If you were on a desert island...

...what tool would you bring? This was the question on day 2 or 3. Stacie, without hesitation, said bone folder. I guessed correctly that Susan would say Japanese punch drill. While I do love my bone folder, I'd have to go with my olfa knife. Seems like in between making books I could use it to go hunting. I can't remember what everyone else said.

A Review, of sorts

Here, a mini-tableau of some of the tools we are using to begin. This bundle will no doubt grow as we introduce adhesive and different sewing techniques to the mix. My tools for this workshop fit in a stationery box (about 5" x 9" x 1.5"). There are also a couple of jars for glue, water, etc. But we haven't made it that far yet!

So far:



Here we have the first 2 projects - 4-Needle Coptic Binding and Historic Longstitch with Wrapper. The coptic binding we've done here uses 2 lengths of thread with needles at either end. The boards are an inherent part of the sewing structure - historic versions of this binding were sewn on wooden boards, and if the boards cracked, they just sewed the 2 pieces back together rather than unbind the entire book. This binding will loosen a bit with time as the threads relax. The historic longstitch is sewn through a wrapper and wooden spine strip. The spine threads are then woven over with another piece of thread in order to tighten up the tension and protect the individual threads from too much wear-and-tear. We've included a flap-wrapper on this model.

Our next journey: Longstitch with wrapper & a visit to the land of Crossed Structures.

Day One!

And so it begins........

This is where we will be spending the next 13 weeks. The curriculum begins with some Non-Adhesive bindings, and will progress to various case structures, different endpaper treatments, board attachments, sewn headbands, boxes and enclosures, and more.