Biblio Tech with Karen Hanmer – Day 2

I just finished day 2 of the Focus on Book Arts conference. I’m still jet-lagged and generally overstimulated. I think it was the opening night of the vendor fair that did me in – it included a reception with the biggest pile of angel food cake I’ve ever witnessed.

Today was day 2 of Biblio Tech with Karen Hanmer. We completed three more bindings: Laced-on Boards, Split Board Binding, and German Case (Bradel) Binding.

Unfortunately, I have to say that today was not one of my better binding days. I was the slowest person in the class and that’s not something I’m used to.

For the past two days, my hands have been off. It was after a conversation with Jill Timm that I realized that it’s likely due to the Dremel work I did earlier this week on my found object book (post coming soon) – I think the bamboo cutting did a number on my hands. Thankfully, I was able to complete all of today’s projects – Karen is a very patient teacher.

When I arrived at my workstation, I was greeted by a peanut of a sewing frame (loved the postcard):

We dove right into the sewing, using cords as supports. The image of Karen’s demonstration should give you a sense of just how small the sewing frame was (hence the peanut comment):

After the sewing was completed, we MacGyvered the sewing frame into a backing-ish press:

And thus began the great rounding and backing fail:

By the time I got to the backing hammer, the PVA on the spine was too dry and I couldn’t get the spine to behave.

It’s a learning experience…it’s a learning experience…

Here are some shots of the completed book:

Yesterday I forgot to mention that every time we started a new book, we got a goodie bag full of all the necessary supplies:

As you may have guessed, the next binding was the Split Board Binding, which started off in a similar way as the previous binding (using linen tapes instead of cords):

The cover is made with two layers of board – you create a pocket when you glue three edges together. Then you make a stub using paper from your text block by folding it in half towards the spine and gluing it. The stub slides into the pocket in the cover and you glue it in.

I hope this makes sense – I did my best to take pictures that helped to illustrate the technique:

And thus began the great rounding and backing fail. Oh wait, I already said that. But it happened again. Glue too dry, spine won’t round, blah, blah, blah…

It’s a learning experience…it’s a learning experience…

Here’s the finished model (you can slide one of the pocket cover thingies off to see how it’s put together):

Then on to the last book of the day – German Case Binding. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures during the binding process. I chalk it up to end-of-the-day fatigue. And jet lag. And while we’re at it, global warming.

We started off by doing a double fan adhesive binding. I enjoyed this more than thought. I think that I’m just easily amused by fanning pages. We then created a case using bookcloth and cased in the text block.

And here’s the final product:

As you can see, there’s a space between the spine edge and the text block – that’s why it was important that we avoided getting PVA on the spine edge when casing in.

I feel like I’ve eaten 3 ginormous bookbinding meals for the past two days. I’m excited to start a new class tomorrow.

But before I go, I’ll leave you with some more wise words from Karen:

You can train yourself to be accurate enough.

We have achieved end sheetitude.

And my personal favorite -

When you are with me, I am the only book artist in the world.

Remember that dry sense of humor I told you about?

Biblio Tech with Karen Hanmer – Day 1

I just finished my first day at the 2011 Focus on Book Arts conference.

I am so very tired – here’s the math: Elissa + 3.5 hour flight delay = getting to the conference at 2:30 a.m. Many thanks to the magical power of caffeine.

Today was day 1 of a 2-day workshop with Karen Hanmer – Biblio Tech: Reverse Engineering Historical and Modern Binding Structures. The focus of our work was on board attachment.

I have to tell you – Karen is a riot. She has this really dry sense of humor that’s right up my alley. She also has a very human presence, meaning that she doesn’t have that “you’re in the presence of greatness” air. Of course, she is pretty great.

Karen started out the class by passing around around 2 dozen cutaway models of historical and modern bindings:

I took pictures of most of the bindings, but I’ll save those for another post.

We completed three bindings today: Tacketing, Crossed Structure, and Sewn Boards (Gary Frost).

Tacketing started with folding 20 sheets of paper into one mega-signature – this made for a very boingy book. Someone has a date with a press when he gets home:

It was a pretty straightforward binding. Inside the signatures were little pieces of leather called stays – the stitches went through the stays to the outside of the book when sewing the signatures to the leather cover.

Here are some shots of the outside of the completed book:

Next we worked on the Crossed Structure binding. I really enjoyed this one and I can totally see myself doing it again.

Here’s Karen doing a demonstration for the class:

Lastly, we worked on the Sewn Boards structure. I’m embarrassed to admit that until today, I never knew that this stitching was known as the French Link. I’m not sure if others would agree, but I think it looks elegant.

After attaching the text block to the covers, we attached only part of the end paper so you could see how it looked underneath. I am already appreciating how useful these models will be in the future.

And the finished book (it doesn’t look that exciting when closed):

I’m really looking forward to my second day! I’ll leave you with Karen’s super quote of the day:

Bookbinding is an interesting combination of measure, measure, measure, measure, slap it down and hope for the best.

Focus on Book Arts Conference 2011

I have made no secret about the fact that I super-duper love the biennial Focus on Book Arts conference, held at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. I am thrilled to say that next week, I’ll be attending the conference for the third time.

I had a really hard time choosing the workshops I wanted to attend – they all looked so good! This conference gets the most awesome instructors…this year’s batch includes Carol Barton, Sam Ellenport, and Shawn Sheehy. Not surprisingly, the majority of workshops are already full.

I’m also excited to meet two of my online bookbinding friends, Simon Goode and Karleigh Jae Heywood. Simon is a bookbinder from the U.K. and is currently on an insane three-month tour of book arts sites throughout the United States. By the way, when I say insane, it really means that I’m insanely jealous. He’ll be coming to the conference keynote lecture with Laura Russell of 23 Sandy Gallery.

Karleigh Jae is a member of the Bookbinding Etsy Street Team, just like me. She’s got serious talent for working with leather – check out her Etsy shop. She’s teaching a workshop at the conference – Inset and Raised Designs in Fabric, Paper & Leather (sold out!). If you’re taking her workshop, then you’re super-lucky.

I’m attending the following two-day workshops:

Wood Shop Basics for the Book Artist with Susan Collard:

This class provides an introduction to cutting, drilling, shaping, and fastening wood and other materials using common hand tools. Each student will produce a small board book with wood, metal, and glass pages bound with Tyvek and Japanese repair tissue. The books will include enticing features of the “constructed” book: a shadow box with mitered corners, simple brass or magnetic closures, windows and fold-out mirrored pages. Students will use collage and assemblage to integrate content into their books prior to binding.

I’ve always loved wood and I’m excited to build on the skills I picked up in Jill Timm‘s The Amazing Dremel workshop at the last conference. I’ve already started packing up Stan. Who’s Stan – read this post.

Biblio Tech: Reverse Engineering Historical and Modern Binding Structures with Karen Hanmer:

This workshop will begin with a lecture allowing students to handle and scrutinize a set of approximately twenty models of various historical and modern binding structures, with a focus on methods of board attachment. Similarities between historical and modern structures will be stressed. Students will create five models from the larger set representing significant structural advancements. These models will remain unfinished so the sewing and board attachment are visible for future reference. A chart giving brief structural descriptions of the larger set of binding models will be provided to aid students in continuing their study.

I love the idea creating unfinished books for future reference. From the moment I saw them, I was in love with Deborah Howe’s cutaway models and wanted some for myself. Now they will be mine. No, not Deborah’s – the ones I make will be mine. I also feel that I need to brush up on my bookbinding history, so this workshop should fit the bill.

If I can get internet access, I’ll be blogging about the conference after each day’s events, just as I did the last time I attended.