I made a book... a long time ago.

[lonelystars.livejournal.com]

I just remembered that I never posted my finished bookbinding project for an art class.

so here...

The project was to take pictures of specific things like linear perspective and shadow and other design aspects and make a book and put it all together. Most people did construction paper stapled together but I am an overachiever.



the front, the paper is really pretty and textured all bumpy and the little drangonflies are buttons. After the book was covered I drilled small holes and thread embroidery thread through to hold the dragonflies on, it gave them a little movement also.

The inside pages are black watercolor paper, all handcut thanks to the odd requirements the professor gave (6 1/4 inches by 9 2/3 inches? whatever). The cover is scrapbook paper over matboard (black so it wouldn't show through) and the binding is done with embriodery thread and silver cording.


the back


It opens really well thanks to the slit in the cover, I think the stupid white printed explanations look really shitty but that's what the professor wanted.

I used the Japanese Stab Binding method found here: http://www.sdmart.org/pix/japanesebook.pdf from the San Diego Museum of Art. Using the template to drill the holes was a really smart idea. But I did change many parts in that method.


The binding gave me a bit of trouble, that I should have thought about beforehand *head smack*! Originally I just had the paper in there so when I put all the photographs in it was like 12 times too big for the cover. So I cut up more matboard and I had to re-bind it all together, the little pieces of extra matboard slip around a little and don't look terrific if you really look at them but it looks better than it did before I put them in.

My professor was really impressed and I got full credit for it. And I'm pretty damn proud of my little book ;)

Thanks for looking.

edit: forgot to add that the Krylon Spray Adhesive worked really well and didn't warp or bubble under the cover paper like I was worried it would.