Pamphlet binding is one of the easiest forms of bookbinding and highly accessible for most people who want to make a simple journal or sketch book. The Basics Pamphlet binding involves very few steps, but the pattern of sewing changes depends on the size of the pages being sewn. Ultimately, pamphlet binding can only be…Continue Reading Basic Bookbinding: Pamphlet Sewing
These techniques were learned from a web-based tutorial courtesy of the Creative Arts Workshop. Learn more about CAW and their programs: http://creativeartsworkshop.org/. This was another experiment done while working from home, but repeatable in the studio or lab space. Book cloth: What is it? Book cloth is a cotton-based fabric with a protective backing of…Continue Reading Experimental Art: Making Bookcloth
The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) is hosting Ask A Conservator Day today, November 18th. The day is meant to raise awareness about conservation, and conservators around the world will be participating on social media (follow the #AskAConservator hashtag across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to see what’s being posted and discussed by others). For a…Continue Reading It’s #AskAConservator Day!
Background Every year in July, I tabulate statistics for treatments performed by the Preservation Unit and for materials sent to the commercial bindery for the fiscal year that ends in June. The FY20 numbers were calculated in July, but only as numbers in a spreadsheet. I participated in a tutorial earlier this year on Tableau,…Continue Reading A Year in Numbers
This is the last part! If you’ve followed the adventure since the start of “Fish Leather” till now, you’ll have seen the entire progression from raw fish to finished book! How exciting! Catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 first, and let’s dive right in, shall we? 7. Leather Prep Now that my book…Continue Reading Assembling A Fishy Book: Part 3
This is Part 2 of 3 in my adventures of creating a book using fish leather. In Part 1, we divulged the hidden sewn skeleton of the book, showcased the importance of end sheets, and created a mock gilt edging of the bookblock. In this part, more attention will be on shaping the bookblock and…Continue Reading Assembling A Fishy Book: Part 2
For more information on the origin of this project, please see the “Fish Leather” post. In order to use as much of the fish leather as possible, I decided to do what’s called a modern half leather library binding style. This style uses leather for the spine, and sometimes, the corners of the covers. The…Continue Reading Assembling A Fishy Book: Part 1
I came from a background of archaeology, and there’s a saying that an archaeologist creates their own tool-kit, borrowing tools designed for other fields. Conservation and Preservation tools are essentially the same. As the trade is still developing, there are so few tools designed for our work specifically that we often amass a hodgepodge of…Continue Reading 10 Unusual Tools on our Preservation Workbench