Book Binding with Dea Fischer

Book binding in a traditional sense but with the intention of making art books. We were most concerned with form, not embellishment or decorating. Dea worked very hard to make this workshop (renamed by her daughter, Millie, a 'playshop') exciting, informative and productive.


Day one, Saturday, November 13th, we made a Piano Hinge Book (off white). It employed six skewers which had to be woven into the 'signatures' (clusters of folded pages). It was almost the undoing of me. But I am a persistent, stubborn sort and wouldn't give up. I missed lunch to finish that one. Next up was the Concertina Flag Book (red). I really enjoyed working with so many pretty papers in building this one! I worked furiously, forgetting to the bathroom in order to not have 'homework'!

On day two we made a Japanese Stab Bind Book (green print). This involved hand stitching the pages together along the spine and was the simplest of all to make. The final project was a Hideaway Cased Journal (orange). It was the most complex. Dea taught us the 'kettle stitch' and we hand sewed the 'signatures' together, with proper book binding, linen thread. And then, there was all that tricky and you-gotta-be-fast at gluing!


My personal favourite; the Concertina Flag Book open ...

I had a wonderful weekend of learning and I just know my new skills will be put to good use somewhere in my future.