ArtiphyTheHeart

X-Book With Pockets

Moving right along, making 100 books this year with Artists Of The Round Table, the third book on the list is the X-Book with pockets.  

This book is constructed like the first X-Book which you can see by clicking HERE, with the addition of a simple cover and pocketed pages.  Notice the arrows which I've drawn on the pic at the top.  The cover is glued to the book only at the point of the 3/8" wrap around on the first and last pages of the book.  The arrows point to the open area where the cover is not attached to the book.  This is significant, because with a single sheet of paper folded into eight sections with pockets, and six of these exposed as book pages, the other two are hidden behind the cover.  So you end up with a book of six visible pockets, and two hidden ones.  

Stretch out the cover from the back of the book, and a hidden area with secret pockets is revealed.  I slipped in a couple of plain tags to highlight the pockets.  The arrow points to the secret hiding place.

Once again, if you're interested in any of the books I'm making, or if you're interested in bookbinding in general, pick up a copy ofMaking Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms by Alisa Golden.  It's a great book, and the one we're using for this ambitious project.  

If the first handful of books in my posts strike you as a bit on the simple side, let me assure you that each contains valuable elements crucial to some of the most sophisticated bindings.  Simple perhaps, but not simplistic.  The steps we are taking and the order in which they are taken provide an increasing bank of information, with each of the steps building upon the next for a comprehensive enclyclopedia of knowledge in making books and binding them.  Each book, even those that seem the most simple, contain cuts, folds, and steps in construction that form the basis of many of the more complicated structures.  So stick around!  I'll be getting to some of those shortly!

Shorts Book

Here's another first book for those who are learning bookbinding.  Once again, even though I've made these in the past, I'm so glad to have the refresher course because there's so much I'd forgotten.  I had to ask for clarification that my page-turning was in the correct order, but it turns out that I got it right.

This is another book constructed from a single sheet of paper.  I used 98# Canson mixed-media paper, a heavier weight for this book than the last because there were fewer folds, and I didn't want the watercolor and ink to bleed through the pages.  It worked. I prepared the paper by spraying a light solution of gouache over a few of stencils on both sides.  I ground some ink and used the wet side of a sheet of sumi-é paper to make a few brush sketches.  When I realized that I had done nine cats, I got the idea for Nine Lives.

The cats were randomly sketched all over the paper, so I tore them out and added some gouache to the edges.  Pages three and four open up and down.  There are four folds and two sides, so eight pages in all.  I decided to use these up and down pages to add the ninth cat.

The chop I used says "long life".  It's a traditional chop carved from soap stone and I inked it with the traditional toxic red chop ink that takes forever to dry.  I zapped it with a hairdryer to speed things up, but I think it will take the full few weeks before it sets, regardless.  In the meantime, I blotted it a bit, then separated the pages with waxed paper.

This book is part of a project that some members of Artists Of The Round Table are working on.  We plan to make 100 books using Alisa Golden's bookMaking Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms as our guide.  

If you'd like to see all posts of the books I'm making for this project, scroll up to the top of this page, click on "Archives", then click on "Making Handmade Books Workshop" from the category menu.  

X-Book

One of the first books you make when you study bookbinding is the X-Book.  It's simple, but its folding has a purpose that repeats with other more complicated bindings.  It's what I used to call a root book, since its construction is the basis for so many books.

Some of us in Artists Of the Round Table are working our way through Alicia Golden's bookMaking Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms.  We'll be making 100 books beginning with the X-Book.  Here are some pictures of mine:

It's made from a single sheet of paper that is cut and folded so that the middle puffs out.

It's easier to get the picture from the top.  Each fold is a page, and when the two end pages are pushed together toward the middle, it forms an X, which gives the book its name.

Then the outside folds of the X wrap around the inside folds to create the cover and the back.

Even if you made a gazillion of these in grade school, you make them still when you learn to bind books.  And it's amazing how easy it is to forget the simple stuff!

I decorated the pages with a combination of lettering, drawing, and clear stamps from Layers Of Colors, Close To My Heart, and Character Constructions.  

India ink and a Rapidograph coordinate perfectly with black VersaFine ink.  I added some of my own lines and quirks to the some of the stamped images, and it was impossible to tell where their lines left off and mine began.