Today in the shop
Just finished: a new line of sweet blank journals with linoblock printed patterned covers on gorgeous Berrylicious blue French Paper, creamy Strathmore Script pages, and pasted-on block printed blank labels.
Archives for “bookbinding”
Coptic binding class
In last night’s bookbinding class we made Coptic journals using Mohawk Superfine paper and cover boards cut from the covers of old atlases and children’s encyclopedias. Here are some of the student projects, finished and in progress:
Stab binding class
A few images of students sewing their books together in last night’s Stab Binding class:
And here’s a lovely finished book with tea-stained Rives BFK covers (photo courtesy Monica Rock):
Today in the studio
I had a quiet hour in the studio today so I spent it making this pretty sample book for the upcoming Stab Binding class. Its covers are folded sheets of Rives BFK decorated with watercolour dots, and the spine is bound with black linen thread in the kangxi (noble binding) pattern.
There is still room in the class, which runs on Tuesday, March 24. Click here for details –> STAB BINDING CLASS
Celebration time
Lots of wheeling and dealing has been going on in the back room here at Levigator Press, some of which is not yet fit for public announcement (but rest assured, if things fall properly into place, there will be some exciting announcements soon!). I bought a new press and some other printing equipment, which was a complete steal and doesn’t yet fit into the studio and so there’s a bit more building and painting has to be done before the press can be used and shown off.
But in the meantime: I just had a birthday, and to celebrate, everything in both of the Levigator Press Etsy shops is 15% off until the end of December by entering the coupon code: fortythree. I’ve updated the shops with some new items left over from show season, and have a stack of half-bound books in front of me as I type, so you can expect more new stuff in the coming days!
New to the Levigator Press clothing and accessories shop: block printed summer cowl scarves, and giant tote bags:
The main Levigator Press store will have some new large journals and mid-sized pocket notebooks in the coming days, but is currently well stocked with lovely books and prints.
Please have a look, and if like what you see, don’t forget to enter the coupon code fortythree at check out to get 15% off!
File under: unfinished
(cross-posted here from my personal weblog)
Here is another project abandoned around 1998 or so, recently rediscovered.
It’s an embroidered panel designed for a small book cover, for a book roughly 8 by 10 centimetres (3 by 4 inches). Somewhere in the attic is the book it was intended for, probably about 6 signatures of 3 folios each, sewn on linen cords, rounded and backed and trimmed, with endpapers sewn in and board covers laced on, naked and waiting.
The cover’s design is based on 16th century embroidered bindings such as those found at this link. The vertical floral motif in the centre is designed to run down the spine, and the horizontal gold bands will line up with the ridges formed on the book’s spine by the tapes the signatures are sewn onto.
Like every abandoned project in the history of forever, this one was entered into with loads of enthusiasm and worked away at like gangbusters for a good while. And like every abandoned project, the fun parts (outlines, filling in the tiny sections of colour!) went quickly but the promise of a beautiful finished object shone more dimly, from further away, once the tedious background-filling was practically all that was left. Add to that a growing disappointment with the low contrast of chosen colours and this pretty thing was doomed.
Will it ever get finished? Hard to say. The base fabric isn’t nice enough to just leave unstitched, but the dark blue is deadening. It should be picked out and replaced with red, or pale blue, or pink. But the thought of picking out embroidery stitches from a 15-year-old dead project isn’t an enticing one. The book would probably have to be remade as well, since after 15 years in a box who knows if the covers are even on straight anymore.
For now, this little panel is out of its tin work-box and pinned up onto a corkboard in the studio, where it can act as a reminder of every creative failure ever. Also, because it’s pretty to look at.
Bookbinding workshop at Mackenzie Hall
For those of you who missed out on the Longstitch Binding class last year, we’re running it again, this time through the City of Windsor at Mackenzie Hall Cultural Centre (3277 Sandwich St West in Windsor).
Here is the course description:
Beginning Bookbinding: Longstitch Binding (106607)
Longstitch is a European method of bookbinding in which folded sections of paper sheets are sewn directly through a soft or rigid cover to create a staggered stitch pattern on the spine of the book.
Materials and an instruction kit are provided, and you will leave the class with your very own completed book!
Date: April 22
Time: Tuesday, 6:00pm-9:00pm
Fee: $26 / 1 night
You can sign up online at reconnectwindsor or register over the phone with your credit card by calling 519-255-7600. The deadline to register for this class is Thursday, April 17, so hurry!
today in the studio
New notebooks, freshly covered, in preparation for the Made in Windsor Holiday Sale.
longstitch binding
Here is a little sample book I made for the longstitch binding class I’ll be teaching tomorrow night at Back Room Gallery. The pages are a mix of reclaimed papers, sewn into a cover made from some old cards used for teaching fractions, which I found at my favourite surplus store in Milwaukee. The book’s spine is a strip of paper cut from an old children’s encyclopædia, backed with cardstock for stability and glued to the cover boards, then sewn with a red zigzag machine stitch. Even the thread is salvaged from somewhere, although I can’t remember for sure where; it might be one of the items I’ve had on hand forever from the fire sale of school supplies that took place after a fire at Exeter Public School, some time in the mid 1980s. Yes, I am a hoarder when it comes to supplies.
today in the studio: coptic binding
13 x 16 x 2.5 centimetres (5 x 6.5 x 1 inches)
108 pages (54 leaves), a mix of creamy Mohawk Superfine and reclaimed papers (maps, sheet music, heavyweight sewing patterns, pages from children’s encyclopædias, and restaurant takeout menu letterpress blanks.
Cover paper is Rives Heavyweight, printed with silkscreen and woodblock. Sewn with blue waxed linen bookbinding thread.