Hardcover stab binding class, week 2
Finished books from our students:
Archives for “bookbinding”
Bookbinding class
Making hinged covers for hardcover stab bindings. We’ll show you the finished books next week!
Longstitch binding class
Here’s a finished student book from last night’s class, with a heavy paper cover made from some of the paste papers we made last month.
Longstitch and kettlestitch binding
Last week our co-op student Aiyana finished off her second longstitch binding with some pretty weaving through the exposed stitches.
Art in the Park
This weekend we took part in Events in the Manor, a fun free exhibit of Art in the Park. Here’s our set-up in the dining room of historic Willistead Manor, ready to demonstrate bookbinding for the public:
It’s more fun doing a demo by teaching somebody, so local artist Julie Bell came by to help out and learned a Japanese stab binding:
Today in the studio
Our co-op student Aiyana finished her first hand bound book today!
Drum leaf bookbinding class
Tonight we had a workshop in drum leaf bookbinding, an all adhesive (no sewing) method that produces a pleasingly sturdy little book with a fully integrated cover. It’s a great binding choice for artists because each two page spread is unbroken in the gutter. We love making these books. Here are the finished books:
Assembling the cover onto the finished, trimmed text block:
Rounding the corners on the finished book:
The success of this binding relies on having a high quality trimmer that can cut through an entire book in one go. Up until this week we haven’t been able to trim books like this properly in the studio because my 100-year-old Chandler and Price paper trimmer (Choppy) was in the basement of my home. But we finally mustered up the strength to move it to the studio, opening up a whole new world of bindery options. Here’s Choppy in her new home:
A bookbinding lesson
It’s been a quiet week in the studio but I got to give an impromptu midday bookbinding lesson today. Thanks Bev!
Introducing our new line of journals!
These sweet little journals measure approximately 8.5cm x 10cm x 2cm thick (3.5 x 4 x 0.75 inches). They’re small enough to stuff in your bag and sturdy enough to stand up to a good deal of travel and enthusiastic use. The exposed spine is sewn with a combination of the “Coptic” link stitch and a climbing woven stitch, and allows for the book to lie fully open. They feature a mix of reclaimed papers for the textblocks, and are covered with colourful press proofs from our studio.
These are fun to make, and deeply satisfying for an artist with a bad case of horror vacui.
You can check them out in our studio, or here in the Levigator Press Etsy shop: Levigator Press on Etsy
Bookbinding class
Sometimes I get so caught up in teaching a class that I forget to take photos. That’s what happened in tonight’s fun Coptic Bookbinding class, so you don’t get to see the final results! Here are a few shots of student books in progress, though:
