iBookBinding: a Year in Review
This is the third calendar year I’m in charge of iBookBinding. Like every previous year, it has its differences. This year was more about my personal experience being bookbinding, maker of bookbinding tools and teacher of bookbinding. List of the most popular posts of this years only confirms that. Both iBookBinding and I have changed and grown. The new year is coming, and I’m sure it would be exciting, educational and fun! =)
Before giving you some more details and links, I’d like to thank you all for staying with iBookBinding all this time and being a part of the community. I wish you a fantastic year and hope your 2017 was good!
I have recently announced that my wife and I are being transferred to Amsterdam soon. Sofya is being promoted and will be working there in the global office of the company she’s employed by. I will be able to focus on iBookBinding, bookbinding and making tools for bookbinding. After the announcement, I was overwhelmed and touched by your response. Thanks a lot for your wishes and warm words! It is crucial to know that your work is needed and appreciated.
The primary focus of the posts at iBookBinding has shifted to my personal experiences, sharing videos and other materials produced by others and making lists of recommended bookbinding-themed facebook accounts. There was no space for tutorials left and hope to change that in 2018. However, many of the posts were quite popular within the community, and I’m sure that the next year would even better, as I would be able to dedicate almost all my time to iBookBinding and related projects.
In the real world, my bookbinding life was quite intense. Since this spring, I was teaching a weekly class for kids in a joint project with one of the major Moscow’s museums. I had my regular workshops for adults. However, working with kids was my discovery of the year. It gave me so much pleasure, lots of chances to experiment with books and bookbinding. I’m very grateful to the manager of the project Varia Gladkaya and hope to be a part of a similar project in the future. As I cannot continue being a part of this project I am passing my pulpit to one of my students.
So, here are some of the most popular posts created in 2017:
- 5 Ways to Remove Cigarette Smell from Books – this post has attracted much more views than anything posted in 2017. I’m sure it will take its place among the other popular posts by iBookBinding next year.
- Trimming a Book With a Router – my experiments with power tools =)
- 3D-Printed Corner Cutting Tool – one of the things I’m really happy with this year is the corner-cutting tool I designed and started to sell at my Etsy store. It is cheap, handy and could be printed to the sizes ordered by the customer (depending on which cardboard thickness you prefer).
- Updated Version of the Small Press for Bookbinding – it was updated once more since. I will post more details next year after I find a place for my new workshop in Amsterdam.
- Studying Gold Tooling – Third Lesson – there was time for me not only to teach but to study some new things this year. And I’m delighted I had a chance to host and participate in this series of gold tooling workshops in my studio.
- Boring Bookbinding with Kids – oh, it is lots of fun! =)
As I did last year, I have prepared a rating of most popular bookbinding blogs. It is almost ready for publication, but as many of you are on holidays or on a break, it will be posted in a week or maybe a bit later.
Wish you a wonderful year!
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