Little Books, Round Two!

I took the next bookbinding class at Pyramid Atlantic. I can't say enough how much I enjoyed the classes, the studio, and the opportunity to just go do something for a change!

I made three books during the two classes:

The first used something called the longstitch binding, which sews the signatures together while wrapping the thread around strips of the cover. It has a soft leather cover (not leather covering board) and is about 2.5 by 4 inches.


The second uses a similar method to bind the signatures to the cover, but in this case the stitching goes over some leather hinges that I sewed onto a hard cover (decorative paper over board). It's about 3.5 by 5 inches in size.

The third one was actually the hardest to make. I was careful when covering the boards to get the paper to align well. This one uses the Coptic stitch method to bind the signatures together and to the cover. It uses two needles at once, and it kind of braids along the spine (poke up through a signature, then go back two signatures and poke through but to one side, then poke up the other needle, and back two and along the other side and so forth). It is very sturdy, allows the book to lay flat when open, and looks nice. My little row of braid is very wobbly and my signatures were uneven, but this was may favorite.