Category Archives: Tutorials

Apr 01 2 comments
Experiments and Prototypes, In Production, Tutorials

On The Russian Front

OK, here’s my plan: two volumes the same size, the first a pamphlet and the second a fold-out map, cased together. Sort of a solander box, with one wing opening left and the other upwards.

Box Sketch

Box Sketch

My first binding attempts for the volumes:

First Attempts

First Attempts

Flaming Endpapers

Flaming Endpapers

Made-Up Pamphlet Stitch

Made-Up Pamphlet Stitch

I have this great paper that looks like bookcloth (but doesn’t stain with glue) and is super cheap. The pamphlet is only twelve pages, (and I still find at least two typos every time I re-read it. Did you French readers catch the ones on the titles?) so I made up a pamphlet stitch for the center fold. I tried it first in greenish-gold with a flame-like paper for the endpapers (to symbolize the flames of burning Moscow surrounded by the primeval forests of Russia or some such thing). But the fact is, red and green mean Christmas whatever the context. So for the next try I switched to a dark blue with the brown on yellow fleur-de-lys paper I use for a lot of things.

Second Try

Second Try

Here’s how the map works:

Unfolded Map

Unfolded Map

Completely Unfolded Map

Completely Unfolded Map

Front of Map

Front of Map

First Box Attempt

First Box Attempt

Constructing the box was pretty straightforward, but trying to cover it with an unbroken piece of paper was a mess. I had to cover certain key corners before I covered the whole thing.

Second Try, Box

Second Try, Box

Second Box

Second Box

Box and Contents

Box and Contents

I’m still unsatisfied. The volumes look good, but the box’s fit and finish need big improvement. The whole construction is kind of rickety. I’m trying for a neat, sober, rich, scholarly look, both to honor the book’s subject and to impress my serious book collector friends. I’ll never be reviewed in Fine Books Magazine with books about giant galactic lizards and radiolaria hats.

 

PS Are you having trouble commenting on this site? If so, give me a heads-up at pat@bopressminiaturebooks.com or on the Bo Press Facebook page.

 

Sep 17 2 comments
Experiments and Prototypes, In Production, Tutorials

Terra Luna Celesta Glamor Shots

I’m finished!

Front

Front

Globes

Globes

Drawers

Drawers

Maps

Maps

Top

Top

I’m off to put it on eBay and Etsy. But wait, there’s more! I’m trying out the Momoyama hinges on some illustration board:

Torn Hinge Paper

Torn Hinge Paper

Making Hinges

Making Hinges

Screen Inside

Screen Inside

Screen Outside

Screen Outside

I don’t know why I should be so amazed, but it works!

Sep 16 1 comments
Experiments and Prototypes, Tutorials

What’ll They Think of Next?

…as Sam Goldwyn reportedly said when shown his first sundial. I feel the same way about this hinge:

Up

Up

Down

Down

I can’t tell you how my brain exploded when I first made this. Remember when you saw your first Mobius strip?

A friend of mine was telling me about some miniature Japanese screens he had, and I was inspired to make some. I had asked how they were hinged, and he said,” They’re not. They just fold.”

It’s called the Momoyama hinge, and it can rotate 360 degrees. From Aaron Studios, who repair and restore antique Japanese folding screens (byobu)

“…the great Momoyama invention, paper hinges. Hinge paper, a thick and very strong handmade paper, is cut and laid down in alernating sections. Each hinge on the face of one panel is wrapped to the back of the next panel. When the panels are folded together another layer of lighter paper covers the whole edge. This invention allows there to be a single flat surface for the artist to work on as each panel of the screen is held tightly against the other.”

I found a tutorial that I’ll study later, but I can already see a few miniature Japanese folding screens in my future. And I can see all sorts of new applications for this hinge in boxes and books. It reminds me a little of a Jacob’s Ladder. I made one of these once, and it nearly caused a brain meltdown.

Aug 01 1 comments
Experiments and Prototypes, In Production, Tutorials

Box Full of Moon

I started to make a little lunar pocket globe, hoping the new shagreen would fit into it somehow, but green didn’t really seem to ‘go’. And then I had a notion. I’d just published MEMORIES OF THE MOON – why not combine them?

New Moon

New Moon

Special Binding for 'MEMORIES'

Special Binding for 'MEMORIES'

Trying to match the long flat shape of the book with the cubic shape of the pocket globe demanded something to blend the two. Since I had the lunar globe and the specially bound copy of MEMORIES, I decided to add a couple of lunar maps bound in the same white kid I’d used on MEMORIES’ spine.

Bound Maps

Bound Maps

Book, Box, and Moon

Book, Box, and Moon

For binding the box, I used a beautiful navy and light blue marbled paper Rebecca gave me. I’d used this as a line of trim on the MEMORIES binding between the white kid and the metallic navy paper on the boards, and as the endpapers for all three volumes. I had originally planned to do a flat top, but after I made a stand for the globe out of a piece of plastic tubing,  the globe sat too high. So I made a domed roof out of a section of paper towel roll.

The Box Takes Shape

The Box Takes Shape

Finished Top

Finished Top

My creativity seems to be improvisational, and driven mainly by screw-ups. I had no idea what this would end up looking like when I started. I’d cut the cardboard tubing too short, so I split it down the middle, covered one half with the marbled paper, then with a layer of the metallic navy paper,and glued it underneath the other half for the completed lid.

It would have been a shame not to have some kind of window into the pocket globe. In fact the whole structure was starting to look like a tiny armoire. I had some plastic watch crystals, so I used one to make a little oval window to echo the curve of the lid.

The Window

The Window

And there it sits, for now. I don’t know if I’ll hinge the door at the side or on the bottom, but the dome will hinge at the back. When I cut the oval into the door, I covered the cutout piece with the metallic navy paper, and I’ve ordered a moonstone cabochon to nest in it, and I’ll glue that to the flat portion of the top, to repeat the oval shape of the window.

Today was a marathon, but a welcome break from the day before, when my husband and I moved all the furniture in our living and dining room around. Sitting in one place for ten hours straight was exactly what I wanted to do. Ow.

Jul 27 0 comments
Tutorials, Uncategorized

a guide to pronunciation

That’s

meta

meta

meth

meth

oxy

oxy

para

para

hy

hy

droxy

droxy

ben

ben

zalda

zalda

hyde

hyde

Jul 06 0 comments
Experiments and Prototypes, In Production, Tutorials

book book

Here’s my latest notion: a completely self-referential book. I’m making a model book, in which each section – Title, Preface, Chapter, Index – will embody what it indicates.

Book Book Front

Book Book Front

Publishing LYSISTRATA brought this on. I’m a self-taught bookbinder and there’s only so much expertise instructional books and websites can give. When I was learning to make miniature books, I concentrated on teaching my hands first and my brain second, so when terms like gully, hinge and joint came up, I had to bluff.  LYSISTRATA taught me a lot, and I thought I would learn even more by making myself a model book and finally learning some of these terms.

Book Book Front Endpapers

Book Book Front Endpapers

This is the first white model. I tried to include every part of a book I could think of, both content and container. The content parts of a book go on forever, though not every book has all of them. In the front matter alone there’s:

Frontispiece

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Epigraph

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations (different from a List of Plates, I find out, because illustrations are printed and bound with the book, but plates are printed separately and tipped in later. Who knew?)

Foreword (not forward)

Preface

Introduction

and Prologue

All this before you get to the meat.

Frontispiece and Title Page

Frontispiece and Title Page

The working parts of the book are a bit more familiar. I’ve left the back of the book open during binding to be able to see the construction:

Book Book Cutaway

Book Book Cutaway

…and included all sorts of add-ons like:

Bookplate

Binder’s Ticket

Pocket (containing a bookmark labeled ‘bookmark’)

A Fold-Out (showing the relative sizes of books, from double elephant folio to 64mo)

A Tipped-In Plate

A Laid-In List (of all the add-ons, including itself)

Anything Not Bound In

Anything Not Bound In

The fun part of designing this was working everything I could think of onto one book. I’ve indicated half-binding on the front cover and quarter-binding on the back, and two different kinds of corner on the front pastedown. I made this book as a white model, and I think I’ll keep it like this. When I was laying out the paper binding for the case, it struck me that the solid and dotted lines made it look a lot like a commercial dress pattern, so I might get paper of that mottled yellowish-tan color and use a similar typeface.

Book Book Exterior

Book Book Exterior

And a dust jacket and a slipcase and a belly band and on and on and on…

Anything Not Bound In

Anything Not Bound In

I’ve sent my first and second mock-ups to my friend Rebecca, so she can proof them for ignorance and suggest even more obscure additions. She’s forgotten more about miniature books and books in general than I will ever know, so I’m grateful for her generosity and very knowledgeable help.

I don’t know if there might be a market for something like this, but I’ll put it out there anyway. Maybe people would like a copy of the printed sheets to try and put together their own book book?

Jul 03 0 comments
In Production, Other People's Art, Tutorials

Making my own tools

There’s not a lot of necessity for expensive equipment in the miniature bookbinding game. I just glanced over at my work table, and on the right side of the cutting mat are the tools I use 90% of the time:

8″ dressmaker’s shears

#2 pencil

bone folder

small hammer

single-edged razor blade

xacto knife

a small glass of water with a brush in it

a damp sponge

a 6″ transparent plastic ruler

a  6″ cork-backed metal ruler

a spool of cotton/poly buttonhole thread and a #8 embroidery needle

a pin vise

Heaven knows I’ve managed to fill up my workroom with other tools, devices, paper, fabric, notions, board, books, jewelery findings, wood, lace, ribbon and tape, plastic and paper bags, paper cutters, miter boxes, pencil sharpeners and eight different kinds of glue. But till now, I’d managed to work around the most basic of bookbinding tools: a punching cradle and a book press.

Randy Arnold makes a beautiful miniature punching cradle:

Arnold miniature punching cradle

Arnold miniature punching cradle

as well as other glorious  handmade bookbinding tools, but I’m too cheap to buy them. So I spent today making some tools for myself.

punching cradle

punching cradle

punching cradle

punching cradle

punching cradle upside down

punching cradle upside down

Bookbinders use several kinds of devices to hold their book steady during forwarding: lying presses, finishing presses, press boards, backing boards, book presses…  All with distinct and specialized uses.

Uram Miniature Lying Press

Uram Miniature Lying Press

Keith Uram makes the most beautiful miniature lying press in all the world.

Temper Finishing Press

Temper Finishing Press

And Temper Productions makes very sleek and easy to use finishing presses.

When I started, I cut a couple of pieces of birch plywood about 3″ square, beveled one pair of edges, and glued a thin strip of wood to the other to make an all-purpose pressing device. Today I made two more of these:

Boards

Boards

I use them at the beveled end for gluing and rounding:

Beveled Edges

Beveled Edges

…and at the beaded end for marking the joints:

Beaded Edges

Beaded Edges

An afternoon well spent, I think.

PS  I’ve just heard that a copy of the deluxe edition of LYSISTRATA has landed in the University of Delaware library. Yow! As a friend of mine says,”Keep this up and someday you’ll have your own Wikipedia page!”.

May 21 0 comments
In Production, Tutorials

Making the moon

…And here’s how the lunar globe was made:

Printed Globe Gores

Printed Globe Gores

I cut out the white spaces with embroidery scissors, then lay it flat on the table, right side down, and run a thin line of glue down the equator. Then I put atoothpick through the hole in the bead and use it as an axle as I roll the bead down the glue line, eyeballing the centerline.

Rolling the Bead Down the Equator

Rolling the Bead Down the Equator

From the Other Side

From the Other Side

…making sure the equator lines up. Then I remove the toothpick and spread the gore tips apart a bit, and brush some glue onto the top of the bead.

Glueing the Gore Points

Glueing the Gore Points

And carefully press the gore points upwards, rolling the bead in my fingers.

Closing the Gore Points

Closing the Gore Points

Then I polish the globe smooth by rubbing it on a piece of waxed paper, then burnishing it on a bone folder:

Polishing the Globe

Polishing the Globe

Occasionally I glue a tiny bead at each pole, for decoration and to hide any messiness at the meeting point. And here’s the finished box:

The Moon Box

The Finished Moon Box