Episodes
Monday Jun 18, 2012
Episode 82: Miyazaki Chicken Curry
Monday Jun 18, 2012
Monday Jun 18, 2012
Anger and frustration are wonderful motivators. Sometimes. Bookbinding is not the place to vent your anger, though. And what is anger but frustration at yourself for not accomplishing in real life what you see in your mind and heart? Last week I had a beautiful vision in my brain of a moleskine-esque blank notebook. It had a yellow spine, black cover, and a yellow band to keep the thing closed when you're running out of a bank you just held up. Yellow and black. Black & Decker or heavy equipment operators would love it. But... Yes, there is a 'however'.
First, I mis-measured the black book cloth so the back had more than the front. The yellow spine book cloth was okay but then the big mistake. The big BIG mistake. I attached the endpaper on the back OVER the strap that keeps the book closed during your bank robbery escape. Yes. OVER the strap. Covered the strap Completely! Then the front endpaper smacked too much glue on the text block and kept it closed. Even without the strap. STRIKE THREE!
Tossed the book across the room. Kicked myself (figuratively) and kicked the garbage can (literally). Picked the book up & ripped the covers off. Ripped the spine off. Ripped the book cloth off the back. Ripped the endpapers off. All in about two seconds. Rapid ripping, after which I went and had dinner. Slowly and with a bit of humor about the chicken. Chicken jokes.
That was a good week ago or more. Last night, after a glass and a half of organic South African red wine that came with a dinner of chicken curry, I returned to the pile of material that was, at one time, a ripped up book. I carefully measured and cut black book cloth for the covers. Then I cut the cover off the curry packet and used it as the spine cover. Except, well, anyway, uh, yeah. I cut it to exactly the height of the book. Yes, the exact height. No bit to bend and glue. Oh, well. No frustration here, eh? It has eight signatures of five sheets for 160 pages and is B6 in size (about 51/2" by 71/2"). The spine reads: Miyazaki Chicken Curry. (Miyazaki is a prefecture in southern Japan.)
The end result is a fun-looking blank notebook called Miyazaki Chicken Curry. Retained from the vision in my head: the black book cloth, the yellow strap, the off-yellow paper. Added since my blow up: the curry packet spine, yellow endpapers, pictures of Miyazaki, leftover string & a scrap of endpaper paper on the cover. Plus the exposed spine at the head and tail through my miscalculation of cutting the spine paper to the exact height of the book. But fun. Humor. Laughter this time instead of anger and frustration. They might be wonderful motivators but they inhibit the enjoyment of bookbinding that I have in my mind and heart.
Thursday Jun 07, 2012
Episode 81: This is a Slip Case?
Thursday Jun 07, 2012
Thursday Jun 07, 2012
Clamshell boxes and slipcases. Dresses for books. Both are fun to include in the price of a handmade book but one causes a considerable amount of stress and frustration - at least for me it does - while the other, uh, doesn't. After struggling through two clamshell boxes (you can hear about it, if you wish, below), I made a slipcase. Compared to the clamshell box, slipcases slip together much more easily. Nothing moves, for one. And I can visualize the completed box much easily. In fact, I made my first slipcase in less than an hour. The first clamshell took me maybe a grueling four hours.
The cover paper is the same as on the last clamshell box I made but without the small wavy design. I used the same paper with the Line 'Em Up, Dano book (Episode 76.) I like to use it because it's free. You can't go wrong with free. I like to practice with material that doesn't cost anything - I hope I don't run out before I perfect Something, eh? If I screw up anything I'm making with free material I don't feel as upset, frustrated, and depressed as when I use my own hard-earned cash for store-bought material. I'd better get better at making stuff soon, eh.
The book in the slipcase was made some time ago. But still in this century. It has Japanese-style paper which was probably designed in another century. It's rough to the touch plus has the neat design. The book has ten signatures of four sheets each for about 160 pages. The first sheet of paper in each section is green while the rest are your regular white so the spine looks mostly green. It is coptic stitched with black thread with five stations which means it can open quite wide and you can use the entire page, if you feel so inclined. It also has red endpapers just to spice things up a bit and to increase the colorfulness of it. As if the cover paper wasn't colorful enough. It's A5 (81/2" by 6") in size. It's a blank notebook.
If you want, you can ask me for it. Just email tedorigawa.bookmakers@gmail.com with Line 'Em Up, Dano! in the subject line and I'll send it to you With the Slipcase! Won't that be cool? The first request I get gets it.
This week we have music with our audio. The tune - not the entire song but just a couple of bits - is called Overland Blues and it's by the Yoshida Brothers who play the shamisen and are quite popular in Japan. And elsewhere, it seems. To listen to the entire song, click the link below. With the music, the drama is longer than usual. It's a little over four minutes long instead of the usual two or three. Is that right? I think so. Enjoy. Music:Yoshida Brothers "Overland Blues" (mp3) from "Best of Yoshida Brothers - Tsugaru Shamisen" (Domo Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store More On This AlbumSunday May 27, 2012
Episode 80: Skewered Clamshell
Sunday May 27, 2012
Sunday May 27, 2012
Today we have two creations in one. First, a B6-sized (7" by 5") blank notebook: Skewered. I used a coptic stitch with six stations. The cover paper is washi (link goes to The Japanese Paper Place) with small leaves embedded in it. I glued six thin bamboo skewers - usually used for yakitori - onto the book board before putting the cover paper on so the cover has a rough and raised look about it. The endpapers are red to offset the paleness of the rest of the book. The book has five sections of four sheets each for 80 pages.
The second creation is the clamshell box Skewered comes in. First, it has the same book cloth as the lined notebook in Episode 76. This is my second clamshell box and, except for a minor problem with gluing, it went much better than the first one (seen and heard down there in Episode 78). Using book cloth makes for a stronger hinge area, that's for sure. I had intended for the design to be on the front but neglected to watch what I was doing, so now it's on the back with a blank front. Oh, well.
The thing I liked about this clamshell box is that it fit the first time I closed it. No fiddling about for adjustments. Well, not much. I didn't have to cut or pare down edges in order to make it fit like I did with the Yellow Clamshell Box. This indicates either better measuring or blind luck. I hope it's not blind luck.
My next box will be a slip case. Books in Japan traditionally came in slipcases which showed the spine to the viewer but they are now reserved for the more expensive books like dictionaries and one-volume encyclopedias. I'm going to try it to see if I like it enough to include it with books I make. Plus I'll continue trying to improve my clamshell box creation skills.
Thursday Apr 05, 2012
Episode 77: Flash!
Thursday Apr 05, 2012
Thursday Apr 05, 2012
This is another lined notebook. B7 in size - pocket-sized and handy, if I do say so myself. With this blog url, my email, name, and the name of 手取川製本 on the cover in an inset. About 112 pages but no pictures. The cover is Japanese style paper and red craft paper which I cut irregularly. Plus, it went over the inset, which isn't something I wanted. However, it is pocket-sized and handy.
What did we learn from this? Again and again, we learn that measuring and planning is important. If I had measured the red spine paper better, it wouldn't have covered the inset. If I had planned the placement of the inset, the red paper wouldn't have covered the inset, either. We live, we learn, we grow. Right?
On the bright side, for the first time since I've started binding books, a member of my family has actually asked to use one that was already completed (vs a 'special order'.) I had planned to use a certain blank notebook to keep a list of the books I've made. Now it is being used to keep a list of books someone has read. Hey, it's related, eh?
Tuesday Feb 28, 2012
Episode 73: The Eddie Trombone Case
Tuesday Feb 28, 2012
Tuesday Feb 28, 2012
A friend is writing an online novel called Teach Yourself Japanese: The Eddie Trombone Case. Or it might be completely true. True or false, fact or fiction, I was looking for content to practice imposition, binding, casing in, and the other particulars of bookbinding. Viola, a marriage made online. I copied his online scribblings, did a little desktop publishing magic, imposed it, printed it out (which took close to a half-century to finish - Gutenberg had it easy), and did a link stitch before casing it in with a sort of ersatz Chinese motif cover.
• About the Book Part One There are six signatures of four sheets each for 96 pages. It is B6 in size and I really messed up the first time I cased it in. I forgot to push the text block up tight against the spine and it came out loose and messy. After I tossed it across the studio and shoved it in the recycle bin, I relaxed. Then I tore it apart and re-bound it. It came out better when I was relaxed.
• About "the Book" Part Two What, you might ask, is the story about? An American in Japan by the name of Eddie Trombone is missing. A consulate officer at the Osaka consulate, Gerard K. Dirkins, is charged with finding him. His efforts lead him to a book Eddie took out of the Chicago library called "Teach Yourself Japanese" and a diary kept by Mr. Trombone. From Eddie's diary, we follow his life from Chicago to Osaka and witness the many frustrations as Dirkins tries to understand Eddie's frustrating "new" and exciting (?) life in Japan. Will he ever find Eddie? Is Eddie still alive? More importantly, will "Teach Yourself Japanese" ever be returned to the Chicago public library? This book, which I have made in an edition of three (two to the author, one for me), is titled "Teach Yourself Japanese: the Eddie Trombone Case, Part 1" because the online novel is not, as far as I know, finished yet. Plus, I am currently working on "Teach Yourself Japanese: the Eddie Trombone Case, Part 2." Second, you might ask, is why is the green part of the book so big? Well, when I tossed it across the room? I kind of ripped part of the cover which was mostly the fake Chinese red part. And, I, uh, kind of had to cover up the tears. Maybe this will be the copy I keep for myself. In retrospect, rather than a hard cover, I think I should have made it a softcover because it is only 96 pages. Kind of thin, but when Part 2 comes out, I might try a dos a dos.Sunday Feb 12, 2012
Episode 72: Yamato Bento
Sunday Feb 12, 2012
Sunday Feb 12, 2012
What we have here is a recycled book cover. It began life as a bento box: a box with food in it that is ubiquitous in Japan. You can find them virtually everywhere. I ripped mine apart (after eating the tiny bits of meat, chicken, salmon, vegetables, and massive amount of rice that comes with it), made sure it was clean, then turned it into a book cover. I liked the design that flows from the back to the front - a sort of Japanesey pattern - and the front has a nice strong diagonal under kanji. Everyone who has lived in Japan longer than a month laughed when they saw this book because they all know it is the lid from a bento box.
I used the Yamato Toji binding - butterfly by Smith - and B5 size paper so the book is about B6. And blank. I sewed the text block together, then glued down the first and last pages as endpapers. The inside is, therefore, all white paper - like rice? If I had thought ahead a little bit, I would have used a more thematic paper for the endpapers.
The kanji is maku-no-uchi (幕の内) which is two things: the highest ranking in sumo and a type of bento. I'm going with the type of bento here since it's a pretty slim book. It's 160 pages (10 signatures of four sheets each) and, surprisingly, didn't take too long to make. The Yamato Toji is a pretty quick little binding and gluing on the endpapers wasn't time consuming either.
And now for something really completely different: The B-52's Private Idaho from YouTube. For your entertainment pleasure only. Please don't try this at home.
Monday Feb 06, 2012
Episode 71: Hemp + Ink
Monday Feb 06, 2012
Monday Feb 06, 2012
Here we have three small books using two different Japanese bindings. Today, I'll talk about the one on the far left - First Hemp. I used the Hemp Leaf Binding (Asa No Ha Toji - 麻の葉綴じ) which I think is pretty but it still doesn't allow the book to open widely. This is my first attempt. Perhaps below you can see a close up of the binding. The picture might be too small, however.
First Hemp has 52 pages - 26 single sheets. It is a blank notebook and for the cover I used my first attempt at suminagashi, which I'll tell you about in a second. The hemp leaf binding is fun and quick to do once you remember the order. According to Keith Smith, there are about 18 different places for the thread to go. Each hole gets the thread multiple times with the first hole getting threaded about five times. Bulky, eh?
Last night I made another hemp leaf binding book - a book with content which I will show you in a future post - and was surprised how quickly it went. I think I finished in less than fifteen minutes. The book still doesn't open as widely as I like but I think the binding is pretty pretty. I mean, awfully pretty. Or, maybe, awfully delightful.
Now, about suminagashi. Sumi (墨) is ink and nagashi (流し) is flow or flowing. So suminagashi is Japanese-style marbling which uses ink, a solvent like soap or oil, a couple of brushes, water, and paper. Here is a video of a master of the art. He's been doing this about half a century and happens to live nearby. Here's another video of a more homey variety of artist. Both are in Japanese but you don't really need the audio.
You drip the ink and solvent into the water in alternative drops. The two don't mix so you get concentric circles. When you have enough ink on the water (it shouldn't sink), you can blow on it or fan it with a fan. This eventually results in a pattern you like. Place the paper on top, pull the paper off, wash off the excess ink, and set to dry. The end result is random with a little bit of control. Another end result is a pile of paper you can use as endpapers, text block papers, or covers.
I, obviously, also used suminagashi paper for the cover of the small book nestled in front of the cactus. This paper was my - literally - first attempt at suminagashi. More about this book and the yellow book in a future post.
Tuesday Oct 04, 2011
Celebrating 100 Books, Kind of
Tuesday Oct 04, 2011
Tuesday Oct 04, 2011
According to my logs, I have made 100 books. Admittedly, most of them are less than stellar performances. I mean, I stapled my first book after the duct tape didn't work out. Some of these books have been ripped apart and re-built. Some of them have been put on a back shelf near the gates of Hell.
But all of them were part of my aspiration at getting better at making these little rascals. My 100th book was a Japanese-style bound book of quotes about The Future - "The Future Belongs to the People who Prepare for It ~ African Proverb" - with nifty Japanese paper. (Picture's upside down, duh). Before that, I made a couple of casebound books which are much better than even I expected them to be.
Also according to my Book Book (the first book I made, with a cardboard cover and very badly made Japanese stab binding, where I keep a record of the books I've made so I can enter posts on my blog), I've been aspiring to improve my bookbinding skills since January, 2007. Four+ years. A very good four years of learning, thinking, improving, and progressing, I think, nicely. In another couple of decades I might even be confident. Especially when it comes to gluing in the endpapers. Slam, shut the cover and hope its aligned properly.
I'm looking forward to improving. I hope I do. I'm looking forward to being able to create a book that will be around for a century. Wouldn't that be great? To know something you've made will be around much longer than you?
Thanks for listening & reading this blog. See you next time.
Wednesday Mar 09, 2011
Episode 64: The Running Book
Wednesday Mar 09, 2011
Wednesday Mar 09, 2011
No, no, this book doesn't run, at least not very far, but it's a notebook for writing down your running accomplishments. Well, not exactly your running feats but a friend of mine can.
I made it for a friend who runs both half-marathons and marathons. She runs nearly everyday and she runs with an iPod Touch. She probably already has an app for recording her running and exercises. (rubiTrack perhaps?) But I made this book for her anyway.
It has ten signatures of four sheets each for a total of 160 pages. It is B6 in size, which is a handy size to slip into a pocket; if you have a pocket in your running outfit. It also has pictures on random pages of marathon runners, masses of people at the start of a marathon, and a
sign that says "No Running." Why? Because my friend's motto is No Running/No Life. It was easy to find a sign that said "No Running" - every swimming pool has one - but nearly impossible to find one that said "No Life."
Also, each page has space to write down the distance run, the marathon name, the time it took to run the marathon, and comments. With each page having space for about 15 marathons, my friend will have to run about 3,000 marathons to fill up the book. No problem, eh?
The cover paper is the same as the Setsubun book down there in Episode 62. I like the feel of the paper as well as the design. It is a little rough - not really rough - so it is a tactile. I have found I work better (faster?) when I have a goal. I must be goal-oriented because once I decided to make this book, I worked on it until it was finished. On the other hand, I have four text blocks that have been sewed, the mull has been sewed on and the four semi-books are sitting on my desk waiting to be dressed. I suppose I need a good idea of what to do with them. One or two of the text blocks are lined notebooks, one is blank, and one is a novel. I think I need inspiration for the cover. Or book boards.And an update: Last night I had a flash of insight.
I will make one of the books for a colleague who is retiring and, I'm sure, needs a handmade, lined notebook.
Monday Feb 14, 2011
Episode 62: Setsubun Book
Monday Feb 14, 2011
Monday Feb 14, 2011
With ten signatures of four sheets (folios?) each, the Setsubun Book comes in at a handy 160 pages. It's A5 in size. The first folio of each signature is green, which sort of accents the cover's green. The thread is black, which accents the cover, too, I believe. The cover is a very tactile - a bit rough - paper I found in a local shop. The book has red endpapers that accent nothing but definitely give a sense of adventure when you open the book for the first time.
This is the first coptic binding I have sewn in five months and I think I did a fairly good job of it. So good, in fact, that I'm putting it up for sale. For $12.34 US. It comes with a string attached, however. You have to tell me how it holds up over the time you have it.
But what is Setsubun and why is this book named as such? Setsubun is a part of the spring festival in Japan. It's traditionally considered the beginning of Spring and is February 3rd. On Setsubun people throw roasted soybeans (福豆 - fuku mame = luck beans) in two directions: out of their house and into their house. While throwing the beans out of their house, people yell "Oni ha soto!" (Devil - or demons - out!) and while throwing beans into their house, people yell "Fuku wa uchi!" (Fortune in! 福 - fuku = fortune).
This book was completed on February 3rd, therefore it was saddled with the name Setsubun Book. A wonderful addition to anyone who wants a blank notebook for drawing, notes, doodling, or having around the house.
Don't forget to look at our other books for sale on the For Sale page: A B6-sized blank notebook (moleskine-esque) for $12.34 and two Original Novels in one convenient book.
Tedorigawa Bookmakers gives 20% of sales to Kiva, a micro-finance group that loans money to impoverished entrepreneurs in developing economies.