Today is the Day! BC CBBAG Demo Time!

Okay I am so totally exceptionally excited today!
Here is why:

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For more info check out the CBBAG website: http://vanbookarts.wordpress.com/
If you are in the Vancouver area, I hope you drop by! 
I will be back tomorrow with reviews of the workshops 

Hope you have a great day! 
xo
Laura 

Sweet Byzantine Dreams For You

First of all, THIS

I am here to haunt your dreams. 

It is with a huge boner that I present this 13th Century binding in the Byzantine style. Take a good look at those endbands. Seriously. And the way the leather is folded around the head and tail edges of the boards? Amazing.

So we can all agree that this binding makes the short list of hottest binds of all time. Also I imagine I am not the only person who wants to learn how to do this. Guess what I found?

THIS 

I plan to follow these instructions and then review or amend them as needed. I can see that there are handwritten notes in the margins but I have a hard time reading them. Most written instructions can use a little tweaking to make them clearer - and these ones are not clear to me without trying the project.

I have yet to find a tutorial on Greek endbands, which is apparently the style used here. Help a sister out if you find one!

Finally, THIS totally beautiful adaptation of Byzantine binding created by Perkolator Press.

Image Property of Perkolator Press 

Notice the use of straight up white thread for the endbands, letting the stitching take center stage. Some of the components of these endbands are similar to the first book, but there are some interesting differences.

For one thing, the two cores (the cord or rolled paper that thread is wrapped around to create the bands) used by Perkolator Press appear to be the same size. The 13th Century book uses cores of two different sizes.

Another difference is in the appearance of beading along the endbands. No, this has nothing to do with seed beads or other beads in the strict sense. Beading refers to an extra row of stitches in addition to the core or cores used to create endbands. This extra row is created by the repeating pattern of crossing the threads over each other as they are moved forward into different signatures of the book. There are methods that have no beading at all, as well as beads appearing on the front of the work (front beading = in front of the core) or on the back of the work (back beading = behind the core), depending on whether the needle is inserted first from the foreedge or the spine of the work.  Perkolator's endbands also have no front bead - meaning there either is no bead here or the stitches are back beaded. Beading is visible in the 13th Century book as the last row of stitches on the left of the bookspine - this is in front of the core, so it is front beaded. The center and far right rows of stitches are wrapped around cores.

Sweet dreams,
xo
Laura

Don Taylor wants to turn you on : All these photos and videos are the property of Toronto Standard

I want to share with you a beautiful video featuring Toronto based bookbinder Don Taylor. Brought to us by Toronto Standard. 

YOU KNOW YOU LOVE WASTING TIME.    THIS WILL BE TOTALLY WORTHWHILE. 

I love seeing master craftspeople working. There area  number of techniques we can learn about from the images in this little film. 

I assure you that this is in fact a steaming pile of goodness. The first thing we see is a little tip related to tooling leather. This is a process of applying heat and pressure to the surface of leather, leaving gold or other colored impressions. Here we see Don cooling a tool after removing it from the heat source. It is very important to make sure it is the proper temperature. If the metal stamping surface of the tools are too hot the leather surface will burn or warp, etc. One will often witness bookbinders touching the surface of their tools with bare fingers as it is said that the ideal temperature is still tolerable to the touch. I have not tested the accuracy of this theory, please let me know if you have insider info to add about the proper temperature. 

The interesting thing about this photo is Don's setup - he appears to be using a large sea sponge in a dish with water to control the temperature of the tool. Other setups can include cotton or other absorbent fibrous materials in a shallow bowl with water. When you are tooling you do not want the surface of the tool (the part that comes in contact with the leather) to get wet as this can damage the tool over time. The solution is to roll the metal cylinder band that attaches the metal stamp to the handle. 

 It starts to make more sense here, where we can see the whole setup: on top there is a little specialized stove for heating tools, and below there is the cooling station. 

This photo belonging to Pat and Rosemary Keough of ANTARCTICA and LABYRINTH SUBLIME shows a finishing stove much more clearly. View their website at: http://www.keough-art.com/tome_passion_blog/tome_passion_blog_24.php

If we look at this stove, we can see that there are two distinct sections. The disc at the center is a hot flat surface for heating the face of the tools. The outer ring supports the wooden handles of the tools while keeping them a safe distance from the heat source. Note that there are little groves all along the edge of the outer ring to keep the tools stable. 

Back to Don - we have seen him heat and cool the tool, and now he touches the tool to the gold foil, which is layered on top of the leather.

When the excess foil is removed, a crisp line remains.

Another way to work with gold leaf or gold foil is with the aid of specialized machines you find in professional binderies. I totally, totally wish.

 While gold leaf or gold foil are very popular, gorgeous results can be achieved simply allowing the leather and the patterning to stand alone. This is referred to as stamping.

 This style of decorating is called blind tooling. I imagine that this is because it is often performed freehand or by assembling small simple line stamps into large and complex designs.

Stamps with full designs are available, and can be used on their own or with gold leaf for good times.

 BONUS INFO: Shot of a professional paring leather. A sharp specialized knife is used to shear a portion of the backside of the leather away to make it thinner while still remaining strong.  This is critical on all turn-in areas of leather in order to keep the profile smooth. If the leather is folded without being pared, it is bulky and creates a bulbous profile for your book. Notice how he is holding the knife - they cut better when approaching from an angle than they do straight on.

DOUBLE BONUS INFO: Cuttin' corners. I hope you can forgive me for that pun. In order to make your corner turn-ins meet flush rather than overlap, you must cut the leather before folding. Depending on the thickness of the leather, start approx 2 mm out from the corner, then measure 45  degree angles relative to the to the corner. After some time you will be able to measure this by eye as Don seems to be   doing here. 

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I do. 

xo 

Laura 

Salutations and Endband Smut

 Do let's get started, shall we? I make books. Actually I make a lot of stuff but lately the focus has been on books. By lately I mean the least few years, but who is counting. When it comes to learning a craft well, it often takes far more than a few years. I am totally self-taught, which is not as awesome as it sounds. Although, did you ever notice that bookbinding workshops tend to be hundreds of dollars? Kind of a turn-off. I tend to rely on internet tutorials and books for reference and to learn new techniques. I will be sharing and reviewing a lot of these references for you.

Which leads me to the following complaint: where is a good tutorial on French endbands, ughhhh?Throw me a bone, or at least a rolled paper cone. That would be funny if you were also trying to learn French endbands. The photo above is an example of my latest attempt at French -style endbands with a double roll and front beading. The process for this is a modification of simple endbands but made on rolled paper cores rather than cord. The upside is that the threads move very cleanly along the core when you are wrapping, leading to a smooth finish. The downside is that paper lacks the flexibility of cords and therefore the endbands don't conform as well to the curvature of the book spine when it is closed. I still like how they look, but I want to learn more. Good old trial and error, here I come. Unless I do end up finding a good resource. You will be the first to know!

These pictures are of my latest book, available here https://www.etsy.com/listing/109725651/skeleton-hands-book-hardcover-leather