I made a book!

Two books, actually.

I followed the very good instructions from the Mindful Art Studio's Coptic Bound Journal workshop, and without much trouble made these two small sketchbooks.

The individual steps are not difficult, but they took time and care to ensure a nice finished product.  There was a lot of cutting, glueing, folding, and finally sewing to bring it all together.

The process starts with cutting the materials for your covers and the inner pages, called signatures.  I used watercolor paper for these, but any paper can be used depending on the purpose of the book.  The cover is made from chip board covered with decorative paper or fabric.

The paper cutter I bought a while back was a real life-saver.  This could all be done by hand, but that would take a long time.  It took a while as it was.  This is not a process to rush through!

The final step before sewing is to poke holes in the signatures and covers.  Again, having the correct tool really makes a difference!  When I made my first simple sketchbook a couple of months ago, I did not have an awl and improvised with a sharp screw Michael found in the garage.  It worked, but was slow and hurt my hand.  Because I enjoyed making the sketchbook and knew I would make more, I bought a beginner's bookbinding kit with the various tools needed to make different books.  I've used almost everything in the kit already.

Look at those neat and tidy holes!

The next step is sewing the pieces together.  As you can imagine, this is a bit awkward at first while trying to figure it all out.  I was really happy to have the curved needles from the bookbinding kit!  A straight needle can do the job, but requires a lot more fiddling around with the book which might lead to loose stitches.  Lots of sharp things involved in book making!

Once you have the hang of it, the sewing step is very enjoyable.

By the time I was finished with the second book (the blue one) I was feeling really good about the process.  I did learn one very important thing - make sure you have enough thread!  I barely squeaked by with just an inch or so to spare on the second book.  Not much more on the first one.

Here's a close up of the stitching.  I know with practice the stitches will be more uniform, but either way they look pretty nifty.

The books lay flat when open, which will make painting in them easy.  The other sketchbooks I've made don't do that, so the paint tries to pool in the middle.

I made a painted piece for the inside cover.  Next time I'll cut the inner pieces smaller so they don't have holes poked in them (and I'll make sure the outer cover paper is big enough to fold in further and cover the board better.

Now I've got these two great books to fill with art!  I know I'll be making more of these, and am really looking forward to visiting a craft store in person to pick out nice paper for the covers.

So many possibilities...