As Promised

As I promised, and this is as good a place as any to keep a record of the lessons and techniques I've learned for future reference ...  here are some photos of my early workshops in book making.  The results are mine and do not reflect on the excellent efforts and instructions of the workshops and class teachers.

Another disclaimer before the photos appear.  The fluorescent light in my workroom did not help in taking these pictures with the digital camera.  I definitely need to work on technique.  Now that all my excuses have been made, here are the photos:

Even though it's really hard to tell, this is a three hole pamphlet with a paste paper cover.

You can see what I mean about the light.  It just gleams on the paste paper surface.  The next photo is of a five hole pamphlet.

Once again the stitching is caught in the glare of the light but this pamphlet has five holes.

The next booklet is a stab binding and it uses an embroidery stitch - the lazy daisy stitch, to hold that pages in the book.

These were the easiest of the starter booklets and while these were quite small in size, roughly 3" by 4", they could be made in just about any size you want. 

The next booklet I tried was in a workshop with Louise Grantham of CBBAG.  I went to the Bindery in Toronto and took her workshop on the Dos a Dos.  It was a lot of fun.  She put an additional challenge in the project by adding some cut and fold work in the cover and come decorating spine stitching from Keith Smith's book.  Here is a sample of what we did.

The Dos a Dos, as you can see is a book divided into two parts with each part opening in a different direction.  The cover is folded like a
 Z
There are two signatures, or sections of paper in each part of the book so the sewing on the spine is not straight like the pamphlet books but done in a zigzag pattern like a row of z's    zzzzzz    They connect the two signatures together through the cover.

Enough pictures for one night.  I'll record more history another time.