Category: Bookbinding

Calligraphy Society Exhibition

23/10/2019

I can't believe that it is already exhibition time again. Where did the year go? This year the exhibition is being held at the National Botanic Gardens. So the theme was around nature.

This piece was done in collaboration with Sue Blackall and Sarab Basrai. It has a number of quotes and some lovely eco prints.
This one sold!

This one was done in collaboration with Carol Perron and Sue Blackall.
This one sold!

Eco print with hand made paper and cut out lettering.
This one sold to people from America!

This was an interesting one. It got a number of comments. I had thought that the quote meant to let negative feelings, things and people go but others thought that it was quite brutal. Interesting.

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Accordion Manilla Folder Book

31/1/2019

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This is a book made from Manilla Folder. It is in an accordion style. Thank you to Carol for showing me this structure. I forgot how to finish it so I this is my own version.
I have used eco-prints for the covers. It makes a lovely little book of approximately 15cm x 8cm.

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Caterpillar Stitch

12/8/2018

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In my last post I showed an example of Keith Smith's decorative spine stitching. This made me very interested in what else I could do with this type of bookbinding. From there I bought several of Keith's books from his website. Keith replied to me very quickly and sent the books the very next day. What a lovely experience.
From one of the books I attempted the caterpillar stitch (not really a caterpillar - too many legs) but you get the idea. I love it. The directions were very clear and easy to follow. I will experiment with a caterpillar that is a bit more lively next time.

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Case Binding with Decorative Stitching

24/7/2018

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On Saturday I attended a fabulous bookbinding event put on by the Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild. Vicki and Nicky guided us lucky participants through the techniques of making a case bound book that opens flat with decorative stitching on the spine. The decorative stitching is from one of Keith Smith's bookbinding manuals.

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Alice in Wonderland Dos a Dos Book Challenge

3/6/2018

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The Canberra Bookbinders' Guild have a challenge every year. The last challenge was to make a dos a dos book. I had a lot of fun with Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass. The photos didn't come out so well.

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Secret Belgian Binding - Anne Goy Criss Cross Binding

4/11/2017

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After much doing and undoing, I have finally finished binding the conference notes from the Australian National Conference of Bookbinders.
I chose to use the binding invented by Anne Goy. She apparently called it Criss Cross binding but it is universally known as Secret Belgian Binding. I chose it because the pages lay out flat when the book is opened. This is useful as there are many pages with instructions and this binding allows easy access to the information.
We followed many different instructions and after many wrong turns have a finished bound book. I learnt a lot in the process. Like most things, I should immediately produce another to consolidate my learning but I will probably flit onto something different.

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Making Book Cloth

22/4/2017

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During the week the lovely Bev generously showed Carol and me what I call making book cloth. Bev had previously taught me this but I hadn't taken notes and as a consequence could not remember the whole procedure. It can be used to cover hand made books.
Bev also shared with us some of her beautiful hand made books. Very inspiring.

Firstly, place plastic on a flat surface. Mix up PVA and water (approximately 50/50) to produce a creamy consistency and apply to the plastic.

Spread muslin or any thinnish cloth onto the plastic and apply another coat of the glue mixture.

Scrunch up tissue paper and carefully flatten again, lay it out on the top of the fabric, gently pushing it onto the fabric.
Apply more glue mixture taking care not to tear the paper.

Colour the paper with dyes and or acrylic inks. I used a combination of dye and ink but mostly ink. We used fan shaped brushes to make patterns. Care must be taken not to tear the tissue paper.
I overworked some of mine and the paper tore a little.

We hung our paper up to dry but I think that if you had time and room it would be acceptable to dry them flat.
Bev advised that when they were dry we needed to board them a little and then iron them. I have not yet done that.
I had wanted to create something cheerful and bright. My initial reaction to my paper was that it was too bright and rather garish. In attempting to make it more subdued I risked making holes in my book cloth so I left it.
When it dried the colours were lovely and more muted - exactly what I wanted. That is something to remember.
Thanks again Bev.

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St Cuthbert's Gospel - making a facsimile

9/4/2017

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This structure is based upon the oldest English book in existence, dating from the 7th/8th century CE. The original was found in the year 1104 in the coffin of St Cuthbert.
The original is displayed in the British Library and a detailed examination of the volume was carried out by Claire Breay and Bernard Meehan and the results published. The manuscript is also published online.

Photo of my binding not yet complete.

St Cuthbert’s Gospel is sewn with Coptic stitch with thread laced into wooden boards. It has a primary Coptic headband (challenging for most of the class), with a secondary end band sewn through the spine leather.

A Celtic knot work pattern is laid out on the boards with thin cord which is attached using an ingenious technique of weaving and pegging.
The book is covered in terracotta goatskin, molded over the cords, which picks out the design in relief on the upper board. It is then embellished with a little blind tooling and part of the tooled area is picked out with yellow paint.
The measurements are 9.7cm by 13.7cm. Quite small. It fits nicely into the palm of my hand. The oak boards are 5mm thick.
I have not yet completed my version of the binding. I need to trace the design and then embellish it with blind tooling.
It is a beautiful binding and I was especially pleased with the results. Many thanks to Michael Burke who showed a group of us how to make this structure with both patience and humour.

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Olive Bull's accordion structure beginnings

12/2/2017

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Carol received a beautiful accordion book filled with calligraphy from Olive Bull. We were so fascinated by it that we spent most of one day figuring out exactly how she had put it together. It took me another day to get it to this stage. This is the prototype and it still needs a little bit of tweaking. Nice though. Olive's book was filled with beautiful calligraphy which is the next step.

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Gilding cushion

28/1/2017

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I have had the materials to make a gilding cushion for nearly a year now. Finally got around to making the cushion. Now I need the box to go over the top so the gold does't fly away. Maybe by next year??

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<<Previous

Calligraphy Society Exhibition

Accordion Manilla Folder Book

Caterpillar Stitch

Case Binding with Decorative Stitching

Alice in Wonderland Dos a Dos Book Challenge

Secret Belgian Binding - Anne Goy Criss Cross Binding

Making Book Cloth

St Cuthbert's Gospel - making a facsimile

Olive Bull's accordion structure beginnings

Gilding cushion

LYNDELL DOBBS

Calligrapher, Printer and
Book Artist

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LYNDELL DOBBSCalligrapher, Printer andBook Artist

Categories

Archives

Inspirational People, Places & Blogs I follow

LYNDELL DOBBS

Calligrapher, Printer and
Book Artist