Sewn Books
I’m using the term “sewn books” to refer to volumes where pages are brought together and attached to a cover in some fashion involving a needle and thread. Pages may be sewn directly to the cover or sewn into signatures, which are then attached collectively to a cover. The latter kind may or may not have a spine. Sewn books can be fairly simple or staggeringly intricate. I have yet to make any staggeringly intricate books.
Stab Bindings
Here are three examples of Japanese “stab bindings,” which were made from kits.
In this form of book binding, you punch holes through both the book’s hard cover and its signatures with a long, sharp needle, carefully aligning the holes in the various components. You then take a colorful linen thread and follow one of several traditional patterns for sewing the signatures and cover together all at once. Each of the examples displayed shows a different sewing pattern.
Hard Spine Bindings
When most westerners think of books, they think of objects where groups of pages (signatures) sewn together and held between two covers. Included in the notion of “book” is “spine,” a bit of structure to which the books pages are glued or sewn before the covers are attached. (You’ll notice that the Japanese style books shown above all lack hard spines).
Mali on My Mind
I made my first sewn book for my husband to celebrate the years we spent in Mali, West Aftica, together. The learning curve for this project was not as steep as I expected, but putting the book together was still an effort.
The real challenge came in filling the pages with content : stories, photos, drawings and paintings, essays. And even though the book contains fewer than ninety pages, I’m still plugging away at that.
My next three sewn books, tiny little things, 3″ by 4,”were limited to a dozen pages each.
10 THNGZ I LUV ‘BOUT U
Here is the entire text of 10 THNGZ I LUV ‘BOUT U.
