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.
1 Comment
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. Revisiting an artwork from a couple of years ago. Solomon's Song is always nice to do for the beautiful words. This particular piece was done on a marbled paper done in my backyard. Mental note: Do some more marbled papers!! Looking back my calligraphy could have been a little better but on the whole it is quite a nice piece. It was placed in an exhibition and did sell at the time so someone else also thought that it was quite nice! In the end I managed to get three exhibition pieces ready in time. The theme was celebration and although it wasn't mandatory to use this theme it gave me some parameters to work with. I was very happy to use two pieces of marbling I had produced a couple of years ago. Sometimes it is very hard to use beautiful pieces of paper and I have been making a real effort to do so. I was fortunate enough to get the prize for the Best Theme Piece.
I have just finished the concertina binding that I started earlier using Grosgrain ribbon. It certainly works beautifully. I chose red ribbon to compliment my marbled paper.
This type of binding is quite time consuming but it turns out well in the end. I'm not sure if I followed the correct procedures exactly but I am pleased with the result and will use the technique again. I should quickly do another one to consolidate how it is done in my mind. |
LYNDELL DOBBS
Categories
All
Archives
February 2023
Inspirational People, Places & Blogs I follow |