Paper-case Binding and Clamb-shell Box

Spring term is over, summer is well underway and I have a little catching up to do as far as posting my books... Above is my "paper-case" bound book. On this project, I learned to make a rounded spine, and a few other pretty old school techniques. Each of the signatures were folded from single pieces of paper (some of the edges have yet to be torn, and are still folded.) I don't know if that makes any of sense...hmmm. Have any of you ever been to the press building in Palmyra where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed? There you learn that 16 pages were printed at a time on one sheet, then that sheet was folded, the folded sections were sewn together, and then the edged were cut or trimmed. That is the same process here, just pre-trimming.
This book also has a hand sewn endband, but is a different style than my last book. It is secured by a leather strap that has been fed through the cover, and is covered with handmade paper (instead of a covered board) giving it a soft feeling.

The fore-edges of the cover come well over the end and bend around the text-block for protection. (I forget what it is called....grrr...that is driving me crazy!) I went pretty traditional with this book, and wanted to make it just like it would have been made hundreds of years ago. I am pretty happy with it.:)

Our next project was to make a clam-shell box. This is a box made for to hold books, portfolios, or anything that needs a special place to keep it safe. It is most often used as a conservation item in libraries and special collections for books with old bindings. Here is my box; I made it to fit my paper-case book:

Flat-back binding

Well, here is my second creation from my bookbinding class, a flat-back book. This is pretty much what I think everyone imagines when they picture a book in their mind, and maybe my favorite binding so far. It just looks so clean and crisp. The cover is made of book-clothe on the spine and an old map from the library on campus.
Here is a few details of the inside (or what I could show you and still come up with an interesting picture). For those of you who know me, you shouldn't be surprised to see the totally sweet orange end-sheets that I added as a contrasting color to the cover and block of paper. Love orange. Also, here is a detail of my hand-sewn end-band that is on both the top and bottom of the spine. These were originally only found on the tops of spines to protect the pages when the book was grabbed off of a shelf. (Imagine with me now how you pull a book off of a shelf: usually, you put your finger on the top of the spine to pull it off right? well, that's what these are for.) If you check any books you have at home you may have some that have end-bands, but they are probably not really sewn into the book, and just to look pretty. If you find one that is hand-sewn I would love to hear what the book is!

Paper Art

So, I found this on a friend's blog. I don't know how she found it, but I thought it was beautiful. It is amazing to me what people can do with just paper.


The artist's name is Peter Callesen. Check this out and you can see more of his work, and learn about how he does it all. He works in paper, snow, ice and all sorts of other cool media, and has a pretty good sense of humor as well.