CBAS Study Group: Six-Needle Coptic Binding

I have been traveling the last two months and, regrettably, have missed the last two study groups, the second session of Interlocking and Woven Book Structures, covering Slit/Slot & Other Paper Hinging Techniques, (see Piano Hinging for part one), and most recently, Potato Print Papers.*

No photograph can convey the simple beauty of the potato print papers that were produced during this last meeting. Even so, I thought I would include one here. As you can see in the photograph above, many of these papers were used in today's project.

Here's a photo of our eager-to-learn group. All that was required of us was that, prior to our meeting, we pick up our precut book boards, covers for the book we were going to make, and cover them, preferably with the decorative papers made the month before.

Our first task was marking and making holes in the book signatures. For this, we used a hole punching cradle, a device to position the signature for accurate hole making.

Here is a closeup of both sides of the cradle, top and bottom. This one is made with medium weight binder's board.

Cran is instructing the group on how to accurately mark their covers for punching so the resulting holes will line up properly with the holes in their signatures.

Jeanne is sewing her first signature to her back cover. Coptic stitch can be done with one needle but we used six needles, worked in pairs. Once we got started, it was pretty easy going. If you are interested in this stitch, check out Keith Smith's Non-Adhesive Binding, Volume III: Exposed Spine Sewings. We worked from one of the diagrams in his book.

I didn't have any stamped paper so I used a paste paper I made in a workshop last year. The term refers to a method of decorating the surface of paper with acrylic or tempera paint mixed in a paste medium. I'll be writing more about this in a future post.

A closeup of the stitched binding. What is nice about the coptic stitch technique is that, once you catch on to the stitching, it is fast, it uses no adhesive (except for what is needed to attach decorative paper to the cover boards), and the book opens flat (nice for sketching and/or journaling).

*Red potatoes were said to be the best.

Cynscribe Calligraphy Directory

I was searching the internet for paper guides I could download on which I could practice my calligraphy when I came across this site. One link leads to another. It’s a resource worth bookmarking.

Cynscribe Directory is a resource for calligraphers, lettering artists, papermakers, typographers, graphic designers, paper decorators, scrapbookers, rubberstampers, greeting card makers,book designers and artist bookmakers. It also includes suppliers, conferences, exhibitions & events, galleries, guilds, libraries, museums, and schools.

Inventing Kindergarten: Early Concertina Books

Kindergarten was created by Friedrich Froebel in the 1830s and grew to become what is now one of the most familiar shared milestones throughout the world. Froebel's kindergarten involved play with so-called "gifts," a series of educational toys, including building blocks, parquetry tiles, origami papers, modeling clay, sewing kits and other design projects, intended to foster curiosity and teach young children about art, design, mathematics and the natural world.

For more teaching aids and early concertina books, visit The Institute for Figuring’s online exhibit, Inventing Kindergarten.

photo: Astonishingly intricate paper weaving workbook by Ms. F. Wegerich, Germany, c. 1880. Very fine strips of paper woven into complex patterns- 19th century predecessors to the digital revolution.

The Toymaker

The Toymaker is Marilyn Scott-Waters, a graphic designer, author and illustrator who has a web site of over 200 downloadable paper toys, holiday cards, valentines, sun boxes, baskets and bags, origami and ephemera... all for you to make. Just print them out, cut, glue and enjoy ... or buy the book. Included among the toys are some simple book and moveable structures:

A Fairy Book (concertina book)
Two Rabbit Friends (popup card)
Cupid on Valentine's Day (sliding window card)
A Little Book About The Circus (one-sheet star book)
Dream Theater (tunnel book)

Alphabet Mosaics

Fire Poi Typography- Letters
Originally uploaded by Nir Tober

As you can probably tell, I like unusual alphabets. Flickr has a lot of alphabet groups. Here's one with which to start.

Non-Linear Books

For most of us the word "book" presents a visual image of multiple planes, covered and bound together on one side and viewed by turning one page at a time and reading the text from top to bottom and left to right. This is not how it has always been, nor, necessarily how it will be in the future.

The nonlinear visual book has been a part of communication history since the beginning of human life. In terms of the visual transmission of ideas, there are many examples. Before codified systems of writing, objects were decorated or modified in such a way as to communicate a message.

Thus begins the introduction to a fascinating and inspiring journey through non-linear book structures and a discussion of how the presentation of text affects the way we interpret it. The author also shares some thoughts about the future of text and the book in the new electronic age.

What Are Artists' Books?

There is no official definition of what is meant by the term, artist book, nor is there any agreement on when it was introduced historically or where artists’ books fit in the Craft vs. Fine Art debate. The most that can be agreed upon is that they are visually expressive objects that function like a book in the conveyance of information which may or may not be of a textual nature. Simply put, they are works of art realized in the form of a book. For a scholarly essay on artist’s books see Johanna Drucker’s first chapter, The Artist’s Book as Idea and Form, from her book, The Century of Artists’ Books.

What is it about the book form that attracts artists? I would say, everything. The definition of a book from the artist’s point of view is very broad indeed, ranging from the traditional codex form to books that could be described as sculptural. It would appear that almost any art form or technique can, with a certain degree of adaptation, be used in the creation of book structures and the content within.

Artists' books are a hybrid form. Artists make them for all kinds of reasons, and with different intentions. Artists' books may be rich and fancy, or they may look as common as supermarket circulars. There is no one look about them.

The simplest definition of artists' books is: "books made by artists." Though bordering on the tautological, this is a good working definition for a rich and complicated genre.

One of the reasons discussions of artists' books begin with efforts of definition is that they are a subset of a medium: the book. Paintings don't exist outside of art, but books do. All paintings are made by artists (arguably of varying degrees of talent and professionalism; trained elephants and schoolchildren notwithstanding). Defining what is meant by the term artists' book is a necessary requirement for a form whose related (non-fine arts) members include TV Guides and the Bible.

It's important not to confuse artists' books with art books, or books about artists (monographs, for instance). In the last several decades many artists have made books, and used the book form as a primary tool of expression. This movement into a relatively unexplored medium or genre needed a new descriptor. Artists' books is the result, and though its definition is not entirely fixed, it is the term most often used to describe recent or contemporary book productions by artists.

Thinking of the artists as being responsible for both the text and the physical realization of that text as a book may be a helpful construct in understanding the field. The difference between an artists' book and a book illustrated by an artist has to do with intentionality and degrees of control. The illustrator may be one of several subordinate collaborators who is responsible for one aspect of the book's realization. In general, the book artist conceptually controls the whole publication.

What is it about book form that attracts artists? The books' physical nature is one inducement. Structurally, the book is a gathering of bound, usually printed, pages. The properties of portability, sequence, and containment are of particular interest to visual artists. Other allures of the book form that have been exploited by artists have to do with function: readers invest books with authority; their use is known, and their presence is ubiquitous.

Tracy Honn,
Silver Buckle Press
Artist's Books: Highlights from the Kohler Art Library

photo, William Blake, The Temptation of Eve, perhaps the earliest example of a book artist in the modern sense.