When my wife and I visited Switzerland earlier this year, we tried a short marbling workshop at the Paper Mill Museum in Basel. Then she told me: "But why aren't we doing that all the time at home?" So, target acquired!
Sherif Afifi just published a new video tutorial dedicated to sewing a two-color endband on one core. It isn't a fast-paced video, so you'll have a chance to see all the details of the process.
I don't think I've seen anything like that before, so I decided to share it with you. This book has a cardboard front cover... and a soft back cover, made with the extension of the marbled paper turned over the spine.
Every November Designer Bookbinders announces the winners of the Annual Competition. This year is not an exception, and as usual, the bindings are examples of beauty and craftsmanship. This year’s winner is Mel Jefferson with his rendering of “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury.
Ben Joosten (1931) was once a brazier an artisan who cast bronze. However, in collaboration with his wife Emmy Eerdmans, he turned in time to other forms of art as well. Including the art of printing and typography.
Benjamin Elbel has recently launched a new project. Its name is quite self-explanatory: Bookbinding out of the box. However, if you know something about the works of Elbel Libro, you should guess that it is not as straightforward as it seems!
I found this beautiful book several weeks ago at a book market. I knew some facts about Paul Revere and his connection to the American Revolution. But that he had worked as an engraver and had made multiple book illustrations? That was new to me.
I do it rarely, preferring not to boast too much, but sometimes I just want to share all these positive reviews iBookBinding's shop at Etsy gets!
While the current British Library's exhibition Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War includes not only manuscripts, books are the main topic here at iBookBinding, so we'll focus on them in this post. Especially because it's manuscripts that the curator Claire Breay speaks about in the video you'll find below.
Some of the volumes about book history are marvelous samples of book craft themselves. That's the case with the work of German manufacturer and researcher of paper Armin Renker Das Buch vom Papier.
First, I'd like to say thank you to all the patrons supporting iBookBinding. Your contribution means a lot to the project. I would also like to say thanks to some of the patrons who decided to increase their pledges this month.
One of my most exciting projects was an 18th-century book I worked on for one of my restoration course final exams. The book was brought to me by a friend, and its story started to unveil as the months went by.
This video made me curious: how do you set a book when sewing an endband? Here the book is set with the spine facing the bookbinder. I was told to put it the other way around. Please join the conversation!
After a quite eventful weekend in Copenhagen, my next destination is Ireland. I plan to spend this Friday in Dublin and then just drive around the country, visiting different places and flea markets.
While browsing the stalls at the book market in the Hague, I have recently found a remnant of the ideological war that had crushed many lives, including the life of Boris Pasternak, the author of the literary work in question.
