I do a lot of bookbinding, which is my main reason for being at MakeICT. It touches on so many areas, so you might see me skipping through doors a lot, going from one place to another.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with screen printing on bookcloth to make cover designs. This blank notebook is the first finished one. Keeping it simple right now, but might start working on some two-color ones later.
Other than the print room, this book has boards that were cut on the laser cutters, paper cut and trimmed on the paper shear in letterpress, handmade bookcloth - so textiles related, and I used 3D printed tools.
Thank you! Bookbinding is one of those crafts where there’s always another skill to learn or another “essential” tool to make or buy.
These are the 3D printed tools I use the most. They’re pretty simple jigs for cutting the corners of cover material to allow for full coverage over the thickness of the board. They make precision cuts quickly. Some places sell them, but I like the freedom to make my own in different gauges.
Thank you! Bookbinding is one of those crafts where there’s always another skill to learn or another “essential” tool to make or buy.
These are the 3D printed tools I use the most. They’re pretty simple jigs for cutting the corners of cover material to allow for full coverage over the thickness of the board. They make precision cuts quickly. Some places sell them, but I like the freedom to make my own in different gauges.
To me, that’s an impressive compilation of skills you’re describing. The finished product is very pleasing to look at. I would be interested to know more about the tools too. Just curious
Terminology in bookbinding is always interesting. I would call this a rounded and backed case binding, but some people would swear it’s a Bradel binding because the spine piece and boards are joined at the hinge before covering. Other people will swear that a Bradel binding always means a cover made in three separate pieces of material.
Terminology in bookbinding is always interesting. I would call this a rounded and backed case binding, but some people would swear it’s a Bradel binding because the spine piece and boards are joined at the hinge before covering. Other people will swear that a Bradel binding always means a cover made in three separate pieces of material.
Do you do bookbinding? I remember a couple of years ago there was a discussion about a book arts committee that sort of faded away. Any chance of getting that going? I’m not sure how many people would be interested.
I do plan to start teaching some classes soon, probably starting with a simple flat-back case. With other binding types we’re restricted by lack of equipment and I don’t want to transport my own heavy stuff into MakeICT. I’m looking into making a few lying presses in the woodshop for class use though.
I’m moving in that direction. Part of why I’ve been in the metalshop is to make bookbinding tools. I caught the bug when Martina (nerdforge) made that awesome fire tome, but I’ve graduated to DAS now.
Nerdforge is still super cool IMHO, especially with her new pinky.
Do you do bookbinding? I remember a couple of years ago there was a discussion about a book arts committee that sort of faded away. Any chance of getting that going? I’m not sure how many people would be interested.
I do plan to start teaching some classes soon, probably starting with a simple flat-back case. With other binding types we’re restricted by lack of equipment and I don’t want to transport my own heavy stuff into MakeICT. I’m looking into making a few lying presses in the woodshop for class use though.
I’ve been interested in doing this for years but it always gets backburnered for other things. How easy would it be to get the tools/equipment and how much space would it take up? Could this be something we could add to Visual Arts or Letterpress without eating up more then a few shelves of space?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. One idea is to put maybe six or seven equipment kits together, like one plastic tub per complete set of tools. It would make teaching classes easier, and they would be available for anyone to use.
Each tub could have a bone folder, a knife, an awl, some needles, a sewing cradle, paste brush, weight, a lying press, gauges/jigs, etc. Most of those things are inexpensive, and many of them can be made at MakeICT. I have sets of some of these things from teaching classes in the past. The only thing still in process is making the lying presses.
I would bring the consumables (paper, board, thread, glue, mull, endbands, cloth) for people taking the classes, but anyone who wanted to make books outside of a class could purchase their own.
I’d love to chat about this more with anyone who’s interested.
I had planned to do a series of classes on bookbinding some time ago but health issues and other distractions got in the way.
I had priced some of the tools and materials and was going to do a series starting with introduction to the terminology and materials ( free class for members). Then a simple project class ( glue bound booklet with paper cover. Then a class on repairing the common types of damage to a signature sewed hard cover book. The last would be a blank page journal with cloth cover.
Reasoning for the series would be to guage interest and to not have to buy all the tools and materials at once for those without much budget.
I was planning to do a two-part class going over every step of making a case bound book. Probably 2ish hours per part. The more lecture-type details, like terminology and what thread to buy and how to tell one type of paper from another, can be covered during the down time while waiting for paper to press and glue to dry. After running the class once, I’d adjust as needed.
So far, about a dozen people have expressed interest in taking a class. But I wouldn’t want to have more than six people in a class at once.
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