Episodes
Wednesday Jun 08, 2016
Episode 137: More Japanese Stab Bindings. Or Chinese.
Wednesday Jun 08, 2016
Wednesday Jun 08, 2016
- Kutani-yaki (a colorful style of pottery),
- Wajima-nuri (a black & white style of lacquerware),
- Kaga-Yuzen (fabric dyeing),
- Washi (paper),
- Wagashi (Japanese-style sweets),
- Kinpaku (gold-leaf painting), and
- Matsudaira Sadanobu a politician who may have named Kanazawa's famous garden, Kenrokuen, Kenrokuen.
Thursday Jun 11, 2015
Episode 134: San Francisco Bound...
Thursday Jun 11, 2015
Thursday Jun 11, 2015
Suiko sent the people to China who brought back the writing system Japan still uses. Koken/Shotoku (the same woman was empress twice so she had two names) encouraged the arts including printing. She imported woodblock printing from Korea so that she could make 1,000,000 copies of a Buddhist mantra. It was the first use of woodblock printing in Japan.
Between the two, printing and writing flourished and with that flourishment (?) came the need to bind the pages together. From that need came what is known as Japanese binding or watoji (和綴じ). Among the more popular watoji are the hemp leaf, the turtle shell, the noble, and the four-hole bindings. Here you can see the pictures that go with the tutorial. Or go down to Episode 133 and see them there, too. Fun, eh?
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Episode 130: Jealousy and the San Francisco Center for the Book
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Regardless of my jealousy and frustration, I am making a book about soup. It is not merely a history of soup but includes characters such as Bishop Ussher, Hunt & Tony Sales (musical sons of Soupy), the last soups of famous people before they died (Julia Child had French onion), Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers, and soups in movies (Tom Jones comes to mind), and, of course, the Soup Nazi and his first appearance (Sleepless in Seattle.) It will be Japanese stab bound as is the red book in the photo at left.
The pages for the Soup book, titled: Soup: A Seasoned History, have been aged in tea & coffee and burnt around the edges. It is B6 in size and has 55 pages. Profusely illustrated, of course. I'm waiting to find a coffee bag to finish of the covers before I can sew it together. Maybe next year I can learn Japanese stab binding better at SFCB.
Sunday Jan 04, 2015
Episode 128: Planning! Or Failing to do so...
Sunday Jan 04, 2015
Sunday Jan 04, 2015
As you can see, it has purple endpapers that are intended to match a pair of chairs that will be delivered at the end of January, another Saturnalia present arriving fashionably late.
It comes with a weekly calendar, a monthly calendar, and two yearly calendars. It also has lots of space for note-taking; for example, the weekly calendar is on the left side while the right side is blank. A request from the recipient.
This is the fourth book I've made so far this year and it's only the fifth of January. I will definitely not say I will be making a book-a-day for 2015 but I'm off to a good start. The other three books were kind of a fluky thing.
I had this badly printed novel on my desk for a while (like a year or more ~ the novel is Tristram's Printer). It was printed on only one side of the paper and I contemplated occasionally, what to do with it. One option, which came up frequently, was to trash it. Another was to Perfect bind it. The last option was to use a Japanese stab binding which is the one I went with. However, a 200 page novel is hard to stab. So I divided it up into five mini-novels which are pretty much divided along chapter lines. On the second day of the first month of the year, I stabbed section one.
This stabbing was followed on the third and fourth. When I finish all five sections I hope to make a small clamshell box for them and title it Tristram's Printer's Skeleton as the pages have been edited in red and black pen. Lots of corrections.
On the last two pictures you can see a monthly calendar followed by a weekly calendar. On the weekly calendar you can also see how much space is available for writing: the entire right-hand page. The previous planner had a weekly calendar on both pages but the recipient requested more writing acreage which I happily provided.
Speaking of casing in books, I believe I have about 14 uncased books lining my desk. Does that mean I will case in 14 books in the next two weeks? One can only hope. Especially considering that two of them were intended as year-end presents.
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 Jan 31, 2012
Episode 70: 大和綴じ - Yamato Toji Bindings
Tuesday Jan 31, 2012
Tuesday Jan 31, 2012
For Christmas past I got a copy of Keith Smith's Volume III Exposed Bindings and a serious cold. In said book is a Yamato Toji (大和綴じ - Japanese binding) binding which Smith calls, I believe, a Butterfly binding.
Now, I'm not much of a fan of Japanese stab bindings (especially Yotsume Toji - 四つ目綴じ - four-hole binding) because of the way they inhibit the opening of a book. Some people put a hinge on the spine to ease the opening but that just means they've found a workaround for the binding. The best way to use a 四つ目綴じ binding is to use thin paper and a thin cover. Many 四つ目綴じ books are Buddhist prayer books and they have extremely thin paper.
But the 大和綴じ (Yamato Toji) is different. It is elegant, smooth, a four-needle job, and looks like a Coptic binding's little brother. Using the four needles (for four holes, six needles for six holes) you climb up from the bottom to the top while crisscrossing between pairs of holes. It is quick, elegant, and the book opens wide; especially important if you're binding a sketch book.
The picture above is of Asa No Ha Toji (麻の葉綴じ - Hemp Binding) - from Billie's Craft Room - which I feel is more beautiful than the straight Four-Hole Binding (Yotsume Toji - 四つ目綴じ) but still doesn't allow the book to open flat - at least not as flat as either the Yamato Toji or a Coptic binding.
Why am I telling you all this?
Because first, I made two 大和綴じ (Yamato Toji) books while recovering from my bad cold and second, I have the content for a 麻の葉綴じ (Asa No Ha Toji) binding coming up soon. Photos of the two 大和綴じ books will be coming soon. As soon as the 麻の葉綴じ is finished, photos of it will be up, too.
Just a word on the words. Four is Yotsu (四つ); technically, 四つ目 means 'the fourth' or something similar. Yamato (大和) is an older word for Japan. Asa no ha (麻の葉) means hemp leaf. Toji (綴じ) is binding. Therefore, 大和綴じ is, I suspect, Japanese binding, 四つ目綴じ is Fourth Binding while 麻の葉綴じ is Hemp Leaf Binding.
Sunday Aug 22, 2010
Tedorigawa 53: Sixty
Sunday Aug 22, 2010
Sunday Aug 22, 2010
For the first time in a couple of months - actually almost four months - I made a couple of books. The first one was a mess. What did I expect after a four month layoff? You can't just jump into the deep end of the pool and expect to ride a bicycle. (What?)
My plan was to make a Chinese stab-binding blank notebook with colored thread. A couple of errors were made. By me, of course. First, holes on the wrong side of the paper - I was using printer paper that was going to be thrown away. I folded it over but punched the holes in the closed side when they should've been on the open edge. After re-sewing it correctly I managed to tear the thread. I added tassels because it looked neat and makes it fun to use. Blank notebook, 60 pages, A5 in size.
Book Two was simpler and easier to make. Again, printer paper that was going to be thrown away folded over once and then chopped in half to make an A6-sized pad of paper which is being used to celebrate the number that is 60. Why? Because 60 has a lot of characteristics that other numbers don't have.
It's a composite number with 12 divisors - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60. It's also a highly composite number, a unitary perfect number, a semi-perfect number and is the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1 to 6. Finally, 60 is the sum of a pair of twin primes (29 + 31), and the sum of four consecutive primes (11 + 13 + 17 + 19).
Back to the book: A6-sized paper using a modified Daifuko Cho binding - holes in the top so a merchant could write the day's profit just by lifting up the top and then hanging the book on hook by his bed. Or desk, if he's not weird. Sixty-six pages. The Japanese on the cover is, of course, 60 - pronounced roku-ju six-ten = sixty.
Thursday Aug 13, 2009
Episode 32: 15 Crapsey Cinquains
Thursday Aug 13, 2009
Thursday Aug 13, 2009
Well, I've done it. Finally. What have I done? I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone (sounds like a Beatles tune). I finished my long-postponed Adelaide Crapsey book of poems. I selected 15 of her cinquains and slapped them together.
Let me explain the actual book. I used what I have been told are French Doors as a cover: the cover opens like a pair of doors. I used Chinese stab binding to attach the poems on the cover. It's sort of a Chinese-French concoction. The book includes 15 poems and a short biography of Crapsey/explanation of what a cinquain is for a total of 19 pages. One photo of the author is included.
Cool book but it took too long to make and was too long in the making. Working on an edition of five. 15 Crapsey Cinquains. Only available at Tedorigawa Bookmakers. Swift.
Tuesday Sep 09, 2008
Animal/Insect Mash-up Supremo
Tuesday Sep 09, 2008
Tuesday Sep 09, 2008
Here is an odd duck, so to speak. (You have to turn your computer sideways to see it properly.) It is a Chinese stab binding, B5 size, 11-page book with Japanese and English words for animals and insects (Fox, cat, dog, cow, snail, cicada, etc). The Animal is 動 and the insect is 虫. It is part of my September Sweeps Fortnight wherein I attempt to make 14 books in 14 days. This one was surprisingly frustrating - I miss-sewed the binding three times and had to remove it twice but saved it on the third attempt. A 20-minute sewing job turned into an hour of frustration. But all's well that ends. Eventually. I assume. Here is an interior shot of the same book with two words in the language of Japan and the language of the faded British empire. Fox and Cat. Kitsune and Neko. 狐 and 猫. As you can see, the Fox should have been a bit lower (or the Cat a bit higher). This is also on my list of: "Things I have learned from making this book" In other words, things I should've done differently. Along with thicker paper. Sound effects from FreeSound.org Thanks for reading and listening.