Flashcards

I just finished up a pretty interesting bookbinding project. A set of flashcards, printed on 2mm thick pressboard, flush to edge on one side, to be bound together in some way. The cards are just stunning - they are from B.Impressed, a wonderful letterpress shop in the Boston area. After thinking about this project for a looooong time, I decided the best way to handle this would be a hybrid accordion/flag binding. I could use the front of each card for attachment since the type/text did not go flush to edge. I chose a mid-weight Canson paper in a red to match the printed type. I created a small (5mm) accordion pleat to use as a hinge on each of the cards. I then wrapped the remaining paper around the outer (2mm) side of the board, working it tightly, before crafting the next hinge. Each fold was carefully measured and scored before being adhered to the next image. This added a little bit of bulk to the spine edge of the book, but not excessively - it allows the book to open quite nicely, it almost "rolls" open. I wanted to avoid any extra torque or pull on the paper hinges, so once the boards were all together I went in on the back of the spine and glued the back-hinges together as well. This served to stabilize the whole thing a bit more - it wasn't as Slinky®-esque. I finished the whole thing with slightly oversized black cloth-covered boards and adhered the frontispiece to the cover. You can see in that final image that the red on the spine does not go flush to edge. The original boards were not cut flush - the sizes varied by about a millimeter in any/all directions. Rather than trim them all down, I opted to use them as is, and bring the hinge mechanism in from the edge by a hair. I'm pleased with how it came out. I feared that doing it flush would show any inconsistency more than deliberately working with the inconsistencies. I'm satisfied with how this came out! I did a lot of thinking about exactly how to tackle this project - it was a great problem-solving project (which I love!) and it was nice to come up with a solution combining different bindings and solutions.

The Springback Account Ledger

My friend Amy is scheduled to teach a workshop on Springback Binding in a few weeks, and asked me if I would help work out the timing for some parts of it.  It's not a structure that I've made before, so I was curious to see how it all came together.  And I like working on things with her!  We had one meeting to go over the initial steps in the structure and discuss where students may run into problems and some of the timing of things.  And then I got too excited about the whole thing!

I worked with a book that was converted from individual page .pdf form into a paginated collection of 4-folio sections.  This was I would have a completed, real book instead of just a "model" book.  The sewing took a bit (as this was a thick textblock) but after that it all went quite smoothly.  The main obstacle I encountered was drying time - I was anxious to continue!!!!

The flange for this thing is magnificent - it's got SO MUCH stuffed into it and ends up being ridiculously stiff.  The leather is easily applied and didn't stretch too much.  It took seemingly forever to dry though.

And it works!!!  And I'm thrilled with it.  I'm a fan of books with slightly-too-thick covers, so I love this structure.  The opening mechanism is great - you can feel it "pop" the textblock out of the spine.

The springback binding is most commonly seen in old account ledgers.  The "spring" allows the spine to pop out and lets the pages all open flat, straight across the gutter.  To do this you create a magnificent lever that is incorporated into the binding.  The boards for these books are generally quite thick, and the spine is solid as well.  The leather applied to these books was traditionally only edge-pared, allowing for a little bit more stability with the thicker leather.  

These Things I Do

Oh hello! And another month passes, just like that! But I promise I've been absent with good reason:



I made this very awesome, very last-minute, very special travelogue wedding book. The client was a member of the wedding party, and the bride and groom had not chosen a honeymoon destination. The groomsman contacted the guests and had them create a travel page talking about where they would recommend. he gathered them all up at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, dropped them off to me the morning of the wedding, and I bound them all into this book and dropped it off at the hotel for the bride and groom to return to after their ceremonials. Word from the client is that they loved it and found it to be the nicest gift of the day :)



I started spinning this wonderful Hello Yarn Wensleydale in the "Heirloom" colorway with plans to eventually weave it and sew a slightly tailored jacket. Expect to see this completed around....oh, 2014 or so.



I test-knit this amazing shawl for Kirsten of throughtheloops - this is Snow Drops and Snap Peas shawl, and it is a fast, fun, easily memorized pattern. This version is in my own handspun Polwarth from David at Southern Cross Fibres. It's DEEEEElightful. I love how the striping worked out on the lace pattern.

I've been teaching a 3-month bookbinding workshop. It's been going wonderfully, and it has given me a chance to work on this 80 80s Instruments/Tools project of paper cutouts. I've been trying to do 1 or 2 of them a day. Each cutout is 5" x 7". They're a blast to work on. Oh yeah, we've been making books in that class, too :)

Oh yeah, this other thing happened:



...I got engaged! The ring was custom designed and made by the lovely Tracey Jenkins of Green Spot Studio. It's a rose-cut diamond, which is fairly uncommon and antique-y but enables it to have a flatter profile. Hooray craftpeople making rings for other craftpeople and taking hand use into consideration :)

The Devil Wears Red Leather.

This is a commission job that I just finished. It's a full leather copy of Ambrose Bierce's "Devil's Dictionary". The binding features double-core silk sewn headbands, a satin ribbon, and marbled endpapers & pastedowns. The text is printed on Via Felt paper - it's a 252 page book (63 sheets in 4-folio sections - last section is 3-folio) and the tooth on the paper is LOVELY.



I laid the whole thing out in order to get an 8" x 5" trim size to the total textblock. It worked out PERFECTLY - there's enough room to bring it in a little bit tighter if need be.

The binding itself was a bit harrowing - what with the weather here being a gazabillion degrees and sweaty and sticky, the dry-time for a lot of parts of the construction was severely hindered and/or delayed. Stamping the leather also proved to be a bit of a challenge - the type needed a LOT of shimming and some touching up.
Also, the time constraints for the project were pretty tight - I'm heading out of town for a bit, and I *was* just out of town for a bit, and the client needed it by the end of the month.

I'll be dropping it off tomorrow morning. I plan on doing another one for myself in the future, and I'd like to sell some copies of these books-in-sheets.

Oh, and knitting? I've got about 67 projects packed - hopefully I can complete at least ONE of them.

Looking Ahead

I started this in the car on the way out to the Finger Lakes. It's the Ulmus pattern (Rav link), using Cherry Tree Hill Possum yarn in "Natural" and SCF Teeswater in the "Racecourse" colorway, spun during the Tour de Fleece. It's a wonderful pattern - easy to memorize, and not too boring.

The Fall twistcollective has a ton of lovely patterns, and I'm hoping to make some headway in my stash by knitting up Argyle, Novak, and Cottage Garden. That's a whole lot of sweater, I know, but I haven't knit any sweaters in quite some time, and the cooler weather is on the horizon (I hope).

I'm heading to the printer this afternoon with the Devil's Dictionary in sheets - hoping to have it all done and ready to go out the door by the end of the week! Then on to....Alice, perhaps? Redoing Candide? We'll see.

TdF Wrap Up and Miles of Yarn, I Tell Ya!

Well, I made it through the Tour:



My total spinning came to a total of 14,460 yards of singles, 6,870 yards of completed yarn, and 7 pounds, 9 ounces of yarn. YIKES! It was great fun, it was nice to get through some stash, and I tried some new things (a 5-ply, felted singles, Masham, Teeswater). Now I have to get around to knitting with some of this.

I fell in love with this 5-Plum Pie Hello Yarn Club Fiber during the Tour:


...and feared that I would be unable to locate a sweater's worth (yes, another sweater's worth of 3-ply. You'd think I would learn), but I was lucky enough to score some more! Yay! So very excited, and I already have the sweater planned out that I want to work on!

In other news: I've been working on a fancy, new, leather-bound copy of the Devil's Dictionary. While the layout takes a fair amount of time, once it's done, I'll have it to print up on demand. I'm being soooooo meticulous about it - I'd rather not have to go in for any edits once I've completed it. I'm thrilled with how it's working out so far, and hope to have it completed within the week.

Burt Reynolds, Bookbinding, and a Couple of FOs.

Yikes! I didn't mean to fall so disparately behind, but here it is, a bit over a month later! What can I say? I've been busy:



I finished the Aeolian Shawl (with beads!) in record time. The majority of the body took me about 4 days to get through, but the last rows seemed to draaaaaaggggg on. Isn't that always the way? The completed shawl blocked out to about 72 inches across the top, and 36 inches down the center of the back. The beading, while tedious, was well worth the effort. They wound up being pretty subtle, but the glint when they catch the light? Delicious.

I did not use all of my original handspun for this - there's a bit leftover. Ironically, there are leftovers because I was afraid of running out of yarn! I had read in a few places that this thing gobbles up yarn at the edging and cut back on my earlier rows. Oh well.

This HAS inspired me to spin more laceweight! And more beading, too, believe it or not.

I was also on the road a bit:



I drove down to Florida to see my mom and teach a mini-workshop for her and a couple of her friends! It was a blast. We completed 2 books during the one-day workshop, a Crossed-Structure Binding and the Secret Belgian Binding. I had a really great time! While down there I also visited the Jaffe Center, which has a most amazing incredible collection of rare and artists books. The space they are in is incredible!

And, of course, I had to go here:



That's a shot of just one little corner of the Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter, Florida. The place is OUTTA CONTROL. It's chock full of belt buckles and badges, with pictures, posters, and magazine covers of B.R. covering nearly every surface.

Oh, and socks:



These are actually a slightly older (Easter) project, made as a thank you to Anne for watching the cat while I was away. They look like Fruit Stripe Gum, no?

Sweet Potato Pie & Liza Minelli

I've accidentally involved myself in many "____-alongs" for the coming months, and I'm trying to make some headway. Above, some Wensleydale (swoooooooooon) in the "Sweet Potato" colorway from HelloYarn. This is for a Spunquistadore Singles Spin-Along/Knit-Along for shawls - I'm planning on knitting the Aeolian shawl from the latest Knitty. I've got some beads on standby.

This was a blast to spin! The Wensleydale, with it's long staple, made this easy to spin to a laceweight, and eased my fears a whole bunch about it falling apart if you just LOOKED at it. I split the original roving up by color - I wanted the color progression to flow through the length of the shawl, with darkest tones along the lower edge. Hopefully, this will all work out as planned. I've got around 800 yards of the yarn. With the beads and the expected haloing, I'm hoping for a somewhat ethereal shawl.



I also finally got around to spinning up and plying these GIGANTIC batts from the Enchanted Knoll Happy Hooves Club. The batts are HUGE! This is the "Cabaret" colorway, though I have been fondly referring to it as Liza Minelli, what with all the sparkle. Seriously, so much sparkle. Everywhere. All over me.

I'm knitting on a secret project right now, so no pictures of that. But I'm driving out to Ithaca this weekend, so LOTS of car knitting! I plan on having many finished objects by the end of the weekend.

Meanwhile, in the real world......I'll be teaching a leather paring workshop next week. This will be my first foray into TEACHING leather-work. Based on other classes I've taught, and working with leather myself, I think it will once again be a matter of teaching-by-feel. It's tough to teach tension! I've been tossing around a lot of different approaches to this, and what I NEED to cover, but you never can know in advance. Also, continuing on my quest to have a decent-sized library of books-in-sheets available - the docket grows larger, and I am (thus far) unable to keep up.

Some Vellum Love......

I taught a Limp Vellum Bookbinding workshop this past week. This binding structure is really quite beautiful, and this is one of my favorite workshops to teach. The course runs for 3 days, and we create this fantastic book!

Limp vellum binding were prevalent in the 14th century. The covers of the books were formed from one piece of vellum - usually a goat or calf skin - with the textblock of the book sewn on alum-tawed thongs. The process of alum-tawing the thongs creates a leather that does not stretch as much, and it wears much better than tanned leather.



These bindings were wonderful for re-binding things as well - it is not uncommon to find limp vellum bindings where the cove vellum is a sheet of old calligraphed manuscript. The textblock is sewn using a herringbone stitch, which gives it some movement, but not too much. There is minimal adhesive used. The thongs are then split and laced through a vellum cover, which has mitered, tabbed corners, and a yapp edge to protect the foreedge of the textblock. Many historic limp vellum bindings featured a yapp edge on 3 sides.

The vellum itself is hygroscopic, causing it to "move" with humidity levels. For this reason, the limp vellum structure is ideal - the textblock can easily be separated from the cover and rebound, though the vellum is easily the strongest, most durable material for covering.



Once the textblock is set within the vellum cover, the book is held shut with more alum-tawed thongs and a bone clasp. A vellum staple can be added to the doubled-over thong to keep it in place. The thong and loop closures are also attached using no adhesive.

Because the vellum is a skin, there are many variations in the weight through one cover - the skin is stiffer and less flexible along the spine, and it tends to be thicker, as well. Folding the vellum can be a bit of a wrestling match. The skin we used for this workshop was a beautiful veiny calfskin - you can see the veins of the animal it came from.

When completed, this binding is quite satisfying to hold. The vellum is very smooth, and has a subtle lustre to it. The flexible book molds to your hands. They open quite easily and are structurally quite sound.

Meanwhile......



I've been spinning up my first installment from Southern Cross Fiber Club - this is some Polwarth in the colorway "Boys of Summer". It's a joy to spin - quite plump! And I'm excited to see it plied and done. The colors are sooooo saturated.

Batts, Or A New Crazy Beginning

I was teaching a Non-Adhesive Bookbinding course this past week. I've been teaching this specific course for about 8 1/2 years now. I don't think that I am burnt out on teaching this, but I have seen a lot of the "standard" problems that arise. So I discuss them. This has led to the core curriculum of the course being completed in 3 or 4 days, and this is a 5 day class. I have a bunch of things up my sleeves for such occasions, but at this point, I'm realizing that those things up my sleeve have also become a part of MY curriculum when teaching the course, such as this Secret Belgian Binding. I don't know if this progression is good or bad.

Meanwhile, in the world of fiber:

I finally got a chance to play with my drum carder - I am participating in a batt swap, and these are my very first batts, heading out to Maryland. Since I wasn't quite sure of what I was doing, along with feeling a bit adventurous, I carded up a little bit of everything in nature colors. These batts are made up of merino, corriedale, a bit of soy silk, and some sparkle and camel down. I'm happy with them; I hope my swap partner enjoys them.

The drum carding process is a ton of fun, but also a bit overwhelming! So many possibilities! I'm reading up a bit more on what I can do, and hoping to get around to dying some fiber specifically for carding. I'm enjoying the blending possibilities, both for colors AND fibers. And what girl doesn't liek a wee bit of sparkle in her life?