Tedorigawa Bookmakers

Greek Binding Plus

2012-01-16T16:17:00.002+09:00

Sounds suspiciously erotic, eh?

But, no, Greek binding is a cool-looking binding that I'm thinking of doing. Here is a pic from the Feather Edge site. Also, according to Keith Smith's Volume III book, it should only be done with ten signatures or more.

Greek Binding from Feather Edge

To get the full effect because the binding appears to twist in the middle. As soon as I print out my 2012 diary/journal, I'm going to attempt this binding.

I've been looking at Smith's diagrams and pictures of the Greek binding and, while it seems complicated, it also seems quite do-able. In fact, I just watched a video of a Japanese stab-binding wherein the woman in the video said, "The best part is, it looks complicated when you're finished but only takes a few minutes to make." You can check it out here:

I think... At least, I hope ... that a Greek binding will also look complicated but isn't really. We shall see, eh?

But so far, I've only just finished working out a 2012~2013 calendar/diary/journal that begins its year in April. I want to finish soon but my day job is also requesting a few hours of my time ~ talk about whining.

The Brownback Blank

2011-12-03T13:32:00.001+09:00

Here, in honor of the great governor of Kansas, is a blank notebook with lots of loose ends on the cover. Also in honor of Governor Brownback, there are no tweets or words that rhyme with "luck" or "muck". Also not mentioned is 'Freedom of Speech' and 'Thin-skinned'

This is a A5 size notebook with eight signatures of four sheets each for 128 pages of green printer paper.the book boards are thin cardboard covered with brown paper and, on the front, random pieces of paper that had accumulated in my paper drawer.

Scraps on the cover include tickets to a couple of concerts, a picture of a kitten hidden beneath the blue strip on the top right, and a chopped up painting (the yellow, blue, and black squares.)

The eventual use of this notebook is as a journal of books I have made. Sorry, probably no political rants about thin-skinned pols with no ability to finance education in their own state.

2011-09-26T12:18:00.002+09:00

Old books and fragments of books from the Yale Law Library.

Old Books and Reproductions

2011-08-12T12:22:00.002+09:00

A couple of videos talking about very old books and reproductions of those books. First up, Fitzwilliam Book of Hours.

Japanese Secret Box Making

2011-07-05T18:57:00.000+09:00

Making boxes in secret? No, making boxes with secrets.

Sculpting Books

2011-07-02T09:10:00.002+09:00

Interviews with a few artists who use books as their medium.

Bookmaking Made Easy - A Tutorial

2011-05-15T21:08:00.001+09:00

A quick fun video about making a flip book. About 33 seconds so please take the time to enjoy.

dancing books

2011-02-19T20:08:00.002+09:00

Dancing Books and

Books from Jeff Katz on Vimeo.

Dramatic books. Enjoy.

10 & Tara Books

2011-01-24T22:40:00.002+09:00

French artist Marion Bataille and her book produced by Tara Books of India.

And a video on how Tara Books produces handmade books.

Islamic Bookbinding

2011-01-18T18:31:00.006+09:00

My recent efforts in bookbinding have been leaning toward the Islamic style, a flap of cover covering the fore edge to protect the text block from damage. This is usually made to protect the Quran from damage, of course, but other books and artist's drawing books incorporate it, too. I have only made the one book using Islamic binding, but I'm working on another. Currently thinking about the cover design. It will be a nine signature (four sheets) 184-page blank notebook using drawing paper so, hopefully, the recipient will use it as a sketch pad or doodle book. I like the idea of the Islamic binding, but I'm weak on the technique.

Here are a few photos of real Islamic books borrowed without permission from Yale University's library. They show not only the flap that closes the book but also the relatively wide margins used in early Qurans. The Quran at left is from the 18th century. The book at right is not a Quran but a book of poetry from 1749.

A History of Book Design in 6 and 1/3 minutes.

2010-12-15T23:31:00.002+09:00

A brief history of book design with samples. Listen, watch, enjoy, and possibly learn.

One Can Only Hope

2010-12-09T23:29:00.000+09:00

If you're a bookmaker or artist, isn't this something you'd like to happen with one of your works?

Three Flicks

2010-07-29T01:37:00.003+09:00

Something about movement:

And a film noirish flick:

And your foreign language film with subtitles:

Papermaking Discoveries

2010-07-18T18:20:00.003+09:00

A paper place in Nagano, Japan called Shimayu (島勇) got me to thinking about paper-making and the art involved in said practice. Not that I can do it, but it looks both technical and artistic at the same time. At this link: Shimayu Paper-Making can be seen photos of the process and a description in Japanese so if you're studying Japanese, enjoy. If not, the pictures are, from the top:

煮熟 - Boiling the raw materials in order to beat them to a.... pulp
叩解 - Beating
叩解終了 - Finishing the beating
紙漉き - Paper making 1
紙漉き Paper making 2
紙漉き Paper making 3
乾燥 - Drying
仕上げ - Finishing
仕上げ - Finishing 2
裁断 - Checking

And then on this page: Shimayu Do It Yourself are step-by-step instructions on how to make your own paper. This instructions are all in Japanese so if you're studying Japanese then you can improve your reading ability and learn to make paper simultaneously. If you're not studying Japanese and never wanted to learn, I'm not going to translate all 22 steps, trust me on that. Besides, you can find dozens if not millions...5.2 million as a matter of fact... of websites that can tell you how. Probably many in English. In fact, here's one now:

How To Make Paper on Howcast

And here's another one:

Nash, Korzer-Robinson, and Accordion bindings.

2010-07-11T19:09:00.005+09:00

Catherine Nash is a book artist, sculpturer, artist, papermaker, and teacher in Tuscon, Arizona who has studied papermaking in Europe & Japan. On the left is her book Nothing - Niente - Nada. She has a unique style and more of her books can be seen at her website: CatherineNash.com. She teaches papermaking, drawing, and mixed media in the great inland desert that is Arizona.

I really like what she does with the idea of 'book' stretching it out and bending the idea until you have to ask, is it a book? And the more you ask, the more your mind is accepting it as not only a book, but an artistic book.

On your right we have Our Lady of Tuscany, a book by Alexander Korzer-Robinson who uses cut paper and altered books as an arty statement. His work is intricate, exciting, and pushes old books in new directions - so much so that the cover might be ripped right into the story. No matter, it's intriguing.

And finally we get to my current goal: the accordion book. I'm thinking of making an accordion book of six short short stories that I wrote recently. The shortest of the six is one page. Actually, two of the stories are one page. If you print it out on A-4 (almost 8.5 x 11 inch) paper. But if it's on a quarter of that, the story will be four pages. I'm thinking of putting all six stories in an accordion binding. Just to see what it looks like and if I can make a reasonable accordion binding. Goals, we gotta have 'em.

Time Lapse Two Again

2010-07-04T17:45:00.003+09:00

Another time-lapse video of making a book. At least I hope it's time-lapse. I hate to think she really moves that fast. Plus, the video stops just at the difficult point: attaching those pesky endpapers to the cover without misaligning everything. (And it could do with a better sound track) But that's beside the point: enjoy the video and hopefully it will educate and entertain you.

More of her work can be found at Celeste Frittata

Type Specimen Book by Jason Arias

2010-06-27T21:28:00.003+09:00

When is a book not a book but a sculpture/art project? When you decide to call it an art project, of course. Here's a quick video of an unusual but charming book - more of a type specimen, examples of a type font he created - hung out on a post to be read. Enjoy.

type specimen book from jason arias on Vimeo.

Next week I hope to have more and fast videos about bookmaking. Any suggestions?

Coptic Binding Stop-Motion

2010-05-28T23:57:00.004+09:00

A stop-motion flick of a coptic binding in the making. With music. I like how the sun moves around behind her as she works and shadows what it was we wanted to see. But fun. Which reminds me, I haven't made a coptic binding in awhile - maybe over a year. Recently I've been casebinding books - they look more like a 'real' book. Plus I've been working on binding books with content rather than blank notebooks. Imposing is an imposing problem, eh? Maybe I'll make a pocket-size blank notebook using coptic binding soon.

Enjoy the video and music.

Bindinginstopmotion1.wmv - The best video clips are right here

Book-making The Old Way

2010-05-17T16:59:00.002+09:00

This is a great documentary on how books used to be printed Plus, as an added benefit, it also shows how the narrator has to speak as if to a two-year-old. Looks like hard work - both the printing and the narrator's job.

Japanese Stab Binding

2010-03-29T09:40:00.002+09:00

Here is a video of how to make a simple Japanese stab binding. The process is fairly quick and most people can make one in short order. The book doesn't open as flat as a coptic binding (or even a perfect binding); more like a thick paperback. Some people put in a hinge or, as in this video, crease the spine just beyond the threads. Books in Japan that are made using Japanese stab binding, on the other hand, use very, very thin paper and don't have very many pages. Fifty or sixty pages is probably the most common and remember: the paper is thinner than your average paper. Not as thin as tissue paper; more like calligraphy paper.

Also, the difference between Japanese stab binding and Chinese stab binding (from which Japanese stab binding originates) is that in Chinese stab binding the distance between threads can be variable. For example, if you have four holes, you have three spans between them (not counting the top and bottom). In Japanese binding, the spans must have an equal distance; in Chinese binding, they can be different.

In any case, watch, learn and enjoy.

Two with suspense

2010-02-27T01:48:00.002+09:00

Just a couple of short flicks with suspense. One by me, one by someone else in Japan. First, mine, No plot, no actors, just a few free hours on a rainy day.

Now, enjoy a suspense film with actors and something resembling a plot.

I know, I know.

2010-02-05T23:48:00.002+09:00

I said before that I'd post photos of my most recent book but instead I'm going to talk about more mundane matters. But first, for something completely different. (Where have I heard that before?)

So what was the point of that? To introduce you to Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne's more that post-modern novel written in 1759 and not your walk-in-the-park novel like a Stephen King tome - a real complex, attention-grabbing whore of book, it is. I'm both reading it (online) and listening to it (librivox - a great place for free audio books which are in the public domain) for a couple of reasons: first, I want to put another notch on my kindle; second, I'm putting in a file that I hope to print out and bind.

I'm hoping to be able to bind the first book (there are three volumes in all) this year. I've typed in the first 30 chapters or so - With pictures! - and hope to finish that end of the deal by next week. Then I need to buy more book cloth. And learn to put in endpapers better.

A Novel Book, A Model Love

2009-12-24T22:59:00.003+09:00

Soon I will post photos of my latest creation but right now it is sitting in a box wrapped with Christmasy-themed paper awaiting the recipient to tear it open and gaze at amazement at the creation within.

It is a novel. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo. I set it up on my computer to be imposed upon. And it was. I printed it out. I sewed it up. I glued on the covers and now, viola, it rests beneath our Saturnalia tree.

The novel is a love story, of course, but a special one: a Model Love Story. The resourceful male protagonist manages to bring death upon all who love him. When he meets the sultry female protagonist, it is a knock-down drag out fight between his fellow criminals and himself as to whether his new love will be kidnapped or merely shot. He solves the problem as only he can. With tragic results but not for his new love.

Photos after the Solstice break.
Enjoy yourselves, but, hey, let's be careful out there, okay?

Are you E yet?

2009-10-21T23:31:00.009+09:00

This is the new Nook by Barnes and Noble's. It affords lots of things including sharing your books with your like-minded friends. About $260. Millions of books.

This is the Amazon Kindle, about $300, with millions of books if they are on Amazon.

And finally we have the inventor of the personal portable listening device (the Walkman cassette player), Sony bringing up their Sony Reader.

Didn't really want the Nook to be the biggest; just couldn't get the sizes to match up and didn't want to spend a lot of time futzing about.

The Question is, Are You an E-book reader yet or do you refuse to plug in? Do you prefer the portability of a book made of paper over the portability of carrying your entire library around in a device that weighs slightly more than a couple of Stephen King novels?

The question is not Will these things change how we read but How will these devices change we read; how will we view physical books ; will our reading habits change from lounging around in our pajamas on a lazy windy cloudy rainy day to only while we are on the bus headed toward work?

Personally, I would like to play with these devices if someone would give me one. No way I'm shelling out $300 for what is essentially an iPod Nano on steroids.

Besides, I enjoy the physical-ness of turning a page, checking out the binding, and tossing the sucker across the room when the writing iritates the bejasus out of me. Wouldn't want to do that with a Kindle, now, eh?

What is Woodstock Online? Peace & Love, Hippie.

2009-10-20T20:14:00.004+09:00

As at over at 手取川 Tedorigawa 手取川 this week we will be showering you with love and music at the

Smallest Woodstock Festival Online Parade

in celebration of finishing not one but three books this last weekend, one of which is the largest book I have ever done. Photos coming in the future. Meanwhile, listen, enjoy, and spread the

Love, hippie

•
The Listening List

Wagner - The Bridal Chorus
John Entwistle - Bass Solo
Joan Jett - I Hate Myself for Loving You
An Amazing Bass Solo
Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust Live 75
Les Claypool - Bass Solo
Juan Lennon - I Met the Walrus
Jorge Harrison - Gopala Krishna

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

What Else Do You Do?

2009-10-14T18:20:00.002+09:00

I have a few podcasts and blogs that keep me hopping and in order to keep track of what each one contains, I made these two Episode Guide books. As you can see, they are pocket size. Each is about 120 pages mas or menos. They have six sewn signatures of five sheets each, book board was covered with book cloth, and copy paper was used. These are episode guides, not Gutenberg's 42 line Bible.

One is for my Audio Drama podcast called DinoSoar Pix. DinoSoar Pix has audio and video but mostly audio. I make the audio drama when I have the time and recently I have been gathering voice actors from space - the internet tube-things - and doing some cutting and pasting. I also do one wherein I do all the voices and manipulate them with the audio editing program I use. In any case, I enjoy the work and the thought that people are enjoying the work I do.

The other episode guide is for the more educational podcast. Hokudai/Cast is a trilingual podcast that celebrates Japanese, Chinese, and English. I don't speak all these languages; other people do. I speak one. Okay, one and a half (English and Japanese), but many people around me speak Chinese so I use them to my advantage. Hokudai/Cast is from Hokuriku University, where I work. It's a pleasant little liberal arts college on the other side of Japan from Tokyo, Osaka, and other big noisy cities with too many people.

A Tune with Two Videos (Book related.)

2009-09-09T14:09:00.004+09:00

A rather cool slide show with some rather cool coptic bindings from Artist Books. All it needs is some music. So, click on the player, then click on the slide show. The music lasts longer than the slide show, however, so click on the second video and watch two people make a book. Since the 2 videos take a total of about 3 minutes the song takes about 5 minutes, you can watch the videos Almost Twice!

The music is by Ariyasamade and it's called Just Relax. It can be found at PodSafeAudio.com

Find more photos like this on Artist Books 3.0

Also from Artist Books 3.0. You may like to cruise over to their website, too.

Find more videos like this on Artist Books 3.0

Extreme Bookbinding

2009-08-10T13:30:00.004+09:00

Read this detailed and exciting account of some book restoration taken to the extreme: very old book (6th century Abba Garima Gospels) in a very old monastery (Monastery of Abuna Garima) in a very old country (Ethiopia). The actual book restoration starts about a third to half-way down the page.

Skin Deep Newsletter

I'm fascinated by the binders who worked nearly 1400 years ago in the middle of what must have been a hot dry mountainous desolate place but still made beautiful and enduring books. Coptic binding, of course, as Ethiopia is the home of coptic binding (from Wikipedia).

And here's a sample of coptic binding from Two Brides and SugarAdded blogs:

For those interested, here is a quick video about coptic binding:

We Can Use Mr. Griffith's Barn!

2009-08-06T10:34:00.004+09:00

Making movies, that's what this is about. The title is a reference to all the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland Andy Hardy movies where they always seem to be running off to produce a musical in someone's barn. (In this case I named the barn-owner Griffith after both the Mayberry RFD sheriff and filmmaker D.W.)

First, a clip from Sundance's director's workshop

Next, a flick from Vimeo about using a roof to have a garden, in this case 6 acres on top of the Vancouver BC Convention Center. Interesting use of public space.

Vancouver's 6 Acre Living Roof from Dave Budge on Vimeo.

Finally, a light flick from Vimeo showing how GM tried to meet the challenge of Japanese cars. I assume this was filmed before the bankruptcy?

Low Cost of Ownership from DFN Studio on Vimeo.

Bookbinding Tools

2009-07-15T23:53:00.002+09:00

Bookbinding Tools
Uploaded by Mitsubachi

I like this photo from Mitsubachi (from Flickr, of course. Where else?) because it looks so organized and uncluttered. Completely alien to my work space. On this table you can see scissors, brushes (for glue?) a bone folder for folding, a ruler to use as a straight edge, and the back, front, and spine of a work in progress, a jar of water and a cup of, I'm guessing, coffee? And a ghetto blaster on an old fashioned steam (?) radiator.

The reason I'm showing you this is to show you the essential tools a bookbinder needs. Not much. Besides what's in this picture, I'm guessing Mitsubachi also has some needles and tread. The main thing you need if you're going to bind books is space to lay all your stuff out and time. Lots of time. An amazing amount of time.

Enjoy your time!

The Puccini Boheme Book

2009-07-01T22:31:00.003+09:00

What we have here is a small yet fun to make blank notebook with a zillion pages. Or, really, B5 paper folded into quarters - about 30 of these little darlings - and sewed together and a Puccini 'La Boheme' flyer used as the cover.

Perhaps the pen gives you a sense of the size of this thing - a cute little number that was fun to make, after some difficulty with coming to terms with it.

Perfect binding was used and the one main problem is that the spine bit of the cover was just a tad too big. It doesn't exactly close properly but ripping it apart to fix it would be too much of a trauma - I'd have to destroy the cover - and I'm pleasantly pleased with it. Why? Well, one reason could be that it is the first book I've made in Three Full Months! Unbelievable.

By the way, not to change the subject, but La Boheme is the second most performed opera. The first-most performed opera is Madame Butterfly. Both were written by this Puccini fellow. I guess he had good fortune with operas starting with 'B.' Hence, the name of this little gem is The Puccini La Boheme Book (The Puccini The Bohemian Book?).

Tweet Me Baby Til the Juice Runs Down My Twitter

2009-06-28T20:38:00.004+09:00

The title is, of course, not taken from a Led Zeppelin song or even an older Leadbelly song but the even younger Howling Wolf song "Killing Floor" retitled "Lemon Song" by the Brothers Zeppelin (James and Bobby). All this has nothing to do with the

Twitter

On which, if you go to Tedorigawa on Twitter (http://twitter.com/tedorigawa) you will find Tedorigawa Bookmakers tweeting like cheerful little birds hoping for regurgitated worms from mom. Boy, there's a delightful image.

Crapsey Update Part Two

2009-06-28T20:30:00.002+09:00

I found some nice rough artistic hand-made paper for the Crapsey project. And where did I find this paper? In my pile of paper. I must've bought it a long time ago and today, while cleaning up around my paper pile, I found this rough, off-yellow/pale white paper that, when ink is applied to it, blotches quite nicely. And I was quite surprised. So, I'm going to use it for the Crapsey poem project.

Crapsey Quintain Poetry Coptic Binding Book Project

2009-06-05T17:02:00.004+09:00

With a name like Adelaide Crapsey, isn't it any wonder she created a new poetry style called quintain? Quintains have 22 syllables in five lines with, at best, each line being slightly longer than the previous. This is not a hard and fast rule, however. Ms Crapsey, who died of TB at 36, didn't even follow the rule 100% of the time.

I am creating a hand-written coptic binding book of a few - about 25 - of her quintains. I hope to finish soon and get onto my Circular Book. Both have great expectations.

Meanwhile, if you like undead horror, check out Humanagers: Where the Undead Live it Up.

An English (?) Bookbinder

2009-05-23T22:31:00.005+09:00

It has been a month since the opening and running of the fat loss podcast Goya2Goya and in that month I have lost and gained 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) and lost it again. A mini-yoyo if you will.

I have also toyed with link and/or long stitch. This can be seen here. It is a blank notebook with a fanciful cover and closed by three stands of industrial twine. My first long stitch and it went, uh, reasonably well. For my first time. I shall be practicing it more as the weeks go on.

Also, an English, I assume, bookbinder shows some of his leathers and tools in this two-minute video. Enjoy.

Chester bookbinder Andrew Brown from TONY CLIXBY on Vimeo.

Goya2Goya: The Weight Loss Podcast

2009-04-21T23:42:00.000+09:00

New Podcast at Podomatic.com called Goya2Goya. This is a podcast I've thought about for awhile. Just me talking, sometimes with a guest inquisitor, while I walk around my town and discuss losing weight.

How I hope to lose weight, how much I used to weigh and how much I weigh now, how what you eat is as important as how much you eat (those empty calories in alcohol tend to cause weights to balloon upwards), how much I hope to lose, and general observations as I walk around.

My current weight is 67 kg (148 lbs) and according to US standards, I'm not fat. But I have a beer belly (or, more politely, a 'paunch') that I'd like to get rid off. My goal is 57 kg (125 lbs). Good luck with that, eh?

Goya2Goya stands for Get Off Your Ass To Get (it) Off Your Ass. The (it), of course, is fat. Fat. Big Fat. But in my case, and in most men's cases, it's not so much the ass as the stomach:

The Beer Belly is Evil.

And here's why: those with beer bellies tend to suffer more heart attacks. And more fatal heart attacks. And they are ... uuuuuuugly.

If you're trying to lose weight and want some support, download Goya2Goya and listen to it on your mp3 player as You walk around losing weight. Then send me your tips and tricks for losing weight - I really need them.

Thanks. Our email is goya2goya@gmail.com

Art and the Word on Wordle.net

2009-02-10T17:55:00.001+09:00

This just in from Wordle, a fun way to play with words.

Having a Little Fun

2009-01-12T15:04:00.003+09:00

During the recent New Year's vacation I dabbled in a miniture book. Well, maybe not so miniture. It measures 6.5 cm by 10 cm and its theme is Halloween. Why Halloween which is either 10 months in the future or two months in the past? Because I used a box as a cover and the box originally housed a plastic jack-o-lantern and, as such, had a carved pumpkin on one face and a bat on the other.

The interior of the book - perfect binding, by the way, meaning not 'perfect' but like a 'real' book - continued the Halloween theme with a short essay on why certain folks don't like Halloween, a variety of Halloween-themed drawings (bats, pumpkins, a ghost or two), and Trick or Treat. The main difference between this book and others is that each 'signature' is actually a folded single piece of paper using what seems to be called the 'Hot Dog' folding method. This is actually a quite common fold here - lots of elementary school kids do it when they should be listening to the teacher - but handy.

Most of the 'art' in this book was done before the paper was folded so it's a surprise to see what pops up on what page. The essay, for example, starts on one page but doesn't conclude until several pages later and the middle is hidden. Fun. A pleasant way to spend a little snowy afternoon.

New Year's New Resolutions

2008-12-25T22:21:00.002+09:00

Odds and ends of Bookmaking Resolutions for 2009.

• Starting tomorrow I will make a series of 2010 diaries so that by this time next year I won't have to work my tail off trying to finish one.

• I will have several books in several stages of production constantly.

1. In design

2. In preparation

3. In construction

4. In marketing and sales

• I will promote Tedorigawa Bookmakers (the company) constantly. Until people get sick of hearing about it. For this I need a few things that I will put together before January 31:

1. Business cards

2. Pamphlet of books available

3. Handouts of books available

• Finally, with all due respect to the economic turmoil of the times, I will work my hinny off to make Tedorigawa Bookmakers profitable!

Yes!

Who's with me in this?! Everybody? Good! Let's hit the bricks, people and make our dreams our reality!

Whew, what a pep talk. Sorry, gotta go. Work to be done and all. (Got to design a killer diary for 2010.)

Okay, I'm slow...

2008-10-18T21:23:00.003+09:00

Maybe everyone and his or her grandparents have seen this bookbinding video but it took me a long time to find it and I want it somewhere I can find it quickly and easily, so, here it is on my blog. Thank you very much If'n and Youtube.

Sometime soon in the future (as opposed to the past), more updates on my books will be forth coming. Meanwhile, check out Tedorigawa Bookmakers and DinoSoarPix and Tedorigawa. I'm working on a bilingual mystery suitable for Chinese stab binding, burning a CD, and photos. All wrapped into one book. Exciting. Maybe even with a slip case.

Thanks for looking at my blogs and hope to see you again.

The Rough Book

2008-09-08T20:14:00.007+09:00

Rough pages from the Rough Book. This paper is thick and full of things like leaves and stems. It was fun to make and it's great fun to hold. And very light - not heavy - because the pages and the covers have tons of holes in them.

I must give it to an artist to use as a creative exposure of their work as it is too good to keep around the house being impressive. (Not my work. My work is average but the paper and the covers are great.

Here we have a view of the pages wherein you can see the leaves and stems and other things that make this book very, very touchy feelly. Very tactile. I don't remember where I bought the paper for the pages or the cover but they came together quickly when I decided they needed to be together. Or, rather, they told me they had to be together.

Finally, we come to the cover which is red and holey. Here you can see the yellow paper behind the cover. I used the yellow paper as end papers, too so when you look at the book in a bookstore you'll see the yellow and red mixed nicely together.

By they way, go to Tedorigawa to read my dilemma. Which should I do: rent it or not?

Thanks for reading. See you next week.

Triangle Book

2008-08-19T13:20:00.005+09:00

This is a wood covered book using coptic binding and an inlay on the back with a carved triangle on the front. Thread the same color as the binding hangs down from the triangle toward the bottom of the book. It has about 168 pages of white blank paper. It is narrower than A4 paper but the same height.

It took quite a bit to get the inlay inlaid correctly; lots of mistakes but eventually we learned a lot about carving, measuring, and adjusting. Even though the book took a lot of time to get right and was quite frustrating, it was worth the effort because of lessons learned.

Listen to Episode Eleven on the player at right to hear someone complaining about the effort put into this book. Also, check out Tedorigawa Bookmakers , another site related to books.

June 6th Book

2008-07-18T10:25:00.002+09:00

The June 6th Book was completed sometime in July - but that's okay because the July 7th Book might be completed sometime in August. I'm hoping the August 8th Book will be completed sometime in August, too, but I'm not taking any bets on it.

The July 6th Book has six signatures of six folios each, yellow lined paper, wooden covers with a strip of mahogany running down the right-ish side. I used green waxed linen thread.

I think it came out quite well. Probably a B+ on my scale. The sewing is good but the lines on the lined paper are not up to par. (I printed them all out double sided and some are crooked.)

The whole idea of making one 'serious' book a month (July 7th, August 8th et cetera) is to explore and expand my bookbinding repertoire. Next up: photos and better cover design. And hand-sewn headbands. (but not Armenian headbands, ooh, no.)

Cereal Series Part II

2008-07-08T17:09:00.009+09:00

The Premium Corn Flake with beet sugar Book. (It says so on the front cover.) This is a book from my Cereal Series. It has coptic binding, cereal box covers, seven signatures of six folios each for about 168 unlined pages. It's a blank notebook suitable for gift giving.

It's not so big (B6) and fits nicely into a jacket pocket. The one problem is the back cover is on upside down. Or not. Maybe it's art.

To your right, the Kellogg's Genmai Book (Brown Rice Flake Book) - on the left; and the orange Premium Corn Flake with Beet Sugar Book - on the right. The Premium Corn Flake is B6 size while the Genmai Book is B5, if that makes any sense.

Five Yellow Notebooks

2008-06-04T01:30:00.006+09:00

Five yellow notebooks all with coptic stitching (one almost done well), book board covered in yellow, red inserts for a touch of flair and endpapers made of photos I took from around the neighborhood. A very big neighborhood. Pictures of cherry blossoms on the inside front cover. And a temple in sepia on the inside back cover. Unless you turn the notebook over, in which case they are the opposite.

What did we learn from all of this? I learned how to do coptic binding better and tighter. The whole purpose behind making five (five green notebooks below and five yellow ones now) is Practice. Practice. And more practice. Each one seems to be getting a little better each time (except the one where I ripped the hole too wide near the edge and screwed it entirely. Oh, well, we learn and live.)

Ready for one more picture?

Here is in the inside of the back cover. This is a temple in Kanazawa at dusk, although this is a sepia and slightly Photoshopped for color adjustment. A famous writer lived here as a child and it's half a temple and half a museum of his life.

Good fun in making all five notebooks. The last one is the one with the funky cover which you can barely see in the top photo. All the others have nothing on the cover except yellow.

Five notebooks - side

2008-05-31T23:27:00.002+09:00

Five notebooks - side
Originally uploaded by Tedorigawa

Completed May 31, 2008.
They are a great size for jacket pockets - now that summer is raising it's ugly head and no one will be wearing Jackets! Of course, I learned a few things: alignment is important, for example. And book cloth makes a better cover than paper. And you should make sure you have enough material to make five books before you set out to make five books. (Just a rule of thumb, of course, no need to be fanatical about it.) And I've confirmed my idea that, while blank notebooks are fine, some content would be nice.

My next project, nearly complete, is another set of five blank notebooks (see What I've Learned, above, to see that I haven't really learned it at all.) but with a difference! The end papers are photos of my fair city: the front is an array of cherry trees in full bloom and the back is the residence of an author who made good nationally.

I shall upload more photos of this project: Five Green Notebooks, in the near future. And, when complete, the five other notebooks.

Japanese Stab Binding and Cereal boxes

2008-05-13T13:09:00.003+09:00

I saw the opportunity to try my handbinding at another Japanese binding. Normally, I don't like the Japanese stab binding because the book itself is hard to open. I know there are tricks around it and all but I like the traditional approach to it. And, therefore, like coptic binding better because it's easier to open.

On your left is the front of the Genmai (Brown Rice) Flake Japanese Stab Binding notebook I made the other night. Complete with recycled and discarded A4-size paper folded over once. And uncut.

Speaking of uncut, check out. Tedorigawa Bookmakers audio blog to read more and listen to the short dramatic session that accompanies it. Or you can click on The Second Times the Lucky Charm on the player at right. Thank you very much.

Scrolls Are Frustrating!

2008-04-11T18:50:00.002+09:00

I've been working on my Monk's Scroll and it's Impossible! Well, not impossible, I just have to figure a few things out like: how big to write the music and whether to write it big enough to see across the room - which will result in a scroll much, much too long - or small enough to have a reasonable-size scroll but too small to see. Balance is all.

The second problem is attaching the music sheet onto the cloth without getting the glue to bleed through to the other, visible, side.

What is not a problem is attaching the cloth to the rod of heaven (the top rod). I figured that out by looking at a few dozen scrolls of varying styles. One style is to sew the cloth around the top rod which means the cloth slides instead of rolls up. The other style is to pound nails through the cloth into the top rod which looks terrible. The final method is cutting the rod in half and gluing or wrapping twine around it to keep it together and this is the method I've opted for. I hope it works out.

Listen to Episode Four: Doin' the Scroll on the player to your right.

Sounds!

2008-03-27T09:55:00.008+09:00

I must welcome myself into the 21st century. On your right you will see a PodBean mp3 player on which you can, I hope, hear my voice talk about a variety of things most of which will deal with my life trying to make a life in bookmaking. The first three or four or so will be general and, I hope, will become more specific later on.

With the PodBean player comes a podbean blog at Tedorigawa Bookmakers which will supplement and complement this one and will play more loosely with the idea of bookmaking. If you are clamoring for more about me and bookmaking - hey! who can blame you? It's like a natural high in a way, don't ya think?

Well, here we are!

The Leap Day Book Box

2008-03-25T01:03:00.008+09:00

This handmade box is for The Leap Day Book. It wasn't easy and there are several mistakes. Plus, and this is the sad part, it isn't what I was aiming for. I was aiming for a clamshell-type box. I guess I missed by a country mile. But it looks nice and it holds the book, so I'll take it as successful.

Box Open

Box Closed

The Condition of my First Edition

2008-03-11T19:19:00.009+09:00

Minus Kenny Rogers, I decided to make more than one book - an edition of three!

First, I reformatted an earlier work: The Poetry of Bob Dylan Thomas.

Top edition of three

The cover folds back on itself and the tab is inserted in the back. On the left side are lyrics from Bob Dylan songs and on the right at poems by Dylan Thomas. Hopefully, the two poems have something - however faint - to do with each other. For example, All Along the Watchtower is matched with Ears in the Turrets Hear.

Inside w. flap edition of three

I printed out the revised version, folded it in half and then set about looking for an appropriate binding method. After first looking at all sorts of hardbound books, none of which would fit this rather slim folio (about 30 pages), I settled on a folded-back folded-over cover and, having invested in two large sheets of yellow paper, made the covers yellow.

This is a first in two ways. First it was my first edition (albeit small at three), and my first folded cover. As such I must give myself a C+ but a definite B+ for effort. I learned that the third one is the better attempt: two times to practice, so to speak, and the third one seems to work out all the wrinkles. I folded a fourth cover but I was tired of the procedure, so I really messed it up. Also messed up was the cover. As you see from these photos: I need a cover artist!, that's for sure.

Front edition of three

Also coming up, photos of a book box for the Leap Day Book. A very difficult to put together box but it was my first (and probably last) complicated box.

The Leap Day Book

2008-02-29T22:48:00.000+09:00

A coptic-bound book with wood covers, yellow and white paper, and waxed green hemp thread and eleven signatures of six sheets each (264 pages) was my leap year book. And only one mistake (well, one big mistake.) I missed a loop between signatures. A big mistake. It probably would have looked like 'art' if I had missed one or two loops or missed it in the middle, but this miss was on the bottom edge and looks very much out of place, thank you very much.

It is, however, one of my better efforts: the green hemp thread blends well with the yellow and the alternating yellow/white signatures gives it a bit of flavor. The wood covers are a cheap wood that look much better after varnishing. It is called The Leap Day Book and is dated, naturally, Feb. 29, 2008.

I'm also in the process of making a box for it with a sliding lid. The sliding lid will have a rope handle for pulling and I'm thinking of sewing a rope circle on the front of the book and a rope line or two on the back. The box will be nothing like a clamshell box and more like a, well, I don't know. A chest? A tea box?

Unfocused but you can almost see the yellow and white papers (the yellow is an insert only, not completely yellow.) One sewing station seems to be on the diagonal. Only because the book is standing up right and listing to port. No problem.

While waiting for the varnish to dry I'm designing the cover for my first edition. I put together a book called "Bob Dylan Thomas: The Poetry of Bob Dylan & Dylan Thomas." I have three copies made - all three without a cover and it is this cover I am working on. At only seven pages (28 when folded) it doesn't seem to call for a full wooden-covered-coptic-binding cover. More like a pamphlet but I'd like it to be more than a pamphlet so I'm thinking about it. Fortunately, these will never sell - I don't want to take money from the mouths of Bob and Dylan's heirs. They are destined to be gifts.

Leap Day Book (1)

Photo to the left is another shot of the Leap Day Book. Once I recharge the battery on my camera and learn to focus, I'll post more. Down at the bottom you might just be able to see the missed loop between signatures. I still think it looks a bit like 'art.' An artistic blemish that adds it a bit of character, eh?

Next up: My first edition (sounds like a musical group, eh?)

Yellow Accordion Approximately

2008-02-26T19:27:00.002+09:00

I bought some yellow paper, some thick board, and some white paper. I chopped everything up in approximately the appropritate sizes and made a long accordion book with yellow covers, yellow end papers, and white rectangular spaces upon which I will - or have someone - write some Japanese characters.

Yellow Accordion (bug side)

This book, called creatively enough Yellow Accordion,(which can't be written in yellow as it won't show up) is my first accordion and my first colloboration. I needed someone who could write kanji much better than myself.

Yellow Accordion (closed)

What did I learn? Gluing the pages that attach to the covers should be glued at approximately the same spot on each cover, otherwise one cover will be higher or lower than the other one. On the other hand, my corners are better than when I started making corners. The whole book gets a B- in my book.

Will I be making another accordion soon? I have lots of yellow paper left over and there are about 5,000 more kanji characters in Japanese and 40,000 more in Chinese. But I've promised myself to finish a coptic-bound book with wooden covers by February 29, 2008 and that's only a few short days away. I want to write that date on a finished product.

And after that I want to continue working on and work feverishly on Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. This is from another blog of mine Tedorigawa.blogspot.com - it's about writing, novels and movies. It's also about books I'm working on and Dancing on the Arc of a Dream is one of them. Read about it here. I want to finish it before the end of March, 2008. (Ha, good luck with that, the disembodied voice in my head laughed.)

To answer my own question belatedly, I'll get back to accordion binding really slowly. But I have a few other projects on my plate that I hope to get a good start on, finish, or plan in extreme detail before April.

Yellow Accordion (animal side)

Islamic Bindings

2008-02-20T20:06:00.002+09:00

As you may know, Islamic binding has an extra flap that folds over the front edge and can be used as both a bookmark and to protect the pages when it is attached to the back. Here's a link to a photo of one. I think they look very nice, practical and, when combined with content, very tactile.

French Inoue Islamic

Why am I talking about Islamic bookbindings? Because over the last week I experimented making two books using this style. The first one - cleverly title Islamic One - came out with a lot to be desired but it was a good learning experience. A good solid D with a B+ for effort. After making it, I tore it apart and rebuilt it. The renovated Islamic One rates at least a C. It is 12.5 cm x 16.5 cm and fits quite nicely into my jacket pocket. The cover is off-yellow with a slightly darker button to close with.

The second book, more creatively titled French Inoue Islamic, was made six days later and is a good solid B-. It is the same size as Islamic One but the cover uses the blue, white, and red of the French flag plus a black and white drawing of the Japanese conductor Michiyoshi Inoue. See a pattern to the name? French Inoue Islamic also has a photo of Serb (now living in France) violinist Nemania Radulovic on the opposite side.
Both books are blank and my next project is to put some content in my books, be it haiku scribbled in crayon or printed nicely and of a longer work.

French Inoue Islamic (open w. flap)

The C+ Book.

2008-01-29T02:11:00.000+09:00

Last week I finished the hard-bound blank notebook and it was less of a disaster than I thought it was going to be. A bit loose, of course, where it should have been tight but all-in-all a fairly nice first effort. If I were a teacher I'd give myself a C+ but that doesn't make this book a C++ manual.

I'm sketching out another hard-bound book (these, I've been told, look like 'real' books - in other words, more what people are used to when they think 'book' rather than a coptic-bound book) while staring at a piece of very thin wood that would be perfect for a wood-covered, coptic-bound book. Now all I need is about 168 more free hours in the week.

Also on the horizon - far, far down the path less taken - are pictures and/or PowerPoint-like videos of the books I have bound. That makes sense, don't you think, to have photos of an ART PROJECT! How can you explain an art project without VISUALS! Man, am I lazy. Okay, thanks for joining and I hope you have a safe drive home.

New Book New Disaster

2008-01-02T23:33:00.000+09:00

First new and complete binding in over two months and, of course, I should have expected it, it was a complete disaster from the get-go. First, let me describe the vision of the book I had in my head before reality came crashing in on the party. The cover was wood with a carved exploded box outline in darker wood. Very stylish. That part turned out as expected: good. Only problem: it was on off-size - no normal piece of paper or even a normal piece of paper folded over fits this cover. No problem, I cut.

The coptic binding was to be done in a color that matched the exploded box on the cover. In that I managed to succeed. However, I ran out of thread and my weaver's knot came undone not once but twice, I ripped the paper on the last hole in the last signature and visually the thread is ugly when viewed from the side. And from the front. And from the back.

This binding is doomed to be ripped apart and redone in the near future.

Meanwhile, my first hard-bound book sits waiting for me to finish; actually, it is being pressed and glued as I type. Tomorrow, I will start attaching things where things need to be attached. As a cover, I'm using an old obi belt cloth with a sunburst pattern that I bought at a flea market a few miles from here. As this is my first hard-cover binding, I'm hoping for the best but fearing the worst. Whatever it is, it will be a learning experience.

Bread & Butter or Day Job?

2007-12-29T19:58:00.000+09:00

The last update was November 15 and it's already almost next year. Have I been lax or what? Well, yes and no, as the less-than-honest politicians say. I updated a couple of other sites related to my day job and that took more time than it needed; mostly due to some incompetence on someone's side (mine) but let's not point fingers, eh? Okay.

Bookbinding moves apace but because of my day job and the holidays, I have fallen seriously behind in my goals so, instead of feeling depressed and like a failure, I will move the so-far unattained goals to next year as New Year's Resolutions! Yes, that's the ticket.

This year's unfulfilled goals will become next year's resolutions.

~ my new New Year's Resolution for 2008

And what are those new New Year's Resolutions for 2008? Let's see if I can come up with some wildly unrealistic hopes and then work my rear-end off trying to accomplish some of them. Here goes, subject to editing, my final 2008 New Year's Resolutions:

Work at least an hour everyday on some aspect of bookbinding.

Complete a hard-bound book of my design with wooden covers.

Make a clamshell case.

Design and make a 2009 journal/diary in an edition of about 20.

Which brings me to my final question, perhaps of the year, when did a 'bread and butter job' become a 'day job' and if it's at night, is it still a 'day' job?

Here's to all of you in hopes that you can make your passion your bread and butter job. See you next year.

Inartificial I & E: Inspiration and Exasperation

2007-11-16T10:42:00.000+09:00

See the Book Art group or the Book Arts Project or the Bookbinding group or the Handbound Books group on Flickr. There are some mind-boggling projects here and some excellent bindings. Inspiration abounds in all of these groups and it sadistically reinforces my feeling that there is an insufficient number of minutes in the year to do all that I want to do and still go to work, eat, sleep, and enjoy life. I guess I should eliminate one. Maybe work? Sleeping? Posting on blogs?

The NaNoWriMo Novel blog

2007-11-01T20:17:00.002+09:00

On the right you can see two of my other websites, Calvado and The Priests of Hiroshima. These are both National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) novels. Calvado, an excellent little character study of a medical student and a man involved in gangsters, was written last year. The Priests of Hiroshima, a love story involving Calvado and time travel, is being written this month. This month! I've only got 1000 words and I need 50,000! Yikes! I've got to wash the dishes, clean my keyboard, defang the cat and get to work! Please take a look at both and let me know what you think.

One novel I wrote I'm putting together with coptic binding and wooden covers. It's a detective novel with a nine-foot detective named Calaculiambro after a giant in Don Quixote by Cervantes.

Wooden Glue

2007-10-29T15:20:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I picked up some scrap wood and am thinking about how best to use it as a book cover. It's going to require glue and lots of sanding but I think it'll turn into an interesting cover: lots of character - knots, rough spots, no holes, but almost. Wish me luck. Someday I'm going to post photos of some of the covers.

Scrolls

2007-10-23T22:38:00.000+09:00

While working on my 'real' book i.e. hardbound, I'm planning my next 'book.' In quotes because I think it is going to be a scroll. My original design is an elaborate scroll on a box with drawer inside of which will be a bound copy of the book that is aluded to in the scroll. This is complicated and will require some woodworking, metal working, and printing expertise. So, instead of plunging headfirst into a disaster, I'm going to make a simple (?) scroll about 100 cm long. Not a hanging scroll like you might see on the walls in Chinese restaurants or museums but the Roman Legionnaire Proclaiming All This Land Is Caesar's type of scroll with two rods on each end. In looking up ideas on the web I found two phrases that I really like. In Chinese hanging scrolls the top rod is called the rod of heaven and the bottom rod is called the rod of earth. Heaven above, earth below. Imagine that.

My heaven and earth will be a simple and cheap dowel with a groove cut into it for the backing paper. Upon the backing paper, which at this point I believe will be a darker shade of blue or gray, will be some off-white calligraphy paper. Upon this calligraphy paper will be some profound words; mostly likely the birthdays of people I love. If this first scroll is successful, I will march on to a better grade of wood for heaven and earth and add a stand. If that is beautiful enough, I will extend my reach into my first design. So many ifs, so few heavens and earths.

Coptic Wood and Year-to-Date

2007-10-11T22:24:00.001+09:00

Wooden Cover One (open)

Seeing as how most people start simple with the coptic binding, I did, too. I also usually use wood for my covers (usually, sometimes I use paper, carboard, and once styrofoam - a bit bulky that one). My main aim for this year was to learn coptic binding and to be able to produce three or four good works - meaning, I was satisfied they were up to the best of my ability thus far. Now, in October, I feel I have succeeded.

I have two wood-cover books on my desk and I gave one away (I like to say I released it) to someone who helped me in another project. I also have a cloth-bound book using Japanese stab-binding, and three paper-bound notebooks using either coptic binding or Japanese binding. Seven books completed and one in progress: a hard-bound notebook - my first attempt at making what some people call a 'real' book. I call that a pretty good year for someone with a day job. Now I have to think about next year.

Wooden Cover One (front)

Printing? No! No! No! Don't get me involved in Printing! I'll never get out!

Coptic

2007-10-10T11:47:00.000+09:00

The first book I ever bound was badly put together using duct tape and staples. Using an inkjet printer I managed a few photos of the subject and, of course, it bled through to the other side of the paper so it was useless to write on both sides. This experience led me to a few books on the subject of bookbinding and to coptic bindings. I love the way a coptic-bound book opens almost 360 degrees. Useful for artists, writers, and doodlers like myself. I have bound a few books using the coptic stitching and am getting better at it.
I'm avoiding using skin with my books. I'm using paper, wood, and beeswax but no leather or vellum. I'm hoping my wooden book covers get better as my woodcarving and sanding get better.