Handmade Booky Wooks

These days, I tend to spend most of my college days binding little books. "Hmm.. My graphics work needs doing.. but I need a mini sketchbook!" I procrastinate waaay too much.

I guess I started making books two years ago when I was being too cheap to buy sketchbooks so I'd bind them instead. So then began the endless research, Youtube tutorials, taking books apart (Got a little heart broken.) And then my first little book was created; An iddy biddy little A7 doodle book. Made from computer printing paper, stitched with white sewing thread, the spine was PVA'ed with scrap curtain, the boards were scrap plastic and covered with blue paper and some pretty mesh material. I was really proud of it.It looked like a flimsy notebook. Unfortunately I no longer have it. It's probably lost in my room somewhere. *sad face*

When I showed my tutor at college one of my books, he directed me to my graphics teacher. A pro binder! He showed me his handmade collection and they really were lovely! Thus I refined my techniques and here I am now. Still stuck to some of my primitive techniques though. (Pressing fresh books under my pet rock as opposed to keeping them in a clamp. (The graphics teacher would punch me to the ground if he were to find out about my improper techniques.))

A while ago, I've mentioned meeting a guy after my Kingston interview, right? Well, he said he liked my books after seeing them in my portfolio. So he gave me his address and I made a book and sent it to him. He says he likes it. Woo! It was an A6 hard-bound, black covered in darker stripes with inlay paper consisting of old road maps, the stock paper being cartridge paper. May we meet again, little book!

And here it is! Pretty neat, huh?

Oh, and the thing the book is on is another book. It's my Japanese stab bound sketchbook. A paperback.

Here are some tiny, tiny, little books I've made, based on Alice in Wonderland. Y'know, when she shrinks? The smallest one is just under an inch. I've drawn in it, illustrated Alice in Wonderland with a Pilot G-TEC-C4 pen. (Yeah, Had to get a little technical there. Haha)

Book binding. A marriage between literature and art form.

"[Your manservant] puts in your hand a tale like this; you mourn the superstition of book sellers, which still inflicts uncut leaves upon humanity, though tailors do not send home coats with the sleeves stitched up..."

~Bob Roberts~