Episodes

Thursday Apr 02, 2015
Episode 131: Schedules
Thursday Apr 02, 2015
Thursday Apr 02, 2015

The cover is made up of a variety of leftover pieces that I wanted to use before buying more. Since the client gave me carte blanche I gave it a shot. As you can see on the front, there are two different colored book cloths plus a bit of color in the

Since the client wanted the book to open wide enough so they could use the entire page, I used coptic binding. This was good because Wednesday and Thursday are in the crease and are busy days. Lots of notes will be written in the margins of those two days. I also used multi-colored thread. The book is brown: the textblock, all the pieces on the cover. Even the endpaper I used on the front cover is brownish (with streaks of red and green). The colored thread gives it a little bit more personality.

The book itself has a yearly calendar for 2015 & 2016, a monthly calendar for April 2015 to March 2016 (the Japanese school year), and a weekly calendar. The monthly calendar is followed by the weekly calendar for that month. Just like the client designed it.

Next up? The 366-page schedule book.

Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Episode 130: Jealousy and the San Francisco Center for the Book
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015
Wednesday Feb 18, 2015

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.

Wednesday Jan 14, 2015
Episode 129: Kikkado Notebook
Wednesday Jan 14, 2015
Wednesday Jan 14, 2015




Sunday Jan 04, 2015
Episode 128: Planning! Or Failing to do so...
Sunday Jan 04, 2015
Sunday Jan 04, 2015


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.

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.

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.

Thursday Oct 02, 2014
Episode 127: Cigarette Machines
Thursday Oct 02, 2014
Thursday Oct 02, 2014



Thursday Sep 11, 2014
Episode 126: More Japanese Binding
Thursday Sep 11, 2014
Thursday Sep 11, 2014

This second picture is of the covers of the two recycled volumes of The Priests of Hiroshima: An Historical Love Story. What is the story about? A medical student and a Japanese student discover an antique bookstore in Istanbul with a talking cat that has perfected time travel. They go back to Mainz,

One of the better things about the Japanese binding? It can be done fairly quickly with no waiting around for glue to dry. (Except for the kado-kami.)

Tuesday Sep 02, 2014
Episode 125: Ear Cleaning Japanese Binding
Tuesday Sep 02, 2014
Tuesday Sep 02, 2014
The shaded areas in the picture on the left are the Kado Kami (角紙) that supports the corners of the spine. On the right are the Koyori Kami (コヨリ紙) that supports the text block itself. In this picture the twisted paper is put through two holes; some instructions are for only one hole.
Plus, an easy to watch speed version of sewing six signatures of a blank notebook: Binding Six Signatures.

Tuesday Aug 19, 2014
Episode 124: Barber of Whitman
Tuesday Aug 19, 2014
Tuesday Aug 19, 2014
Serendipity brought me around a bit into American culture. First I listened to an interview with the soprano Renee Fleming who talked about Samuel Barber (Of course, she said) so I had to look him up on YouTube. Below one Barber video was another about Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass, so I listened to and read about Uncle Walt and his poetry. This inspired me to print out my incomplete novel: Caraculiambro.
Definitely think I'm over a certain funk about bookbinding which is a good thing because I have a lot of naked books that need covers and ideas for more books. Plus writing a couple.

Wednesday Aug 06, 2014
Episode 123: Cheap & Cheep & Over the Funk
Wednesday Aug 06, 2014
Wednesday Aug 06, 2014
I see great book covers by people like Susan Mills or Hedi Kyle or Don Etherington and I think to myself, how can I accomplish that? And I get into an artistic funk depression and am consumed by what's the use? That is another word for being too lazy to work through problems but it is still a real problem. It takes time to pull yourself out.
The end result, of course, is I haven't bound a book recently and have about eleven waiting for covers. I have, however, managed to conquer the funk and am starting afresh with a positive attitude. This positive attitude can be seen in the fact that I made my first podcast in two months.

Friday May 30, 2014
Episode 122: A Mountain Day
Friday May 30, 2014
Friday May 30, 2014

The day after I printed out a prototype and sewed it together, the Japanese government added a new holiday. Back I ran to InDesign to make that a red-letter day. Not the government's decision but the actual day itself which, if you'd like to know is August 11. It's called Mountain Day, the fourth in a series of national holidays that celebrate nature. The other three are Sea Day (in July), the Spring equinox (in March) and the Fall equinox (in September). Mountain Day makes the 16th national holiday thus far in Japan.
My 2015 schedule book has two yearly calendars (2015 & 2016), a monthly calendar that runs from January 2015 to March 2016 (everything ~ schools and work ~ starts in April in Japan), and a weekly calendar that runs from Jan. 2015 to the end of April 2016. And why does the monthly calendar end in March and the weekly calendar end in April? Good question. I think I have more work to do.
