Sketchbooks

I made three types of sketchbooks:

i. Concertina book

ii. Pamplet book

iii. Japanese stab binding book

Closed sketchbooks. From the left: Concertina book, Pamphlet book, Japanese stab binding book

Open sketchbooks

Concertina sketchbook

Detail: Top view

Detail: Perspective view

Pamphlet book

Detail: Inside binding

Detail: Front view

Detail: Side view

Japanese stab binding book

Detail: Front view

Detail: Side view

Detail: Binding cover

Tools used: Paper, card, scissors, knife, book-binding needle, eraser, pencil, book-binding thread, bull clips, P.V.A., bone fold, steel rule, and a cutting mat

Making the books was a new experience for me, I have never made my own sketchbooks and I have never looked into the details of making one either. So after buying all the required supplies, a friend - who has never made sketchbooks either - sat down at our school canteen with some tea and got to work. I was not nervous about making the books, but I wasn't sure how many attempts I might need. Especially with the Japanese stab binding book, as I have never been particularly handy with a needle and thread.

We started with the Concertina book. It was the easiest and seemed like a good simple task to get us warmed up to making our own books from scratch. So we cut up the sheet as instructed and folded everything. Then as we started folding, we noticed that some pieces were different sizes and then had to trim them further, this process when on and on until we had the books as good as we could get them. Unfortunately my Concertina book is not perfect as the width of the pages in the centre is the same as the width of the covers and so the "pages" of the book jut out a bit. If I was to do this again I would measure out the pages myself, instead of using the pre-marked cut lines and make one book which I was then physically cut to perfect size and use the measurements I learnt from that to make one proper book.

Next we moved on to the Pamphlet book and the Japanese Stab Binding book. These both started in much the same way with us cutting out the pages we needed for the book, and then the covers. The Pamphlet book was easy as it just required us to fold along the middle and staple at the binding of the book. The Japanese Stab Binding book was a little trickier as it required us to punch holes in the books, and then thread them through. We had a little difficulty here, as we were following drawn instructions and there were a couple of attempts. When we finally got it right, I made a little binder cover for the Japanese Stab Binding book - which covers the thread binding - to add a bit of colour to the book.

If I practice with the technique, I might consider - time permitting - use this threading technique to make my own books for final projects or for thesis.