First Japanese Stab Bound Books

My next adventure in bookmaking was figuring out Japanese stab binding (I don't know if I really got it right, but I approximated it enough to work) to make some small notebook sized books for students in a class I taught at church to stitch and use in their scripture study.

These were the samples I came up with. I used manila file folders because I thought it would save some prep time (it would have a little bit) and glued some Italian paper to the fronts to spruce them up. The front covers curled, and I didn't like it, so when I bought supplies for the class, I picked out some nice card stock and folded and scored it by hand. The first one I made with the card stock curled as well, but in thinking about it I realized I could just stitch the decorative paper onto the cover with everything else and forget about gluing all together. Problem solved and less mess during my class :)

This is what the preparation looked like. I made enough covers and pages for 23, twenty page books. I used my new Japanese screw punch, which was incredibly helpful. Muscles I am not used to using were sore for days :)

Here are the two books I stitched during my class to show the attendees how to do it. It was fun to figure out and then to teach :)

Second Coptic Bound Book

About a month after I took the class from Karleigh Jae, I finally sat down and made some book covers for more Coptic bound books. On two of the sets of covers, I inlaid a piece of the endpapers onto the outside of the front cover. Inlaying was something I did at the Book Repair Unit and that I always loved. I was out of practice, so the first one I did was a little off center, hence the glitter!

Another thing I tried with this book was covering the folded part of each signature with white paper to make things more interesting. I cut the edges with decorative scissors. I like the way it looks, but it did make the sewn edge of the book thicker than the bottom edge. I told the recipient (I gave it to a friend who moved out of town) that she could glue pictures, recipes or whatever into the book on those white pages, so the extra space might get filled up :)

First Coptic Bound Book & a Little History

I have always enjoyed being creative. I loved my art class in junior high and went on to an art high school in Manhattan. My Saturday job for years as a teenager was working at the Island Art Center. When I went to college, I worked various jobs, including as a picture framer at Provo Craft, a photo retoucher for Doug Martin Photography, and my all time favorite job, as a book repairer in the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU. I never finished my degree, but want to in the future. I don't know yet what it will be in, but I am still very drawn to book making/repairing/conservation. Maybe I will major in Art History and go into conservation. Maybe I will get a job as an ultrasound technician to have money for book making supplies and a housekeeper and make books in all my spare minutes. We shall see what the future brings. :)

This past June I took a class from Karleigh Jae. It was heavenly to do something I love again and I learned sewing, which I had never done before. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned was that I could do lots of bookmaking at home, learning on my own. Thank you Karleigh for the teaching and inspiration!

Here is the book I made.