January Workshop - Cord, Ribbon, & Stick closure

On Saturday, January 13, we had a great meeting and workshop. We had 24 members attending and 16 books in the exchange. During the business part of the meeting we found out that Michele O. and Sandy V. are both giving classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Humboldt State this spring. We welcomed two new members, Roz K., who submitted her first book for the monthly exchange and Marie B.

Dolores G. led the workshop demonstrating a "Cord, Ribbon, & Stick" closure book. Dolores learned the closure in a workshop in the UK taught by Lori Sauer. The signatures were bound with a Keith Smith binding called “Parallel Bars”.

We brought our own cover paper and Dolores supplied all of the cording, ribbons, sticks, and linen thread.

First we chose the ribbon, cord and thread for our books.

We started by scoring the cover. It allowed for a spine and and other folds.

We made three slits on one side of the front cover to put the ribbons through. 
They will form a loop that will hold the bamboo stick.

We adjusted the ribbons so that they were the right size to hold the bamboo stick for the closure. We taped the ends of the ribbons to the inside of the cover.

Next we measured and punctured the cover for the decorative cord,
 and used tacking to connect the cord to the cover.

Once the tacks were over (not through) the cording and the thread tied down,
we made the final adjustments aesthetically.

The sewing of the signatures was relatively simple. The stitching came through
 the cover to form three horizontal bars that mirrored the spacing of the closure.

The tacking of the cord to the surface of the cover demonstrates a technique that can be used for other applications-- whether it is a closure, a decoration, or even a binding. The folding of the cover also lends itself to various other sizes as well as materials. Because the signatures will be sewn through the cover spine, this lends itself to many different sewing patterns.

All of us made the same book with a solid cover. Look at each picture-- there are quite a few differences. Some members used high contrast colors, or unusual color combinations.

This book has a cord color that disappears into the cover,
 but the tacking stitches look almost like little jewels.

This is another book with neutral colors. Underneath the book 
you can see the instructions with lots of diagrams for "next time".

Don't forget, toward the end of the month, the exchange books will be on Flickr. You can see them by tapping Flickr Gallery in the column on the left.

NORBAG September Workshop - Judy Rishel - WORD BOOKS

In September, 2017, Judy Rishel presented a workshop demonstrating Word Books. These are books whose pages spell a whole word or name when the book is closed. Judy presented two methods of making this book: 1) using a fold over technique that has a piece of paper folded and 2) cut pages (non-fold) method where each page is separate. Judy brought some delightful samples.

Judy is talking about the Word Book "Travel" that she made

These are some samples that Judy brought. The top one is DOG complete with a dog bone for the hole in the O. Then DECLAN, LOVE, and BOOK.  BOOK was made and painted by Judy's 11 year old granddaughter.

This is a a close up picture of her TRAVEL book. If you notice, each letter is the same color but there is an outline around each letter to make the word visible

 We started with deciding on a word, cutting out the alphabet letters needed and taping them to the end of plain text weight paper. This would give us a template to put on the poster board for the final book.

Judy had a visual sample of how the first step of the template would look. 

We then took the strips and put them together so that you could easily see each letter. With a few cuts and a bit of adhesive tape, we put them together and had our template.

Taping the letters to the text weight paper and laying them out in order to have a nice layout

Once the pages are laid out, they are clipped together and cut.  Note: if we were making the folded card, we would proceed to the next step. If we were using the cut page (non-fold) method, skip the next step and go to putting the template directly on the poster board.

Once cut, we tape the strips together so that when we fold them, they will nest in the proper order

 The next thing we do is to use these as templates and transfer to the poster board we brought. This being NORBAG, some of our members made the templates first and then moved to poster board while others went directly to poster board without the all white template.

At this point, the pages are folded, nested together and bound.  The pamphlet stitch works nicely with the folded version and both versions can use punched holes, staples (covered with washi tape) or even stab binding. The pages can be decorated with almost anything. Some used decorative papers or simply different colors of poster board (or card stock). For the letters to stand out, it is best to have some kind of contrast between letters. For example, use different colors, or patterns. Another way to make the letters show up well is by having an outline of the letter.

SAMPLES WE MADE

Polka Dot?!

 Judy didn't stop there. She provided an excellent set of instructions for our workshop and then lined a table with letters for other words.

Don't forget, we have pictures of the exchange books themed as "Second Chance" on Flickr. They will be up by September 25. Have a look, they are great in color. You can find them by going to NORBAG.blogspot.com then tapping on the link in the left hand column that says "Guild Flickr Gallery."