I was recently commissioned to create a journal for my friend Matt’s birthday – made extra special because in the years past he’s commissioned me to make seven different books that he’s given out to friends – so I finally got to design one for him. While discussing different possibilities for the book and what it should look like his partner Jill shared the tragic story I know we can all relate to – his favorite pair of shorts had recently been relegated to the rag pile. But ah-ha! I knew I could make just about any fabric into “Book cloth” – so that’s what I used as the cover fabric for his book. I also new he traveled a lot, so I designed a travel journal.

The book is 6 1/4" square and features antique brass toggles.

Lovely brass toggles from my antique brass button collection. I wanted to use something other than elastic to hold the book closed.

The end paper is a lovely bouquet marbled paper I made - the quote says "Life is a book, and those who never travel read only one page" The text block is only attached on one side, so you can see the sewing - a combination of French and Coptic.

Secret Pocket on the inside front cover for storing things

The book has all kinds of secret pictures like this fish hidden within the pages.

Happy travels!

Here are some pictures of the process of working on a special commission of a travel journal – The blue plaid book cloth is actually a pair of favorite shorts the recipient had to regretfully consign to the rag pile – not any more! Now they’re immortalized as a book’s cover. The toggles are antique brass – I hand sewed them onto the straps which I made of two layers of cloth sewn together on the sewing machine. I attached the straps to the covers by sewing machine BEFORE glueing them down so they’d be extra sturdy. The spine is book cloth, the gold detail is a type of decorative paper.

signatures ready for sewing

More pictures next Monday showing the finished book!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Book Arts class at my alma mater, Clark University where I was a guest artist and taught the class Suminagashi marbling. The class went really well – twelve participants marbled over a hundred sheets of paper!

Me demonstrating for the class

Check out the gallery to see some lovely suminagashi in progress – I had a great time and hopefully so did everyone else.

Check it out, one of my accordion books, illustrated by my friend Christina, made it to the front page of etsy the other morning!

I think it’s finally time to write up a post about the Falmouth Community School Intermediate bookbinding class! On the wake of the Beginning Bookbinding Class, six intrepid bookbinders continued on to learn coptic stitch binding. Our first class we did a type of paper marbling called Suminagashi where we created papers with neat black swirling designs on them. The next two classes we created our book covers and sewed them on, respectively. While the marathon session of sewing resulted in me missing an episode of Glee all of our books were completed and looked stellar! (I later caught up with Glee on Hulu).

Pat creating her book cover from handmade Indian paper and Nori Paste.

This neat little book is currently for sale on my Etsy page!

I have big plans afoot to create some bookbinding instructional videos – but first I have to learn how to edit movies – fortunately imovie is pretty easy to figure out – I humbly present my first attempt at a movie created by yours truly

Morning Bike Ride – AND my first movie ever! from Ruth Bleakley on Vimeo.

I was approached by someone looking to have a well-loved cookbook repaired for a friend. The book was in sad shape – one of the covers was completely separate from the text block, and the other was barely hanging on by an end page. One of the signatures had come loose as well. I was able to fully repair it as you can see in the photos below – these were the steps:

1. Remove traces of earlier repair – tape is my arch enemy when it comes to book repair – obviously duct tape is the worst, followed closely by packing tape, scotch tape and gummed book repair tape. Someone obviously attempted to repair this many years ago, but the adhesive on the gummed tape becomes brittle over time.

2. Scrape as much glue and paper off the spine as possible – the super (the mesh covering the spine inside) was almost impossible to remove because of the brown hot glue used to attach it, so I decided to just glue another super on top of it rather than risk pulling all of the stitching out.

3. Reattach loose signatures to text block – I did this by sewing with Irish linen thread through the holes that already existed and linking them to the text block.

4. Glue on a new super to act as a strong internal hinge – sometimes new mass produced books don’t have a super lining the inside hinge, and the only thing holding the book to the cover is the endpaper, which over time cracks.

5. Lift off the endpaper and slide the super between it and the inside cover – this takes some delicate work, steaming to lift off old glue and a handy micro spatula. I glued everything and let it dry before creating a new spine.

6. Cut spine peice and line it with cardstock cut to the same size as the spine, add cords at top and bottom for nicer presentation and to preserve the spine when it’s pulled off the shelf.

7. Cut the front and back covers and peel back the cover – this looks terribly abusive but is necessary to create room for the new spine.

8. Slide the new spine underneath the cover sheet and glue it down – the middle of the spine, the part lined in paper that actually touches the spine of the text block SHOULD NEVER BE GLUED (unless you’re making a tight back spine, but you’re not). Only the “wings” of the spine piece are glued, allowing free movement of the text block when the book is opened.

9. Cut notches and glue down the top and bottom of the spine – I like to make mine neat by sliding it between the endpaper and the book board – some might call this fussy, but I think it looks nicer than a piece of fabric over the endpapers.

10. Put the book under weight with rods to strengthen the hinge – It’s important to put something in that groove where the cover meets the spine – it allows the glue to make full contact between the paper and fabric and strengthens the most breakable part of the book. You can use Brass edge boards (ideal), knitting needles – or in my case, think dowels left over from mobile making.

Voila! a lovely new useable book!

I have two classes coming up at the Falmouth night school, so mark your calenders – Registration begins January 11th and the classes begin in February – wednesdays 6:30-8:30.

PAPER MARBLING
Ruth Bleakley – BFA in Studio Art, Bookbinder and Paper Artist.
Create marbled paper that will amaze your friends. Use it for card making, scrapbooking, and collage projects. The art of marbling paper started centuries
ago. E xplore three different techniques including Japanese Suminagashi marbling, marbling with shaving cream and traditional Turkish marbling, which is the kind you often see in old leather-bound books. The best part about marbling is that it’s much easier than it looks, and it’s easy to get great results. Materials fee: $25 payable to instructor at 1st class.
Fee: $49 – 3 sessions …………………………………………..Wed – 6:30-8:30 pm

POP-UP CARDMAKING
Ruth Bleakley – BFA in studio art, Bookbinder and Paper Artist.
If you’ve ever wondered how pop-up books work, here’s your chance to learn and make some neat cards in the process. Learn techniques to create simple but impressive
pop-up cards, using only paper, glue and an exacto knife. Also learn how to create custom envelopes for your cards. Students who take the Paper Marbling class can use their marbled papers to decorate cards or create envelopes, and their materials fee will be waived. Bring an exacto knife, cutting mat and metal ruler to 1st class. Materials fee: $10 payable to instructor at 1st class.
Begins March 10.
Fee: $49 – 3 sessions …………………………………………..Wed – 6:30-8:30 pm

To Register -
Call 508-548-5739
MasterCard & Visa Accepted
9am-4pm weekdays beginning Monday, January 11 until a course is full. Please have your credit card and course information ready. Course fees must be paid in full by MasterCard or Visa.

Registration forms also available at the community school website.
Click on Community School and then click on Registration Form.

Merry Christmas everybody! Here’s a little Christmas craft project I indulged in since we’re lucky enough to have a holly bush (more like a tree really) in our yard.