Episodes
Monday Nov 09, 2009
Episode 38: Recent Discoveries
Monday Nov 09, 2009
Monday Nov 09, 2009
In the last few days I have worked my way through three different books of three different sizes. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses but all are pretty good. I must be getting better at this bookmaking business. From the pictures you can see they are small, medium, and large (or grande). One is from my Cereal Series, one from my second or third attempt at Perfect Binding, and the last was featured on Episode 38: The Big One.
Then I went to an exhibition of paper and books here in town and got incredibly wonderfully voraciously inspired and sat down to design a 1000 more books. Time was a constraint, of course, so I only completed the design of about three books. One of which has a new binding/old binding that I want to try out. It's sort of a woven affair. I'll be using that one on a book about looms.
Saturday Oct 17, 2009
Episode 36: Perfect Cereal Blank Binding
Saturday Oct 17, 2009
Saturday Oct 17, 2009
Behold, a blank notebook from my Cereal Series. This one, made of recycled paper, is 10cm by 15cm and is sort of almost kind of perfect bound. It started as perfect binding - the paperback style of binding with the gobs of glue. But the pages kept falling out. So I sewed the pages together using a very, very, very modified Chinese/Japanese stab binding: I didn't sew from hole to hole, just one loop. This will keep the pages in but it will also limit the opening range, sort of like a stab binding limits the opening range. Something I don't like so much.
The second thing is the thing the book is sitting on. It's an old printer, obviously a Heidelberg, that sits in a modern printing office: the office has state-of-the-art equipment (computers, soy ink, high speed three-color printers the size of several Prius cars) and this old Heidelberg over in the corner. They still use it from time to time, too.
The cover of the book, remember that? is from a cereal box of brown rice flakes (vs corn flakes) and the Japanese on the front cover says that: 玄米 genmai = brown rice. The back cover states how many vitamins and calcium a nutritious brown rice flake breakfast can be (if you add milk, fruit, and don't add sugar.)
Tuesday Sep 08, 2009
Episode 33: Workshop Box Tops
Tuesday Sep 08, 2009
Tuesday Sep 08, 2009
In two weeks I will be taking a two-day bookbinding course from someone who makes money doing three things: teaching bookbinding, selling bookbinding supplies, and selling books she has bound. It is this last skill that intrigues me the most and I will be grilling her about how she does the business of binding books. The class will start on day one, as classes are traditionally begun. I believe we will be up to our elbows in marbling endpapers. Something I have little interest in and no aptitude for. Should be fun. Then we will fold and sew. The second day, I believe, is spent designing and making covers and putting the book together. It is the designing and making covers bit that most intrigues me. I want to improve all aspects of the bookbinding process and it is this section that is the most challenging for me. I will, hopefully, have much more information to pass along. Or a long rambling complaint. Also, tonight I will add another notebook to my Cereal Series only this time it will be using an ice cream cover: Ice Cream Notes. On the audio portion of our show tonight we feature: "Fire in the Heart" by Internal Flights from PodsafeAudio.com. Please enjoy.
Thursday Feb 12, 2009
Update: Short and Sweet
Thursday Feb 12, 2009
Thursday Feb 12, 2009
I added three more notebooks to my Cereal Series (see the post right below this one) and Finally! Finally! I got a coptic binding I like! On the fifth of five blank notebooks, the binding came out very nice. That's a 20% success rate or, in baseball terms, I'm batting 200. Not so good, eh? Well, I was excited that the fifth one came out good so I don't care if I'm batting .200 or not; it's the Success of the Week. Pictures of the cover look like the ones from below so you can just flip between this post and that one. Thanks for reading. I hope to get some audio up soon. Enjoy your week, too!
Sunday Jan 25, 2009
Episode 22: Cereal Series II
Sunday Jan 25, 2009
Sunday Jan 25, 2009
Two more books from Tedorigawa Bookmakers' famous Cereal Series. These are blank notebooks with coptic binding and about 100 pages each.
Actually, one is 100 pages and the other is 120 pages but I don't remember which is which. I suppose I could look it up....
The covers are from two cereal boxes. The book on the left says, "Genmai" (brown rice) "Flakes." Like corn flakes except made out of genmai. The book on the right has, in small letters at the top, "Salad Cereal." And then a series of pictures to show you how to make a salad on top of your cereal in three easy steps: put the cereal in a bowl, put salad fixings on the cereal, add dressing. Viola! Salad in a bowl!
On this pair of Cereal Series Blank Notebooks, I tried a different way to sewing the coptic binding: more precise and complex on the tail and head pieces (bottom and top). I liked the head and tail sewings but not the middle three. Usually I like the middle three sewings but not the end ones.
Things we learned on this project? Measuring and cutting straight are important. Also, just because I have black waxed thread, doesn't mean I have to use it. i.e. Another color thread might have been better. Finally we learned that measuring, folding, and sewing is best done while not simultaneously watching a movie on cable.
Here you can see the basic size of the Cereal Series Blank Notebook. It fits quite nicely into an overcoat pocket and opens out flat for full use of the entire page. (200 grams of this cereal will get you 50% of your daily requirements of seven essential vitamins, iron, and calcium, according to the front.)
By the way, this cereal is made by Kellogg's.
Thanks for reading and we hope to hear from you soon.