By cutting every other page by 5mm, this book can be flipped in both ways and display entirely different content. (Apparently this post was saved in draft since last July! Thanks Sarah.)

Via swissmiss

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably a paper-lover. We stack, cut, tear, fold and crease paper to create unique forms and objects. In Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut (published by London-based Black Dog Publishing earlier this year), we get to see how artists and designers manipulate paper in different ways to tell their unique stories and ideas.

Paper showcases the work of over fifty contemporary artists and designers in paper art, book art, fashion and furniture, whose works have one thing in common: paper.

Artists

Inspired by fractals and wormholes, Jen Stark stacks sheets of colored paper, cuts open and bends them into “paper blossoms” with distinctive patterns. (I have previously mentioned Jen Strark’s work with construction paper.)

Artist Robert The “vandalizes” books and then put them back to life; he juxtaposes his messages with the form itself. (I have also wrote about meeting Robert The and his work.) Another artist Georgia Russell cuts up pages of books in even more intricate ways and places them inside specimen jars.

Continued from previous post: E-book to flat-back (Part 2) - Mistakes happen.

Mull correctly attached
Instead of detaching and reattaching the incorrect mull, I put on a new strip of mull that extends about an inch or so from both sides of the spine. I then applied a thin strip of glue along the spine on the book block to attach the yellow end-paper on both sides. A sheet of wax paper is used to guide the gluing.


The tapes were trimmed at the same width as the extensions. Now everything looks flushed and the book block is ready for casing-in.

Continued from previous post: E-book to flat-back (Part 1).

Now that I have gathered all the pages and prepared the sections, I am ready to sew them up. Note that each section is labeled so that they don't get mixed up.

I performed a very straight-forward and basic sewing on tapes. Since the book block is just about half an inch, 2 tapes would be more than sufficient. But what the heck, I like it with 3. French stitching (the crisscrossing over the tapes) tightens the sections together and pull down the swelling of the book block.

I’ve got a new project: to bind an e-book that I borrowed from the New York Public Library into a flat back that I can carry around and flip through physically.

I borrowed a Japanese vocabulary book from NYPL's digital collection. With “Adobe Digital Editions,” I could read it on the computer; but for a vocabulary book, I really want to carry it around and flip through it whenever and wherever I can.


Because the book is in fact a scanned version, it isn’t ideal to port it onto my Kindle. Luckily, this book is fully printable. So I decided to recreate a printed version of the book, fully bound and cased. After a few trials, I got the printing right and here is how I prepare my signatures:

Bookbinding, and the Care of Books: A Text-book for Amateurs, Bookbinders and Librarians by Douglas Cockerell

This title can be read in two ways: as an comprehensive instructional manual for bookbinders; or as a historical look at bookbinding practices at the end of the 19th century.

While browsing this 1910 title, I found that interestingly, we are still using most of the hand-bookbinding techniques that were popular a century ago. For example, when we sew with tapes or cords, we are still using the same sewing frame with the same keys and lay cords, as well as the sunken cords laid inside the cuts on the signatures. We still round and back our books, and nip the bands on the spine with a pair of band nippers.

However, during the turn of the last century, techniques were changing as well. The author raises concerns of how traditional bookbinding techniques have started to degrade, by practices that we don’t even think twice about today. He is also concerned that these relatively “modern” bookbinding techniques at the time did not allow for easy rebinding by libraries for permanent collection.

Oversized Silver Coptic will be on display from today to July 26 at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in Sebastopol, California. Sebastopol is located in the Sonoma County, and is about 55 miles north-west of San Francisco.

"Bibliophoria" will exhibit artwork created in the form of artist's books using traditional or contemporary bookmaking methods and structures. One thing about the show that is very exciting to me is that gallery visitors will have the chance handle the books after cleaning hands with handiwipes (though I'd much rather they provide white gloves for them, abeit less environmentally-friendly). One of my goals as a book artist is to have the books being touched and interacted with.

Sebastopol Center for the Arts
6780 Depot Street
Sebastopol, CA 95472
http://www.sebarts.org
Opening hours:
Mondays - Fridays: 10am - 5pm
Saturdays and Sundays: 1 - 4pm

I picked up 2 unusual Japanese origami books from Kinokuniya last week, both on folding paper chopstick envelopes. Whenever you encounter a pair of disposable chopsticks at an eatery, chances are, they come in a paper chopstick envelope. You may have already been folding something out of them while you wait for the food to arrive, most likely a simple trapezoidal chopstick rest.

Chopstick Rests with Chopstick Envelopes (箸袋で箸置き。/ ISBN: 9784569703633) offers chopstick rest models in the form of a squid, a cat, a duck, and even a boot which also serves as a toothpick holder. It also includes fun models to amuse your dining partners: a pair of tongs, a blowing pipe, a clapper and a snapping fish. (You can see some of the pages on this Japanese website.)

Chopstick Envelope Origami for Grown-ups (ウケる！おとなの箸袋おりがみ/ ISBN: 9784072582244) also offers models that can be used as chopstick rests. It has advanced animal models such as rabbit, cat, dachshund and peacock, as well as an octahedron and icosahedron. All using a single chopstick envelope! It also features a few models using paper napkins.

Both books are available at Amazon Japan and the Kinokuniya (US) website, just search by the ISBN's. Kinokuniya has a great selection of Japanese books on origami and katagami.