Well, the weekend is almost upon us and everybody deserves a little break. So today, inspired by an email I picked up from Peter Verheyen on the Book Arts List, I decided to do a little light-hearted post on Paper Airplanes (or paper aeroplanes for those in the UK)!
The following instructions form the first part of the City & Guilds Level 1 Unit 118 Course in Bookbinding. Reproduced with the consent of Shepherds Bookbinders who own all rights. A downloadable PDF copy of this course can be found here.
Here are a few commonly used bookbinding terms. Learning these basic terms and phrases will help you understand the exercises covered later in this post. Along with the principle of ‘Grain Direction’, and ‘Learning about Paper’ a little time spent reading these simple definitions will help you make informed choices when ordering materials and equipment.
NOTE: You might also want to check out our post ‘The Basics of Bookbinding‘ which gives a comprehensive breakdown of all the tools and equipment you’ll likely need for your journey into bookbinding.
Greek artist Chara creates beautiful hand-made Japanese style embroidered notepads which look incredibly 3D despite being made solely from thread and card.
Featured work includes veins on skulls and human bodies which resemble modern anatomy diagrams, 3-Dimensional mesh fish and insects, scientific worm-holes and numerous floral and oriental inspired designs.
View her gallery below and make sure to check out more of her work on her Facebook page, Pinterest! page and also her dedicated ETSY shop where you can purchase a handmade book of your own.
[support-website] [wysija_foSince I personally use notebooks all the time, and make my own embroidered accessories, I had the idea to combine my two loves and create embroidered notebooks.
It requires dedication and lots of patience to avoid damaging the paper. But the result is worth the pain, I think! – About FabulousCatPapers
Following last weeks popular marbling post (see here), I received a number of emails from visitors about the different types of paper available and their suitability for marbling, calligraphy and use in bookbinding and restoration projects. So, today I decided to put together a post on advanced paper-making techniques as there seems only to be a limited number of resources currently on the internet, much of which is pretty hard to find. I hope it will help a few of you out there.
Note that I am no expert in papermaking but have attended numerous paper-making workshops and have visited a handful of Washi paper making factories in Japan over the years. If you have any questions on the subject, please feel free to ask in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to help where I can.
Find below a complete list of bookbinding courses and workshops in the UK. All courses listed are available to the public, some are day courses, others are multi-day courses and some are full time.
![[Journey in Time 2010-10-12 720HD] The History and Art of Chinese Paper Making 1/2](https://www.ibookbinding.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Journey-in-Time-2010-10-12-720HD-The-History-and-Art-of-Chinese-Paper-Making-12-580x326-225x126.jpg)
Even today many printers only uses paper hand made in selective province's in China, this special paper is made using an age old technology. The paper is called jade paper, it begins with bamboo and hemp being ground into pulp. After this, workers lie a very fine bamboo sieve vertically into the solution and let the sieve sit in this manner to collect the fibers.
The fibers are then carefully smoothed out on a wooden board until they take shape, dehydrate and become a thin piece of paper. After it is completely dried, it becomes a sheet of paper. The water used in every step from grinding the hemp and the bamboo to sieving the fabric comes from nearby mountain springs. Tap water is never used. As a result, this paper, perfectly absorbing the ink is ideal for block printing.
Marbling paper for book endsheets is a great way to add a little more class to your bookbinding project. Marbling is very simple to do and every print is completely different which further helps to add originality to your books. Your bookbinding marbling adventure doesn't have to stop at endsheets, you could also experiment with marbling the coverboards, the book cover material or even the book block fore-edges.
For the general craft-worker or bookbinding hobbyist you'll likely be able to complete adequate paper marbling with materials you can find at home or pick up from local stores (you can also buy marbling kits that have everything you need to get started). For those looking for a more professional finish you'll be pleased to know that marbling is an art, and as such there are many techniques and concepts you can learn to make your books stand out from the rest. I would recommend checking our post on the Top 5 Must Read Books on Marbling Techniques + Reviews.
A collection of free bookbinding books that you can read online and download onto your ebook reader with links to their latest reprint/republication on amazon.com (where available).
I will continue my search for free reading resources weekly and update this list when I find more. Enjoy!
I have done my fair share of marbling in the past for both clients and personal projects but I am by no means an expert in the subject, this may already be apparent by the lack of technical terminology used within this post but probably even more so when you compare my work with that of a true master.
In this tutorial we will look at the different parts of a book (the anatomy of the book); understanding the individual parts of a book will make it easier for you when following the rest of our tutorials and will prove to be invaluable in your bookbinding journey.
One of the most overlooked aspects I see from amateur bookbinders is their choice of adhesives or glue; many of whom rely on PVA as a ‘one-glue-fits-all’ solution. Whilst PVA is a good option for many aspects in bookbinding it almost certainly shouldn’t be used over other more suitable adhesives.
Ok, so the title might be a little misleading… we’ve actually crammed in 18 of the best Coptic Stitch (also known as the Chain Stitch or Coptic Sewing) book binding instructions and tutorials we could find on the web, along with a collection of video tutorials and many coptic-stitch related resources (PDF’s, Stitching Patterns, Photo Galleries etc) for you to get stuck in to – it took us a while to put this together but we hope it serves as a good resource for some of you out there.
When it comes to bookbinding, one of the most commonly overlooked areas is the gluing process, so we’ve decided to put together a YouTube Playlist of the best book binding related gluing video tutorials we could find.
We would love to know what you think of the videos, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
** Note that videos shown above and below are works of other bookbinders and not the work of iBookBinding (these will come later…). I would recommend watching all video tutorials as they each demonstrate different techniques and offer helpful tips and advice throughout ***
So you’re wondering how to create a hardback book from scratch? Well this page is for you! We’ve pulled together the best YouTube video tutorials along with a transcribed written procedure (slightly edited) and a huge list of additional resources (which you can find at the bottom of this page) which will take you through, in a step-by-step fashion, many ways to make the hard-back book of your dreams!
Before you move on, don’t forget to check out our very own post on Making Hardback Book Covers, we’ve also got a tutorial on making Split-Cover Boards for Larger Books.
* Note that videos shown on this page are works of other book-binders and not the work of i BookBinding.
We would love to know what you think of the videos, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Following on from our popular Headband Gallery post we’ve had many requests for a couple of video tutorials on how to create and sew headbands (also known as endbands). We’ve crawled the darkest corners of the internet and have a found a couple of video ‘gems’. Note that videos shown above and below are works of other bookbinders and not the work of iBookBinding (these will come later…)
We would love to know what you think of the videos, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
** Note that the first few videos have no sound, whilst the rest of the tutorials do. I would recommend watching them all as they each demonstrate different techniques and offer helpful tips and advice throughout ***
