I was so happy with II that I decided to turn it into a set.

I uses the same handmade Lokta bark paper from Nepal as II. Aside from the reversal of colors, and the difference in the cut-out, it is constructed in the same way.

The sewing is, again, the Long Stitch Through Slotted Wrapper Cover, from Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding I: Books Without Paste or Glue. It’s a slightly wonky sewing, what with the offset and the leaning threads at the top and bottom, and often I like a little more symmetry but here I find its lack rather suits the handmade feel.

I have a number of colors of the Lokta paper. I think it would be neat to make a whole set of these, with a slip case to hold them all, so that the different colored spines would be showing with the stitching. Though I’m not sure I’m interested enough by the idea to venture into box making (I’ve made one box and it turned out okay, but it doesn’t excite me.)

I wanted a little extra gift to send to Jane when she and Patrick get home from their wedding (see the guest book post earlier this month). Since she liked the geranium paper, and her wedding shoes are green, I wanted to make note cards that matched the theme. But I can’t draw, I really can’t, so I traced one of the geraniums from the guest book paper and used that for the note card. I’m quite happy with the result, and the color is about perfect with the Moss envelopes from Paper Source.

Since Gocco is all about the multiples, I not only had enough cards for Jane, but for myself as well. And since I had a few challenges getting the full bleed to work (getting ink off the edges of the paper), I cut some of the splotchy ones up into gift tags.

I made a number of book blocks this weekend by sewing sections onto tapes, and I saved all the short bits of linen thread that are left at the end of the sewing to use as ties for the tags.

I’ve done a fair bit in the studio recently, but almost all of it is prep work for books yet to be finished: the boards are cut and the sections laid out, punched and/or sewn onto tapes, all in preparation for a bunch of books-to-be, but there is not much interesting to show you. I like to do this sometimes, get all the production work out of the way, or enjoy the meditative repetition of tearing down paper sheets or sewing sections onto linen tapes. But then sometimes I want something to be done.

The cover for II is handmade Lokta bark paper from Nepal, which I purchased from Hollander’s. It’s made from two pieces: the off-white piece is folded over the red one, so the cover is three layers thick and the cut-outs show the red underneath. The covers and pages are all secured in place by the sewing, so this is a true non-adhesive book.

The sewing is from Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding I: Books Without Paste or Glue.

l like the simplicity of this little book (only 4-1/2″ wide by 5-3/4″ high by 1/4″ thick). The texture of the paper makes it pleasurable to hold and, along with the contrast of the stitching and the strong graphic cut-outs, interesting to look at. The cover is delicate (this is not a book to be tossed in a bag) but still solid enough to provide structure. I often forget about these paper-covered books, but I come back to them again and again. I think there are 10 more of them in my near future.

I’m unabashedly pleased with myself on this guest book, which is a wedding gift for Jane and Patrick.

There are three sections of Rives BFK cover-weight paper totalling 24 sheets. The sections are attached to the spine using the Woven Chain sewing from the second volume of Keith Smith’s non-adhesive binding series, 1- 2- & 3-Section Sewings, and 12/3 waxed linen thread. There’s 1/4″ between the first and second sewing stations at the top, and 3/4″ between the remaining sewing stations. There are a couple of reasons why I like this sewing (in spite of the agony of punching all those holes): it’s attractive on the outside, and it has good structural integrity because thread runs all the way down inside each sections.

Finished size is 11-5/8″ wide by 7-3/4″ high by 1-3/8″ deep. Jane picked out the lovely geranium Japanese paper from The Paper Place. The book cloth is Asahi book cloth from Talas.

Moving from a production mindset to an experiential mindset in bookbinding has inspired me to record more information about the books while making them. Previously, I photographed a book when I completed it, and perhaps blogged or posted the picture to my Bookbinding set on Flickr along with few notes about the size and number of pages, and then moved on. If it was a book I was likely to make multiples of and didn’t change much from one to the next—such as a photo album or journal from a purchased book block—I might record the sizes to cut for the boards, cover paper and book cloth in the (purchased!) notebook I stick in the box with my binding tools, but that was it. So I’ve started to catalog the books as I work on them.

I bought a wire-bound sketch book for this project, because I wanted the freedom to rip out pages if needed, and to be able to paste in photographs of the book and samples of paper and book cloth. The format for each entry is something like this:

• Catalog number and title
• Finished size and number of pages
• Description
• Cover: board or cover stock, thickness or weight, measurements of cover and spine pieces, samples of decorative paper, book cloth, paste-down, etc., and place of purchase
• Pages: paper used, weight, full-sheet size, place of purchase, folio size, number of folios per section, number of sections, and a sample
• Sewing: thread used, location of sewing stations, method, and a sample
• Notes on construction: information I found useful in the construction of the book, such as reference books/pages for instruction; any details such as the size of the bit I used to drill holes; what I think went well or poorly; what I’m happy with or not happy with; etc.
• Date completed
• Name of the recipient, if I didn’t keep it
• Sketches and/or photographs

So far there are four entries in my Book About the Books, and I already wish I’d done this two years ago.

What about you other bookbinders out there? Do you keep a catalog or journal of your books as you work on them? What other information do you find helpful when you’re looking back over your works? What do you do?

This is a sketch book for my friend Grant. 11-3/4″ wide by 9″ high and 1-1/4″ thick; 96 pages of Mohawk Bristol Drawing (eight sections each containing three folios). It’s a tad wider at the spine, so it’s got room to swell if he decides to do collage or tip in a few photos.

This is my second-favorite Japanese paper of all time, only surpassed by the same pattern in a different colorway that I have not been able to find since I bought a sheet of it five or so years ago (sigh). I ordered this version from The Paper Place.

The spine is a standard long stitch and link stitch binding from Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Bindings Volume 1. I’m really happy with the tension on this sewing.

With the help of random.org I have picked two winners from the comments on my giveaway post. And the winners of the two journals are…

Todd and Simon!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and to everyone who’s reading!

I’m sure there’s a specific name for this binding, but I don’t know what it is. It’s basically a pamphlet stitch with the threads outside crossing over on a diagonal to a different section, forming this cross-hatch pattern.

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In an effort to make room for some of the new books that are burning to get out of my head and into a real form, I’ve decided to give away these two Coptic journals. I’ll be totally honest with you: the reason I’m giving them away and not putting them up for sale on Etsy is that they each have teeny flaws. These flaws in no way impair the books’ functional use—you probably won’t notice them, even now I’ve told you they are there—but they don’t meet my rigid standards of quality assurance and so I’m giving them away.

What do you have to do to win one? Just leave a comment on this post before midnight PST on May 31st, 2009, telling me how you found this web site. You don’t have to leave your real name, but do enter a valid email address so I can reach you if you win (your email address won’t be displayed). I’ll draw two names randomly on June 1st and contact the winners for their snail-mail addresses. Yes, it’s totally OK to enter if you don’t live in the United States, as long as you’re reachable by some postal service somewhere!

Some days I just need to finish something to feel successful. Yesterday a non-adhesive binding fit the bill. I’ve played with this structure in several variations, but this was my first attempt with a fastened cover.

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