If you see Esther Smith’s How to Make Books: Fold, Cut & Stitch Your Way to a One-of-a-Kind Book (Potter Craft, 2007) in a bookstore, chances are, you will pick it up because of its unconventional cover design. That’s a good start, but once you open the book, you’d probably drawn to the stylish illustrations and unique photographs of the handmade titles by Purgatory Pie Press, which is co-operated by Smith.

Beginning from simple “instant books” to accordion, from stab to the more difficult long-stitching, then to the most challenging Coptic binding, Smith demonstrates how one idea can be carried and transformed from one form to another, branching out to create one-of-a-kind books. Each binding method is shown in stylish block-type print illustrations, followed by variations of the method.

How to Make Books is balanced with techniques and ideas. Variations of a particular binding method are demonstrated with alternative materials and ideas. In stab binding, Smith shows us how to create alternative patterns such as the tortoise shell and slacked-stab, with recycled paper, envelopes and cloth. Once you've finished your long-stitch book, you will start to think about making a leather journal; and after you've accomplished your coptic book, you will begin to ponder on other possible materials for the covers.

This past Monday morning I was invited to give a bookmaking workshop at Parsons the New School for Design in New York for its summer classes. The workshop was meant to give students, who are going to finish a digital print final project, some ideas about bookbinding.

I created the workshop to introduce students to basic concepts of bookmaking, as well as materials and tools to use. Terminologies such as spine, fore-edge and square were introduced. I circulated around some model books to give them an idea of what book art is. Incidentally, I had my Harry Potter 7, which came out over the weekend, and I used it to illustrate the structure and properties of a book.

I then moved on to discuss some requirements and possible structures for photo albums, which included stab, accordion and concertina structures. I finished the workshop by demonstrating the construction of concertina and stab binding.

I have finished my first batch of holiday cards for Greenjeans' new annual Holiday Card Project this year. Greenjeans is providing 100% recycled plain paper card stock and envelopes. Along with the handmade cards made by 20 other artists, my cards will be available exclusively at their store starting in mid-November and will sell for around $3.50 each. The entire $3.50 will be donated to Millennium Villages, a program that invests in health, food production, education, clean water, and infrastructure to help impoverished villages help themselves to escape extreme poverty.



A total of 12 cards are in this first batch. A photograph and its cropped close-up are binded onto the card with stab binding. It's sort of like a mini-album on the card. The theme of the photographs are surrounding Brooklyn and the holiday.



The back is signed and dated, and printed with Greenjeans' logo and tagline.



So hurry up! Go over the Greenjeans and grab a few cards for charity! Read more about Greenjeans' Annual Holiday Card Project.

I bought a roll of Chinese Xuan paper at Pearl River in Chinatown last weekend, thinking that if I really want to do some more standard Chinese stab binding books, I'd really need Xuan paper. A roll of 15 large sheets of Xuan paper costs 13 bucks, it's not cheap!

Xuan paper is very thin and easy to handle, especially for trimming. After folding each individual cut sheet into its own signature, the first most important step is to jog them along the fold to have them aligned. The 3 sides are then trimmed to make sure the book edge is smooth. Trimming is extremely easy in this case: the paper is so soft and thin that a few light stokes of the knife will trim the edges perfectly.



Then comes the "paper staples," which are used to secure the signatures in place for the rest of the process: attaching covers and sewing. The paper staples are inserted into 2 holes which will be covered by the covers. Until the paper staples are in place securing the signatures together, we need to weigh down the book block to prevent the signatures from shifting.

The covers are trimmed along the edges of the book block, ensuring that they have the exact size as the book block. There are 2 different approaches to do the cover: you can fold the cover paper in half and trim along the book block (as shown on the right), or you can fold the edges in. If you fold the edges in, you would want to slightly glue the first section (and hence the last as well) onto the cover to make sure the fold-ins do not show.

The book finishes with sewing. The biggest challenge of the sewing is to untwist the twisted pair of threads between stations. Yes, you can sew with a single thread, but traditionally Chinese stab binding is sewn with double threads.

A few days ago visitor Cerix wrote to me saying that most of the books he sees on the Internet are called Japanese stab binding, but in fact there are Chinese traditional binding form Tang Danasty. I think we should clarify the difference between Chinese and Japanese binding.

First of all, they are both stab bindings. Complex sewing pattern may be used, such as the tortoise shell and hemp leaf pattern.

Like many other aspects of Chinese culture, bookbinding was spread to Japan during the Tang Dynasty. In Japanese bookbinding, widths between every sewing stations are of equidistance; while in Chinese bookbinding, it's not necessarily the case.

Japanese bookbinding (from Transient Books):


Chinese bookbinding:


To read more on historic bookbindings from Dunhuang, visit the International Dunhuang Project.

Recently, Scotland-based Joanne B. Kaar contacted me and shared with me her Web site and work. She is based at the north coast of Caithness in the Highlands of Scotland which provides her with the ever-changing landscape that gives her constant inspiration for her work.

Joanne has traveled to Taiwan and learnt about Chinese papermaking, seal carving techniques and Chinese calligraphy. She runs workshops across the country and shares with her students her expertise and skills on papermaking and bookbinding. Joanne has also published Paper Making and Bookbinding: Costal Inspirations on papermaking and bookbinding.

I am truly delighted to share with you some of Joanne's works. Blending the breath-taking landscapes and scenery from the north coast of Caithness, her work are colorful, energetic and unique. You can visit her Web site, joannebkaar.com, for more pictures and details of her work.



If you are a bookartist or paperartist, and you would like us to feature your work, please let us know!

In Chinese bookbinding, before punching the holes for the stitching, 2 holes are punched on the spine edge of the book block to insert "paper staples." Paper staples are used to hold the sheets together before doing any further work on the book block. They serve as a somewhat temporary "binding agent." Paper staples also help to reinforce the binding, since they themselves hold the pages together.

You can create paper staples by twisting a strip of thin Xuan or mulberry paper (or any other kind of paper that is thin like mulberry). Since the one end is smaller and pointy, the staples can be inserted into the hole with ease. The paper staples then expand inside the holes by un-twisting themselves automatically. This is the most ingenious part of the design.

After the paper staples are inserted, they are further flattened by hammering (mallet, of course) them over a piece of board. They will then lie nice and flat on the book board. Further punching and stitching then follow.

Right after the fire, from which I have lost everything, including all my bookmaking supplies and resources, Kelly and Alissa gave me a present to cheer me up. They gave me Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman by Kojiro Ikegami, which belonged to their library. They wanted to help me to start my collection again. It's was so utterly sweet. (Thank you guys, even though you are probably sick of hearing me saying it already.)

It's a really neat book, and in fact I have checked out this book before. It provides organized, clear instructions and diagrams for different types of Japanese bookbinding variations: four-hole binding (aka stab binding, here is a great illustrated instructions in PDF), accordion, ledgers, butterfly, multi-section, handscroll and cases. It also talks about traditional tools used in Japanese bookmaking, and the modern substitutions. The last chapter provides great tips and procedures on mending Japanese books. It has almost everything you need to get started and become a master in Japanese bookbinding.