually say to leave about 2, but my Fingers are not that nimble, so I find the extra length helps when I have to tie it.

Then I wove the thread in and out of the holes for the length of the signature.

As you can see, the thread is on the outside of the signature after it is woven.

Here is what the inside looked like.

Then I took the next signature and ran the thread from the outside in.

No knot or tie is necessary for this juncture.

I then inserted the needle into the second hole (inside to outside) and ran the needle underneath the first thread line of the first signature.

From there I inserted the needle into the third hole and back up the fourth hole.  Once again running the needle underneath the second line of thread from the first signature and then back down into the fifth hole.

The Pattern continued until the second signature was complete.

When I got the the end, I took the teil that I had left at the beginning and tied a square knot to secure the two signatures together.

Then I added the third signature by just inserting my needle from the outside to the inside.  I did find that securing the pages together did help keep things lined up and allowed me to tighten the Stitches better.

For the third set of weavings I had to adjust the first set by just pushing them with my needle a bit, so that I when I threaded the needle I was only picking up the thread of the second signature set.

I put together a quick Illustration so that hopefully the Pattern is a little easier to get.

Once I got to end of the third signature and added the fourth signature, I used a Coptic stich to secure the two together.

I continued sewing and added the fifth signature and ended the binding by tieing off the thread.

And the book is complete

Detail of the French Link stitch:

More views:

This was a fun book to do.  I do think though, if I use this stitch again, I will have more signatures, so the stitching is clearer.

Next week, I begin August's book.

Until then,

Happy Book Binding!

Sheila