Book Necklace

Last week I saw on facebook an event at the Arts House.

via The Thistle Bindery

Make an arty statement with your very own Mini Book Necklace! Participants will learn to create their own case bound book and to accessorise it with unique metal trinkets and cords.

I couldn't resist anything with "trinkets and cords" so I immediately signed up. The first time I learned bookbinding was April 2013. (I blogged about it here) Good grief. That was 3 years ago. Has it been that long?

These 3 books were binded using the Japanese stab bookbinding method. It's the most basic method for decorative bookbinding. Since then I've made a number of books using this method.

I don't remember when I made this version but this was the last book I binded. This is closer to the kind of books I like. I think I drew the cat using Photoshop Elements and printed it on my inkjet printer.

Last year I attended another workshop at the library on bookbinding but it turned out to be far too basic, almost like kindergarten level. I honestly didn't learn anything new. Anyway, since then, I've always wanted to learn another method of bookbinding and finally the opportunity came.

The Book Necklace Workshop was part of The Arts Open House on Saturday. There were a number of events taking place the whole day at the Arts House but I was too hungry to stay and linger around.

 These were some of the samples at the workshop.

I chose to make this version because I liked the print of the cover paper.

It's a real book with pages.

The workshop was conducted by Ian Tan who learned book bindery when he was studying architectural conservation in Edinburgh, Scotland. He operates The Thistle Bindery as a hobby. I don't know what's his full-time job but I heard him mention project manager or something. Anyway, it's quite apparent he likes playing with paper.

I was a little early for the workshop so I could get a good seat. I chose the 2nd chair away from him so my good ear could hear him.

All the tools needed were provided. I wasn't sure if a metal ruler would be provided so I brought my own. Yes, I felt a little stupid carrying the long metal ruler in my bag and constantly getting scraped by it.

There were lots of charms provided. I finally picked the heart on guitar. I would have loved some skulls but there weren't any.

The first part of the workshop was spent creating signatures. A signature is just a fancy word for two or more sheets of paper stacked and folded as a group. Mine has 3 folded sheets per signature. We made a total of 10 signatures. (it's just folding the paper in half)

Sewing the signatures together come next.

There were lots of glueing. I didn't enjoy glueing because I don't like the feel of glue on my fingers.

After more glueing to create the book cover, we had to make an eyelet.

The eyelet is for the necklace. Yep, I used a hammer!

It took me 2 whole hours to make the book necklace. It's really cute and just to show you the scale, I've photographed the book with a spool of thread.

Now that I know how to make this case bound book, I will make a smaller version in future. Maybe a miniature book for one of my dolls?

Japanese Stab Bookbinding

I don't know if you've noticed but for a while now I've been cheating on my bags with knitting, beadweaving, tatting, crocheting, hair accessorizing and last Thursday, I did it again. This time with bookbinding. Don't get me wrong. Bag making is still my Number One priority. But I need to learn other crafts as I enjoy learning and getting excited about something I know nothing about. And lately, bag making hasn't been that exciting for me. I mean let's face it. The honeymoon is over. Seeing the same face, day in day out... wait, I am talking about my bag making, right?

Also, if all I do day in day out is make bags, I will go insane. I already see a bit of insanity in me during the weeks when I have to sew intensively because I've been busy doing other stuff (being lazy). Not good for me. This is my 6th year making bags and the 4th year I make bags for sale. I have already made more than 1,000 bags. It's been a long time. <long pause>

What a long explanation for me to learn a little craft! But really, I want you to know what's going on with me. I think that if I regularly take time out to indulge in other crafts, I will be a better bag maker. Otherwise I will continue to be in some kind of a funk and turn into a robotic bag-maker.

So this Japanese Stab Bookbinding workshop was conducted at Monster Gallery. I hadn't been to the Monster's new studio at Chinatown so hubs took me there using his Google Maps. We did a bit of walkabout at Chinatown and discovered that it has become very Chinatown since we last did a walkabout years ago. I definitely want to go back and have a look around in a few shops which sell stainless steel cookware! (that's the housewife in me screaming: stainless steel!)

The guy conducting the course is Leng and he has a blog here if you're interested. Leng did most of the hard work preparing all the materials needed. He even prepared templates so we need not do the measurements ourselves. What a guy. Oh, I really enjoyed his workshop!

Here he is again. I asked him to pose with his book of secrets. He draws very complicated diagrams of the patterns and of course only he can decipher it. If I were to look at it, I would probably see... Must. Eat. Banana. Custard.

These are our materials. I'm so happy to see the Japanese paper. I used to do a lot of Sashiko embroidery in the past and the print reminds me of Sashiko formation.

We need to use an awl. It's an essential tool. You know how clumsy I am. I ended up almost stabbing myself with it. It was just a prick. No blood. But last night I managed to hand sew onto my skin, would you believe it? I almost screamed my head off. Wait, I did.

We sewed 3 books in all. The first one is a basic binding, nothing fancy, just to get the idea. This is the second book I sewed. It uses the hemp-leaf binding method. I struggled a little to understand how the stitching is done for this method. For me, I learn best if I can see the technique. If you say, go here, go here, go there, after the workshop I'll forget everything. Simply following instructions doesn't do it for me. So for this second book, I took my time to figure it out and made a few mistakes here and there. Really, for such things, you learn best from mistakes.

This is the third book I sewed. The binding method is called tortoise shell. It's the most complicated of the three mostly because it has more holes to stitch through. When I sewed the binding, I still wasn't that confident I was doing everything right but once I completed it, I knew I've grasped the concept. After all, it is sewing and if I can sew the complicated embroidery stitches, this cannot be that hard.

This is a recommended book for Japanese book-binding and it's available at the library. So I intend to check that out and I will report my finding if I discover anything exciting. The only thing that irritates me about book-binding is that I can't find any local stores that sells the supplies. Like the linen thread for instance. I'm definitely going to have a tough time finding it.

There's another kind of bookbinding technique which I would like to pick up. It's called coptic binding, I think and I might want to see if I can learn it off the web seeing how it's not too hard. Anyway, I have started to make a few notebooks just for fun as well as to help me remember the technique. I'll show them to you next time. I'm using sashiko thread and I may try using waxed cotton as well just to see if it works.