For those who are curious, this is my setup for photographing books and other small items. Our condo has south-facing windows with wide sills, so I tape a sheet of cardstock to the wall, drape it onto a cardboard box, then drape a second sheet of cardstock to the sill. The box raises the book to a level height with the tripod (which is a small, table-top version):

Often the light is diffused nicely by fog in the morning, and very little post-processing work in Photoshop is required — occasionally I need to add a curve layer to lighten things up. But I have a short window of time in which to get set up and shoot before the fog burns off and the sun comes through.

Maybe some of you despaired that this day would ever come, but fear not: I haven’t given up on bookbinding. It was just a hiatus.

I had cut out all the pieces for this book (and several others) some time ago — probably near the end of 2009 — and then never assembled them. It was so long ago that I forgot what I had planned to do with each set of pieces, and I’d forgotten some of the processes that used to come naturally. So this book was a big relearning experience.

The sewing is an old standby, the long stitch and link stitch binding from Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Bindings Volume 1. This was actually my first oops moment: I drilled the holes, then realized I had meant this to be a photo album with only four sections — the sewing uses two sections per each set of stations. Fortunately I had more Mohawk Bristol Drawing paper and was able to come up with four more sections. So now it’s a sketch book instead of a photo album. Sometimes you just have to roll with things.

The final size is 9-1/2″ wide by 7-1/2″ high by 1-1/2″ thick, with 96 pages. The cover is a matte Chiyogami paper from The Paper Place, with Asahi bookcloth on the spine.

To finish up Case Bound Book Week—and January! already!—I have an old classic. I first paired this paper and bookcloth on wedding photo album for a coworker several years ago, and since then it’s been a favorite of mine.

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

When The Paper Place came online last year, I was in paper heaven. It took a lot of restraint for me not to order everything. But I succumbed to a lot anyway. (This one is Chiyogami 647.)

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

This one is a bit different for me. I originally bought the Chiyogami paper intending it for use as the inside of book covers, but with the red it reminded me of an old book so I went for it on the cover instead.

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

I bought three full sheets of this paper several years ago at Kozo Arts, but no one ever seems to like it as much as I did. I still like it though. Playful and handsome at the same time.

Kozo Arts was a store on Union Street that sold handmade photo albums and journals and a selection of Chiyogami papers. They expanded to a second store in the Westfield Mall when it first opened, after we moved here, which was awesome because it was a lot easier to get to than the Union Street store—but I don’t think it was open for even a year. Last year they finally expanded to sell online, and I actually ordered paper from them rather than take the bus out there, but when I went to get the link for this blog post I saw the notice that they’ve closed the store. Disappointing.

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

Book number three is using another new geometric paper. Next to the teal one, this is probably my favorite. If I filled more than one journal every two years, I’d keep it!

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

Book number two is covered with an old favorit a calligraphic script, also from The Paper Place. I’ve used this a number of times for photo albums and I like its elegance. It’s a pretty good “Man Paper” (because my boss sometimes chides me for having too many flowery papers).

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

The first book up this week is a new paper (for me), a geometric Chiyogami paper from The Paper Place in blues and teals and white that somehow I don’t think came from the Edo period. This one is totally my style, and that’s good, because I had a heckuva time pasting down the end papers and it looks like crap. I used a lighter paper than usual for the end papers and it’s all wrinkled and I actually tore it at the fold. So this will probably be my next journal or work notebook.

When I sewed the text blocks I didn’t yet know what I was going to do for covers, and so I didn’t attach the end papers to the first and last sections as I normally do (folding the folio around the back of the section and gluing it down on the inside, and then punching and sewing through it with the rest of the pages in the section). Instead, I tried this technique, attaching matching end papers to each completed book block once I’d chosen the cover papers. Structurally it is sturdy, as the block is attached to the boards via the tapes and the mull as well as the end sheet. But the opening action isn’t quite the same: because the end sheet is attached to the first page of the block, the page turns with it when the book is opened. It bugs me a bit.

The book is 5-1/2″ wide and 8-1/2″ high and about 5/8″ thick, with six sections of Mohawk Superfine 100lb paper (4 folios per section) for a total of 96 pages.

I haven’t made any books since November. I have a few photo albums that are waiting to be finished but I just haven’t felt like it. When I do so much of something under a deadline, it starts to feel like work and I burn out. Also, I’ve noticed that in winter I’m more inclined to sew or knit than make books. And it’s definitely winter in San Francisco—it’s been raining all week. Bleah.

So I haven’t made any books lately, but I do have books I haven’t posted pictures of yet, and since the rain let up yesterday just long enough to give me some good lighting, I now have photos. So I now declare this week Case Bound Book Week, and I’ll be posting books all week long. Just in case you thought this was going to turn into a sewing blog or knitting blog or something!

But before I get started, I want to talk about endbands. You may recall that back in October I posted a series small books with hand-sewn endbands. I’m still so jazzed about this that I’m going to show off some more.

These simple headbands from Headbands : How to Work Them by Jane Greenfield and Jenny Hille were really easy to make. The illustrations are clear and I only had to back things out a couple of times, and I made about 20 books. I like this look better than the bands I bought from Talas—the Talas ones are nice and they’re convenient, but limited in colors. By purchasing an assortment of silk thread I matched most of the books with complementary colors.

A couple of close-ups:

OK, enough of being pleased with myself. (They really were starting to get better by this point though. I’m happier with this set than the smaller books.) Stay tuned for the book parade, coming this week!