Elderberry's Handmade Notebooks

[Ceilidh]

Wow, they just get better and better. Lovely stuff!

[fountainpagan]

Beautiful babies you have got there. Congratulation on your amazing progress.

 

Keep on.

 

TM Lee and GatzBcn, it is wonderful you share your knowledge. Beautiful spirit.

Thank you.

[elderberry]

Thank you for your kind words, it really makes me happy to read this!

 

Also I love how everyone is helpful and ready to share information and I'm doing my best to keep this spirit alive with what little knowledge I possess at the moment.

 

It's only lately that I learned how important going with the paper's grain really is, not only for the book block but down to the cover papers, end papers etc. and that all manners of oddness can occur due to not regarding this.

 

For instance in my earlier books my end papers used to behave weirdly, sometimes they would become enormously wavy or crinkled and wouldn't want to paste down evenly, on other occasions there was no problem at all. Now I know it's because the fibers stretch at a right angle to the grain direction and this, albeit small, surplus of material must be accomodated - which is a lot easier if the grain runs from head to tail of the book. Also the boards sometimes warped because of this.

In short, this stuff is really important - in fact every tutorial out there says so - so if you want to make a book you might want to take it more seriously than I did.

(It has to be said, however, that it doesn't seem to make a difference at all sometimes.)

Edited March 7, 2016 by elderberry

[ethernautrix]

Wow, those notebooks are beautiful! Amazing work. There's a lot of talent shown in this forum. So cool to see.

[TMLee]

 

 

 

I like this

 

The emboss looks very deep..

I would love to know how you did it.

Did you bevel the edges of the underlaid motif ?

 

I like the ribs on the spines - looks very 'distinguished' , 'stately' on a bookshelf.

[ArchiMark]

Excellent work!

 

Thanks for sharing this with everyone.....

 

Keep it up.....

 

 

Mark

[KKay]

You have picked out some lovely materials, and have an eye for what looks right. I love what you have done, and yes, you have progressed alright! Just keep practicing. Once you get it to the tightness you want, people will be begging you to make them a sweet book too. (and they will pay you to do it!)

[elderberry]

Thanks again! In fact some people have already reached out to me. I feel very honored by this and greatly appreciate it!

 

TMLee: Thanks. I did the debossed design by cutting the motif out of 1,5 mm millboard, then pasting that onto a 2 mm one. Same with the - though undecorated - back cover. I find it's a little deeper than necessary, the book cloth really is stretched to its limit. I'm now using 270 gsm cardboard for debossed designs, it's also easier to cut, the 1,5 mm really made me "hack and saw" at it with the scalpel.

 

Here are some books I made last month:

 

 

 

 

 

They're made with laced on boards, I believe the technique is called quarter bound? It is quite the challenge but the books look much more refined than the case bound ones. Also I'm gaining experience in working with leather.

 

The light brown one is made with Tomoe River paper which presents a challenge in itself, all this slipping & sliding! Does any of you have any tricks for working with this paper? Talcum powder maybe?

[TMLee]

Beautiful , these hardbound ones

 

The emboss - oh , thats very thick indeed.

So the chamfer is actually the bookcloth stretched to its limit?

( I think over time it will lose its elasticity and harden and become brittle and tear off there )

You may want to reconsider this.

But they do look good.

 

I like the marbled papers.

and the grey one is most elegant.

The colours all work together.

ROSSI papers are so finely printed - simply beautiful !!!

 

Is that goatskin in all the 3 , you are using?

 

How thick are your books?

about one inch?

 

TR paper is terribly challenging to handle.

Yes, they are so fine and thin , and so smooth, and thats why they are so slippery and hard to handle.

I handle them as little as possible, becos they crease super easily.

Very annoying.

 

I dont know about talc.

 

Keep posting

 

 

 

 

[elderberry]

I will!

 

Yes, I agree with you on 1,5 mm being excessive which is why I use the 270 gsm cardboard now which is - I don't know, maybe 0,7 mm or something of the sort? -, the difference in height is less pronounced but still very visible. Yes, the book cloth might deteriorate in time, I'll keep an eye on it.

 

I was joking about the talc, imagine the mess! I almost had a tantrum - or several - over gathering some signatures into a stack neat enough for sawing the stitching holes. In the end only an extra pair of hands helped.

 

Happy to hear you like the hardbound books! The ones on the pictures are all about A 6 in size and 2 - 3 cms thick (boards included). The one with the Rossi paper was somewhat thicker, maybe 4 cms. The leather is oasis goatskin (though other kinds of goatskin seem to work very well too as long as it's veg tanned). The oasis is special stuff though. The grain and colors are really amazing and it's so strong even when pared tissue thin.

 

 

Ohh it's so awesome. Rather pricey, sadly.

Edited March 8, 2016 by elderberry

[KKay]

You have the "looks" down pat. There is no doubt about that. I love the latest photos too. (with the weave)

[TMLee]

The goatskins are beautiful.

 

They must have cost you a small fortune !

 

what do you use when you need to pare them down ?

[elderberry]

I use a Schärffix device. It's essentially an adjustable blade holder.

 

Before I had that I used this skiver. It works mostly for the edges though. With the Schärffix I can pare the whole piece if need be and with the goatskin it's usually necessary because they come super thick (about 1 mm).

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BsBWRON_2r8/VevZPyyFQRI/AAAAAAAAB2s/Iz1D3JMgH0w/s1600/workshop7.jpg

[IrishEyes]

Lovely books. Just plain drool-worthy. For me, anything in bright red makes me WANT WANT WANT!

 

I should also start doing this. We have the supplies, including an antique book press. I just need to get with it and learn how to do it.

 

Your books are so lovely, I want them all, I think. Not that I could afford them, but still, they're beautiful!

[elderberry]

Thank you Irish Eyes! Yes, you should definitely try bookbinding, especially if you are that lucky and have everything available! (How come?) I think most people who like nice notebooks would enjoy making one that's exactly to their specifications.

 

Also I think it's a very rewarding hobby. I found that I could make an OKish book quite early on but bringing it to perfection would probably take me my whole life so aside from aesthetic aspects there's always new technical challenges to be found.

 

It's definitely not a feasible approach to saving money on notebooks - except maybe the high end ones like DesignY - but I wasn't expecting that.

 

KKay, I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by "the weave"?

[Gaangel]

I agree with making books is such a rewarding hobby. I can even pick the colors and paper that I want. Then proudly show it off to friends and family.

[PaganArcher]

Looking good. Looking very good. I'll have to keep your work in mind when I knock the rust of my binding skills. Longstitch is all I use as of late.

 

On a note for covering with leather, I find contact cement works very well. I've used it on 2mm book board and pig splits and found very little warping. And it's what I use for all my leather working needs from binding to working 14oz. armor bends for axe masks.

[elderberry]

Wow, contact cement sounds like heavy gear! I'm using wheat/wheat starch paste at the moment and PVA before that. Stuck well enough. When making leather headcaps I really appreciate the slow drying time of the paste though, if need be I can twiddle with them forever and in the end it still sticks.

[KKay]

Thank you Irish Eyes! Yes, you should definitely try bookbinding, especially if you are that lucky and have everything available! (How come?) I think most people who like nice notebooks would enjoy making one that's exactly to their specifications.

 

Also I think it's a very rewarding hobby. I found that I could make an OKish book quite early on but bringing it to perfection would probably take me my whole life so aside from aesthetic aspects there's always new technical challenges to be found.

 

It's definitely not a feasible approach to saving money on notebooks - except maybe the high end ones like DesignY - but I wasn't expecting that.

 

KKay, I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by "the weave"?

Post 28 picture 2.

[elderberry]

Ah okay. That's headbands.

 

New books:

 

Ready made book block, book cloth and marbled paper, hand stitched headbands:

 

 

 

Hand sewn book block, case binding, grey calfskin and turkish Ebru marbled paper. For the headbands I tried to choose silks matching the covers, it didn't quite work out but it still looks OK together I think.

 

 

 

 

Two coptic books! The book cloth is two tone and changes color depending on the angle.

They're definitely better than my first ones but they also reminded me of all the things I found annoying about coptic. Still it's fun to make one from time to time.