Canvas Book

Here's a look at a canvas book I constructed during an in-person workshop with Kelly Kilmer several years ago.  I thought I'd show it to you because it's one of my favorite books.  Really delightful to hold. It measures 6-1/4" X 7-3/4".  A pic would be better, but the lighting right now is awful, so I scanned it to get truer colors.

I painted the pages before binding the book.  On the left is the inside cover with the first page on the right.  The front cover actually folds over to create a pocket on the inside cover, which one of these days I'll probably stitch closed, top and bottom.  The back cover does the same.

This is the whole book, flared-out butterfly style, with the back cover on the left, the spine in the middle, and the front cover on the right. Not a great scan because of the shadows on the left (the blurring is in the scan, not on the book), but this will give you an idea of how I created the spine by stenciling over the center of the canvas in black.  It's sewn with a simple running stitch, one signature, pamphlet style.

I use a lot of canvas when I bind books, and I use it in many different ways.  Here are a few links to other blog posts where I've used canvas in bookbinding:

I used painted and stenciled canvas to cover the boards for this book:  http://artiphytheheart.typepad.com/artiphytheheart/2012/06/lateral-purple.html

I did the same thing here, except instead of stenciling by stippling paint, I slathered tinted modeling gel over the stencil to create the dimensional squares:  http://artiphytheheart.typepad.com/artiphytheheart/2012/01/a-handbound-book-start-to-finish.html

I used painted canvas for the spine of this book: http://artiphytheheart.typepad.com/artiphytheheart/2011/07/my-18x-book.html

If you scroll down past the first book in this post, there is a second book.  On the second book I used pieces of painted and stamped canvas as panels on the front and back covers: 

http://artiphytheheart.typepad.com/artiphytheheart/2010/12/orange-.html

 

I painted a piece of primed canvas for this little book, figured out where the spine would be when I wrapped it around the boards, then stenciled the spine in black using a plastic doily as a stencil.  It's one of my favorites: 

http://artiphytheheart.typepad.com/artiphytheheart/2010/07/integration.html

 

There are others, but these will give you an idea of how I use primed canvas in bookbinding.  Feel free to look around the blog.  You may find some I've forgotten about.

 

 

Comments

[Joanne Thieme Huffman]

A lovely book.

[Connie Rose]

Great books, love what you're doing with the canvas.

[Rita Ackerman]

Love this one. Makes me want to go dig out the canvas. SOmeday I'll go back and read all your past posts. Just these few are amazing.