More hand made books to post, now that I am back from an unintentional break. The modem in my poor pitiful laptop finally bit the dust sometime Sunday and so I have had no internet access since then. Wouldn't work in my room in San Miguel and wouldn't work in two different airports I tried. Ahh, technology; it's such a miracle... except when it's not.
So while I have continued making handmade books, I have not been able to post them here. Time for a little catch up...
Book 123 is another amate bark paper journal. This piece has been embossed and hand painted. I bought it like this at the Artisans' Market, although it might be interesting to try embossing some myself. (but that's for another day and another project).
I now know from firsthand experience that for all its thickness, amate paper can be fragile. It tears easily, and stitching with a longstitch binding can pull right through the paper. So I first stitched the signatures to a separate spine of cardstock. Then I glued that cardstock spine to the center of the inside of the amate paper cover and stitched the book block to the cover with a single row of pamphlet stitches. The glue I had available is not very good so there are gaps, but now that I am back in the US, I will add some better glue to make the structure of this handmade journal stronger.
I'm sure I haven't invented this type of book binding, but I haven't seen it in any of my books on bookmaking. I just thought through the problem and made this up. It seems to work.
I brought about 30 sheets of amate paper home with me so I'll have some to play with for future hand bound books.
So while I have continued making handmade books, I have not been able to post them here. Time for a little catch up...
Book 123 is another amate bark paper journal. This piece has been embossed and hand painted. I bought it like this at the Artisans' Market, although it might be interesting to try embossing some myself. (but that's for another day and another project).
I now know from firsthand experience that for all its thickness, amate paper can be fragile. It tears easily, and stitching with a longstitch binding can pull right through the paper. So I first stitched the signatures to a separate spine of cardstock. Then I glued that cardstock spine to the center of the inside of the amate paper cover and stitched the book block to the cover with a single row of pamphlet stitches. The glue I had available is not very good so there are gaps, but now that I am back in the US, I will add some better glue to make the structure of this handmade journal stronger.
I'm sure I haven't invented this type of book binding, but I haven't seen it in any of my books on bookmaking. I just thought through the problem and made this up. It seems to work.
I brought about 30 sheets of amate paper home with me so I'll have some to play with for future hand bound books.
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