Saturday, October 14, 2006

Bookbinding with a sea view

Back in Melbourne today! Pete and I just got back from a short trip to Ballarat (to visit his folks) and then on to Fairhaven near the beach where we stayed a few nights and did bookbinding.

And what crazy weather we had. The first two evenings in Fairhaven were spent huddled round a roaring fire heater, and I could barely sleep for the cold. Then the next two days the temperature hit 30 and 36 C (86 and 97 F). 'Hottest October day in 90 years' they said on the news. We tried to cool down with a swim at the beach, but there was a very strong wind that whipped sand on our legs and the water was still freezing from winter which made our feet numb. We had fun anyway.

Anyway, our bookbinding project was a complete success! Photos and more details below:


My first book :)


I stuck a little envelope on the back enpaper for storing little bits and pieces (and to cover up a bubble, hehe).


I made three books all up - one A6 size and the other two about A7 - tiny but so fun to construct! And they only need about 5 sheets of A3 paper to make :)

Pete found a whole bunch of great tutorials online about how to do bookbinding. The ones that I followed (kind of mish-mashed their processes together) are:

Dave's bookbinding tutorial - easy to follow, good pictures
'Binding books' - lots of details photos

'How to make a simple hardcover book' - good diagram on binding signatures together
The Evilrooster Bookweb - heaps of info on different techniques and handy equipment you can make


The Evilrooster site had instructions on how to make a book press and stitching frame in one unit. You don't really need either of these, but they make life heaps easier. Here's the one we made, with me half way through stitiching my signatures together (note: the 'sea view' is in the background - it got washed out in the photo but it's there, honest!)


Signatures all stitched together, aka the 'book block'.


Petey stitching his signatures together by lamplight :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your first book!? WOW You guys don't do things by halves do you?

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous books!
They look so amazing!

Anonymous said...

I am completely stunned by your craftiness. In fact Im in shock!! well done you godamn hipsters!!

Very jealous. indeed.

Lara said...

Hee, thanks so much girls! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, when you've got good instructions to go by. It's handy to have nimble fingers though - pete's are a bit too boy-ish so he found the stitching signatures bit frustratin.

Anonymous said...

wow - these look amazing!
is there anything you cant do ;)

Lara said...

haha. i can't play the guitar or sing or draw like you ;)

Anonymous said...

wow, they look great. I can't wait to see you combine your prints and books together. I'd love to give it a go and make some artists books.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

G'day

My names Dave, I made that tutorial you used. I'm interested in talkin to you guys, not often I find other young graphic/book talents like you guys my age in aus. add me on msn if u have it phattexta@hotmail.com or an email, whatever!

Nice work on the book, love your pattern work as well.