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Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild

To promote and exhibit the art of the hand-bound book.

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Tag Archives: contemporary binding

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Taking a book apart – 10 Sept

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 04/09/2022 by CCBG04/09/2022

At our next meeting with Chris we will be taking the binding of a book (s) apart which is called ‘Pulling’.

When: Saturday  10 Sept 2022, 9.30am – 12.30pm

Where: Room 3, (COTA) Hughes Community Centre, Hughes, ACT.

 

 

 

 

 

Pulling books – taking the binding apart

One source of books to bind is old books pulled apart.

The best books to start with are ones that are section-sewn and hollow back case bound (you can see the ends of the sections and can see light down between the spine covering and the bookblock when you open the book out).

Also good are paperback books that are section-sewn with a glued paper spine (such as pre-1960s Penguins), ideally where the glue is starting to crack apart. Some section-sewn paperbacks have old cracking glue and can be gently scraped clean; more recent books are hot glued on the spine, but most of these are single sheet. Removing the hot glue is possible but not as easy as older glues, and single sheets are rarely as good to bind as sections.

Book sources:  bookshelves; little street libraries; Lifeline and other book fairs; second hand bookshops.

What to bring:

  • A book or two or three to pull apart in preparation for binding
  • Your bookbinding kit
  • Bone folder
  • Retractable sharp knife with snap off blades
  • Boot knife or kitchen bread and butter knife with straight edge to be used for scraping
  • Cutting mat
  • Fine pencil and notebook
  • Camera/phone to take images

 

During the morning we will explore:

  • Extracting the book from its case by cutting or detaching the tapes or cords from the cover
  • Scraping off the spine linings either dry or dampened
  • Cutting threads
  • Gently pulling apart sections that are tipped together
  • Endpapers

 

Look forward to seeing you all there with your books!

Using lacunose as an onlay

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild

Chris Johnson in virus time – April 2020

I used the rectangular panel of lacunose leather fragments on paper that I showed in a previous blog posting to make shaped onlay pieces for a pair of related books. The books are written in the 1930s by Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men (published 1932, section sewn, paper cross grained – why?) and Last Men in London (part of a 1980s Penguin edition perfect binding, also cross grained but there’s more excuse with a perfect binding). The ‘Last Men’ are those of the 18th future species of humans, living on Neptune a hundred million years in the future. (Stapledon was a big long range thinker, following H.G. Wells and contemporary with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, an alternative vision of a future that is only 600 years ahead. He was a remarkably visionary, describing a world power struggle between China and USA in the 21st century… but that’s not the point here!). These books needed something relating to the themes of a very fractured future history and future evolved species of people who range from brutes to advanced brains.

Last and First Men simplified binding with lacunose – Chris Johnson March 2020
Last & First Men and Last Men in London – Chris Johnson March-April 2020

The bindings are in simplified structure (that is, the spine is made on the book, the boards are covered separately and pasted onto the front and back). The leather spines are in complementary colours of the same type of fine, glossy goatskin. The board covers are plain soft kangaroo (very soft, it shows every mark) with a dark protective goatskin strip a few millimetres wide at the head and tail edges. The covers have multicolour onlays that are pieces made from the one lacunose panel.

I selected portions of the lacunose that suggested the themes in the books and cut them out along fragment boundaries, thinned them, sanding them back as far as I dared and then paring the edges. Sanding the back of the pieces with the front against a flat board reduced the uneven thickness. Some of the paper backing remains, so the shapes were stable and still in one piece. They still protrude a bit above the board leather, but the edges curve down to a smooth finish. The oval medallion pieces on the back were cut with a large oval craft punch and then thinned out to soften the edges.

The forms of the pieces were not planned when I was making the lacunose panel, but I chose them from what emerged. This method of design works better for me than trying to design too much in advance. (I do the same with paste paper, making it with broad strokes then finding the best bits afterwards.) I spent a couple of days juggling layouts with a larger set of prepared pieces, leaving them overnight and taking another look in the morning until it felt right. Then I thought I could do more lacunose pieces on the spines – but sanity said to me NO! (1) the spines are too narrow, and (2) less is enough!

Spine titles? – desirable for these books and for this design, maybe in gold lettering, sometime in the future. I did stamp the foot of the spines in blind with the publication date of each book (doing this in gold is a neat convention from the end of the 19th century) and that could be done too – when I have had more practice gold tooling.

Drop-in Sat 11 Nov

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 09/10/2018 by CCBG07/11/2018

Embossing 9.00 – 12.30, Room 3 Hughes Community Centre, Hughes, ACT. Be shown and assisted in the technique of creating either raised or recessed relief images and designs in paper Come along be with other binders and share and learn … Continue reading →

Posted in bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders, contemporary binding, Uncategorized | Tagged canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding

Workshop – Case binding with decorative stitching

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 16/06/2018 by CCBG28/06/2018

Waiting list Learn to make a case bound book with decorative stitching. Saturday 21 July 2018,  9.00am – 5.00pm, in the Hall, Hughes Community Centre Cost $110 ($70 for Guild members)   To book a place, please register at  admin@canberrabookbinders.org.au … Continue reading →

Posted in artist books, bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders, contemporary binding, Uncategorized, workshops | Tagged artists books, canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding

Weekend at the Bindery

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 27/08/2017 by CCBG27/08/2017

Marama Warren was one of eight who attended the Simplified binding workshop. Read about it here

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Posted in canberra craft bookbinders, fine design binding, traditional bindings, workshops | Tagged Bookarts, canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding, John Tonkin, workshops

Code X catalogue goes digital

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 23/07/2017 by CCBG23/07/2017

Blank The National Library of Australia (NLA) have digitised the catalogue. View only. View only through NLA Trove here. Available in hardcopy.

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Posted in bookbinding, contemporary binding, exhibitions | Tagged canberra craft bookbinders guild, catalogue, code x, contemporary binding

Declaration Against Modern Slavery – National Museum of Australia

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 11/01/2017 by CCBG11/01/2017

Bookarts were commissioned by Andrew Forrest to make this work, which is on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Read more

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Posted in bookbinding, contemporary binding, exhibitions, fine design binding | Tagged canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding, design binding, event

Code X: contemporary fine binding

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 28/12/2016 by CCBG08/03/2017

9 February – 25 March 2017 CRAFT ACT: CRAFT AND DESIGN CENTRE In association with 2017 Australian National Conference of Bookbinders The best work of international bookbinders paired with the best work of Australia’s established bookbinders and ‘rising stars’ to … Continue reading →

Posted in bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders, contemporary binding, exhibitions, Uncategorized | Tagged bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders guild, code x, contemporary binding

Suzanne Schmollgruber director Centro del Bel Libro

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 17/12/2016 by CCBG17/12/2016
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Posted in bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders, conference, contemporary binding, exhibitions, fine design binding | Tagged Australian bookbinders exhibition, bookbinders conference, canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding, event

Dominic Riley – at the conference see a master binder at work

Canberra Craft Bookbinders' Guild Posted on 17/12/2016 by CCBG17/12/2016
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Posted in bookbinding, canberra craft bookbinders, conference, contemporary binding, fine design binding | Tagged bookbinders conference, canberra craft bookbinders guild, contemporary binding, Dominic Riley

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