Breathing for a bit....

So I have massive amounts of custom orders and I took a break today (sorry to my customers!)

I made one custom order and then I made the book for the BEST Book Swap. I belong to a group of bookbinders, we're located all over the world, we make all sorts of different books and we all sell on Etsy.

BEST (Bookbinding Etsy Street Team) has a book swap that we do every few months. We each make a book and send it to another participant of the swap. I'm excited to see the book on it's way to me from Turkey. I still need to show off the book I received from the last book swap too so maybe I'll do that soon :)

I loved making this book and being a bit creative with it :)

I don't have the dimensions because I forgot to measure the book before it went out. Here are some lovely photos though. (A lot of photos because I think Daniel liked this one.)

Top View Open. This book has an accordion spine with sewn pages.

It's such a fun book structure. It sort of looks like a stack of old envelopes.

The inside endpapers and the pages are all archival tea stained pages.

View of the accordion spine with dark brown linen thread.
Lokta paper was used for the spine.

Here's the book all nice and closed. The buttons were pulled off of an old shirt and I knotted the linen thread to make the tie around cord.

This is the back. Old stamps from everywhere. This was my son's favorite thing about the book and he was disappointed that he couldn't play with it.

You can see the book all nice and closed here. The cord wraps around the buttons, one on front and one on back. 

The Front Cover. This envelope was sent to me when I purchased a bunch of old stamps from someone. The envelope is from 1929 and I love it. My favorite things are the way it's addressed "Special Delivery" as well as the fact that someone wrote measurements on the left side of it. (Who doesn't use envelopes for random jottings?) And I also love that someone wrote in red ink "Very old, 1929" right on it. Who did that?! Haha!

This is the back with all it's stamp loveliness. 

Cord Bound Books

I love cordbound books! This style is the traditional rounded spine leather book. They date back to the 5th century and were introduced when Byzantium monks established their first scriptorium, Byblos, in modern Lebanon. The Arabs were the ones to bring this style to life with all sorts of decorative work, gorgeous gold embossing and clasp closures. They still make the most wonderful cordbound books in the world.


This style of book is made with a sewing frame but it can also be done with simple tools and anyone can make one from home.


I do classes on how to make these lovely cordbound books. In the class we learn traditional and modern methods of cord binding.


I made this cordbound book last week. I actually made two and one book was used for a sign-in book and the other for a photo album:

Cordbound Sign-in book for my sister's wedding. Traditional cord bindings have straight cords on the spine which I teach in the class but this variation is easily done.

The top view of the book which has the Even Star from Lord of the Rings embossed on it.

You can see how well the cordbound books stay open. They open almost completely flat so they're great for sign-in books, photograph albums, sketchbooks and journals.

I'll be teaching this class in two weeks at Provo Art & Frame. Sat, August 28, 2010 from 9:30am – 2:00pm. If you'd like to attend please send me an email and I will add you to the class list and send you needed class information. The class is $55 which includes all the materials you'll need for your book, some tools will need to be brought with you.

Book Arts Classes at Provo Art & Frame

Click on the image to view larger.

Do you dance with flowers in your mouth?

As I was sewing a quilt this evening, Jadon pointed to the fabric and said, "Those are flowers." Which led us to the following conversation.

Me: Yes, those are flowers.
Jadon: Do you like flowers?
Me: I love flowers.
Jadon: Do you dance with flowers in your mouth?
Me: Sometimes. Do you think dad dances with flowers in his mouth?
Jadon: No. He's a natural.

Jadon: "Are we going on a trip?"

When I was teaching a bookbinding class this past Saturday, Jadon and Ethan went to the Farmer's Market with my parents. He got his face painted and they tried out all sorts of food. Jadon even got a carved wooden owl and watched the man make it. He loves things like that so I'm sure he had so much fun!

Whenever he visits my parents house, he also has to take a turn on the truck dolly. My dad always takes a break from working to give him a push. Ethan hasn't quite learned how to stand on it yet but he kept trying. These photos were taken about a half an hour apart. You can see he became messy from the popsicle and had to change his clothes.