more bookbinding love

I received some lovely samples of cotton twill ribbon from book binder /artist Angela Liguori. There are two weaves available and these colors are making me crazy! She has a lovely blog and you can e-mail her if you are interested in her ribbons or anything else on her wonderful site.

I don't have this yet, but while dreaming of other book/box projects I remember this wonderful item I saw in the catalog at Paper Source. It's self adhesive bookbinding tape and I love the colors it comes in, although many are on back order. Still, must try using this sometime for something.

They also sell my favorite all time bookbinding books there, too. These are really. . .um, heady. More like the book form as art. They focus on non-adhesive book binding, which is what I was super into in college. They were hard to find for awhile, so I am glad to see them readily available.

And How To Make Books, by Ester K. Smith came to me (thanks to Potter Craft, my publisher takes good care of me!) and it's so very very cool. I read about it first over at soulemama and was so curious. It teaches wonderful book binding techniques even kids could do--and some more advanced ones too. The designs in this book (the actual book examples they feature) aren't exactly what I would make, they are for the most part artist and book binder collaborations, but the how-tos are really well described and the book design/art direction is outstanding. The davy board cover of this book with an embossing is really clever.

Comments

[Rhonda]

Those colors are beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
XOXO

[kjerstiye]

your glowing review of the how to make books book is not helping my visa! After I read Amanda's review it took all I could not to whip over to amazon. Now you have just upped the ante! must. resist. must. warn. others....

that twill tape is amazing.

[Jennifer]

I'm lucky enough to have a Paper Source store here in KC! They have great products and are so very helpful. And they have AWESOME classes!

[erin]

i been to keith smith's house. i took a structures class with scott mcccarney, keith's partner. my bfa concentration was in printmaking and book arts. we went to their house and keith showed us the highlights of their artist books collection. i wanted them to adopt me. sometimes i miss rochester, i don't seem to make books in iowa. just quilts.

[Carrie]

Here is a suggestion for a great family owned place to buy decorative papers: www.hollanders.com

[dawn]

I have also just discovered the art of bookbinding and I enjoy it very much, thanks for sharing the books, I will definitely check them out!

[Carol]

If you have never visited Europeanpapers.com, you should. I just took an all day workshop and made a beautiful day-planner/dream catchers journal and it was so much fun. Lisa Ohlmer, owner, is truly one talented individual. BTW...love visiting your site.

[Caroline Armijo]

I love love love book art. Paul Johnson is a great pop-up book/book arts teacher from England, who is going to be at San Francisco Center for the Book in February. I took a few classes with him two years ago. He visits SFCB every two years.

And I also love Carol Barton, who helped set up this wonderful online curriculum at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It is called ABC - Arts, Books, and Creativity. There are a lot of little videos of kids making books.

[jennifer]

I bought Smith's Non-Adhesive Binding book waaaay back around 1990 (just after college!). My college foundation design teacher was a friend of Smith's and turned me on to his book. I haven't tried out any of the bindings recently, but when I first got it I successfully made a coptic-bound book with cloth-covered hard covers and a few soft-covered japanese stab-bound books. It's amazing to see what true book artists can do with their bindings. I've always wanted to take a class at the Center for Book Arts in nearby NYC...maybe that will be a New Year's resolution I can keep!