A Book Swap

I've been meaning to tell you about my friend Jacek Tylkowski and a very interesting project we are doing together. We actually know each other from the internet, but I tell you, he's one of the finest bookbinders out there whom I had the pleasure to meet. Imagine my surprise and excitement when he proposed me a book swap. We get to choose any book we want from our own country and turn it into a one of a kind binding which we then exchange between us. So we are on for January 15, when the book must be done and ready to meet with the other!

As you see, Jacek is already ahead of me - the developments are on his blog.

For now I only can show a little preview of what I chose for him - a book about books seemed somehow appropriate :)

More soon to come!
  

To My Bookbinding Friends

I just stumbled upon this video and I loved it, so I thought you might like to see it too. I couldn't embed it but there's a link to it at youtube. Oh, how nice is the art of bookbinding!

 

The craft of bookbinding

I’m still at a point in my bookbinding work where I’m tackling new ideas and techniques. I delve into research of tools and materials that I can use, re-use, adapt or improvise. When I find myself getting too far away from the traditional I take a break, so I can jump back to the basics the next day. That’s how I’ve always functioned, I can’t do something for too long, so from time to time I must allow myself the time to miss it. 

            Hanns Landawer, bookbinder, 1532           Nicasius Florer, bookbinder, 1614

The other day I happened to find these great images that filled me with respect for the old times. They are reproductions from a project of Nürnberger City Library that edited and digitized the craftsmen illustrations from 15th-19th century house books of the Nürnberger Zwölfbrüderstiftungen. The website of the project has a huge database with over one thousand images of all master craftsmen at that time (some of which obsolete but very interesting, Bell ringer, Bird-catcher, Runner, etc). It’s so nice to see these portraits made in great detail, sometimes naively represented at work or with their occupation tools, accompanied by descriptions that reveals lovely details. The website is in German but a list in English of all occupations (and of tools, materials, products and even diseases!) can be found here if you want to check how your profession looks like.
  

Sewing on cord

There are a few aspects in bookbinding that I love most. For example, sewing the book block is one of my favorite parts. It can be done in many different ways but it looks really beautiful no matter the technique. Unfortunately most of the time the sewing is hidden by the spine and remains unknown to those who are using the books. I feel it's time for me to try something new, something different in bookbinding, and I feel it has to be related to the technique itself, which I love so much and would like to expose.

This weekend I made a first attempt to sew on cords. I don't have a proper sewing frame and I worked on one improvised but now that I know how it works, I'll try to build a better one later this week.