Accordion Books Part 1

This past week, I have been dedicated to mastering the Accordion book form. The accordion book is one of the first book structures taught in bookbinding class. The premise of the book is relatively simple--you fold some pages, cover your front and back cover, and then you glue the text block (the folded sheets) in place and you are done. While that might sound simple in theory, it is deceptively difficult to execute with precision.

The first problem (and one that I will illustrate later) is pyramiding your pages. The perfect accordion book has pages that lie exactly on top of each other. You have to fold with precision in order to make this happen. Most times, one page will jut out past the other pages which will spoil the look of the book.

I had a special order from a customer that wanted me to make her an accordion book and to use vintage fabric for the book cloth. In order to get the mechanics right, I made some prototypes because I didn't want to ruin or waste her fabric.

Here is a book where I used a fabric from a baby shower as a book cloth. While I love the fabric, there were a few problems that I had to work out. The customer wants ties on the front and back of the book. This option allows you to open the accordion book like a regular book (if you keep the back tied together). In the sample below, the ties are too short and I forgot to cut the grosgrain ribbon at an angle (thereby allowing it to fray).

Below is the second problem that I had. The photo shows the inside covers of the book and the ribbon is leaving a large indentation in the cover. What I also realized is the ribbon wasn't too short--it simple didn't need to be placed so far into the covers.

Having noticed my mistakes, I decided to try and make another prototype before tackling my commissioned book. This time, I used a separate piece of fabric from the same lot. Also, I wanted to try a different closure. This closure would have the ribbon exit the back (spine) of the book and would come forward to tie on the front (fore edge).

This solved several issues that I had with the first prototype and would help me with a book that I would make for my Iron Craft project this week. I also solved the problem with the indentation of the ribbon as shown below.

While this is a bad picture because of the lighting, you can barely see in the middle crease where the ribbon is fixed to the book. This time, I cut a more shallow groove for the ribbon and then I filled in the indentation with a piece of scrap paper. I then used a waste sheet as filler so the the turn-ins wouldn't be as prominent.

Tomorrow, I will share with you my commissioned project.

P10K:Day 24

The week has been plagued with a struggle between my new freedom and my pursuit of artistic endeavors. The show that was playing at my theater closed and now I have my evening free. Granted, I should be rushing home after my day job and dedicating myself to my art. Unfortunately, like a starved man visiting a free buffet, I have been enjoying my evenings while they last--especially since the evening weather in NYC has been glorious.

As I look at my hours of productivity, I notice that I dedicate my weekends almost exclusively to my art so all is not lost. This week has been dedicated to making prototypes for some sales that are due this week in my etsy store.

Monday
Blogging (1 hr)

Tuesday
Blogging (2 hrs)
Small Accordion Book--Iron Craft (4 hrs)

Wednesday
Blogging (2 hrs)
Ribbon Paddles (4 hrs)

Thursday
Accordion Books (3 hrs)

Friday
Blogging (2 hrs)
Accordion Books (2 hrs)

Saturday
Accordion Books (4 hrs)
Cleaned Studio (2 hrs)
Bowling Book (2 hrs)

Sunday
Fun Fur Book (2 hrs)
Cleaned Studio (1 hr)
Handmade Book Cloth (1 hr)

Week ending total 32 hrs
Cumulative total 93 hrs

Craft Hint

Today, I had an epiphany. I was tired. My circadian rhythms are off and I am getting to bed early and rising even earlier. It was 5:00 AM and I woke up and wanted to organize my container of ribbon. Ribbon had been on my mind because I had to stop off at M&J trim to get me some 1/4" ribbon for a accordion book project that has been vexing me. I will share that project with you on Friday. Because I ordered so much ribbon, this was what I was given.

Yes--an absolute mess. Now granted, this is only part of the mess because it didn't dawn on me to take a picture before I started the organizing. Anyway, I knew that there had to be a better way to organize the ribbon than to leave it loose like this. I decided to make some ribbon paddles out of scrap book board that I had been saving. I usually save all of the off cuts of paper and book board until they are absolutely too small to use for anything else. Here is a photo of my trash bin filled with the book board off cuts.

There was no precision to the project. I simply started cutting pieces of book board in 2.5" by 5.5" sizes. I was planning on storing the ribbon in some small snack size ziploc bags that I had in the kitchen. When I was learning about portion control for my diabetes, I had to portion out snacks into these snack size bags. Of course, me being one to go overboard, I bought boxes of these bags to use only to find out that I only needed them for about one month. So, I now had another purpose for these bags.

I wrapped the ribbon around the paddle (btw, it is easier to turn the paddle rather than wrap the ribbon around the paddle), placed it into its little bag and then moved on. The final result--

The beauty of this project is that all of your ribbon remains wrinkle free, easy to handle and lies flat in the container. I am now wrapping all of my ribbon like this. This will reduce the space taken up by spools of ribbon which is a big waste of space.

Iron Craft 37

This week on Iron Craft, we were challenged to create something small. At first, I had a little trouble deciding what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to work in a book format, but I was fighting with time constraints. Also, I knew that I wanted to work with scraps so the size was going to be determined by what I had left over.

Since I have recently been working on some accordion books (a later post this week), I decided to do a miniature accordion book. I had a strip of paper that was already cut and folded in half so all I needed to do was fold the accordion pages. The pages ended up being 3.75" wide by 2.5" tall. Once the boards were cut, I covered them with a Japanese washi paper in a chrysanthemum paper.

Not satisfied with a plain white page accordion book, I decided to decorate the pages before pasting them to the covers. Since I am starting to work on my Valentine's cards, I decided to make this a Valentine book--a small book to place one's love devotions. I punched hearts in different locations on the white page using two different punches. I then cut and punched different red color card stock and pasted them to the back side of the white pages.

So the white pages have red hearts.


And the red pages have white hearts.

Overall, I am very pleased with how these turned out.

P10K:Day 17

This was a busy week because the show that was performing at my theater was in its final performance so there was so much work to do that I didn't have time to post everything this week that I wanted to do. There simply wasn't enough time in the day. The upside to the show closing is that I will have my nights off for the next couple for about 2 months which will give me lots more time to be creative and to fill up my etsy store for the holidays.

Tuesday
Accordion Book Project (1 hr)
Book Review (1 hr)

Wednesday
Book Review (1hr)
Blogging (1hr)

Thursday
According Book Redux (2 hr)

Friday
Blogging (1hr)

Saturday
Blogging (1 hr)
Etsy store listings (1hr)

Sunday
Blogging (2 hrs)

Week Total = 13 hours
Cumulative Total = 61 hours

Pamphlet Book

I always have stacks of paper in some form of undress waiting to be used. Sometimes, I have paper in the press waiting to be sewn into a text block. Sometimes, I have paper that is already folded and pressed waiting to be used for last minute emergency gifts.

I fell in love with this paper during one of my visits to NY Central Art Supply. The paper is a 100 percent rag paper (A5 size, 150 gsm) from South India and is sold by Khadi Papers. I love the tactile quality of the paper and the paper is good for watercolor, painting and all drawing media. Unfortunately, the paper isn't suitable for journal writing but would be a great paper for art journaling.

Using the basics of the 10 minute journal illustrated in Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker, I adapted the project to fit the materials I had at hand (after the miserable failure mentioned earlier this week). I folded the pages in half and was about to sew then together when I realized that I didn't like that the first page would be the front cover of the book. Carriker sews a button on the first page to help keep the book closed. Instead, I decided to add a piece of card stock to add some stability to the book and to act as a cover. I then decided to use a decorative piece of paper as a wrapper to give it a more polished finish. I would then sew all layers together using a pamphlet stitch and use the extra binding thread as a closure for the book.



(l) the book as sewn through all layers
(r)the grey card stock cover and the paper wrapper

Another aspect about the original project is that I didn't want the mechanics of the closure to show. Therefore, I sewed the button through the decorative paper and the card stock cover. I then glued down the wrap around front flap of the decorative paper to cover the sewing and to give a polished look to the journal. Also, after using the extra thread from the pamphlet stitch, I decided to tie a fob at the end of the thread to act an a weight and a finishing touch to the loose thread. The thread is long enough to be used as a bookmark when the book is in use.


(l) you can see the sewing on the spine of the book
(r) the extra thread from the spine is used as a closure around the button

Review:Art at the Speed of Life

As I have mentioned earlier, I have been reading Art at the Speed of Life by Pam Carriker. The tag line of the book is "motivation+ inspiration for making mixed-media art every day." While I enjoyed viewing the book, there were a few minor criticisms that I wanted to share with you.

One of my biggest pet peeves with DIY books is that they don't give you enough information to complete a project. A second pet peeve is when they give you step by step instructions on how to replicate the exact project that is in the book. I would rather they provide me/show me detailed instructions on how to use the technique so I can create a project on my own.

The first problem above is inexcusable. Leaving out simple details becomes disastrous and, often times, discouraging. For example, on pages 24 and 25, the author illustrates how to make a "ten minute journal" which will be the basis of some of the projects presented in the book. The author provides the reader with a materials list including "one sheet of watercolor paper, 22 in by 30 in." Basically it is a pamphlet booklet which is no problem. The problem is that the author does not list a paper weight with which to start.

Here was my first attempt. After folding the page as instructed, there was no way that I would be able to use my bone folder to rip the folded pages to create the signatures. Even if I wet the pages (as instructed), I don't think that the booklet would be able to close. I used 140lb Arches cold pressed watercolor paper (definitely too heavy of a paper).

Clearly frustrated, I went to the other extreme and used a 70lb text weight page so I could see if the structure would work. The author tells you to rip the folded pages with your bone folder to make a deckled edge. The biggest problem here is that not all of your pages will be deckled unless you start with a deckled edge paper at the beginning (which most watercolor paper isn't). Granted, most people wouldn't mind but the point of having a deckled edge is for aesthetic purposes--so why would someone want some pages deckled and some not.

Of course, the problem here is that the paper would not hold up to many wet medium and the pages would need a card stock cover to add some heft to the project.

The biggest strength of the book is the motivational factor that the author provides to those busy people who want to create art in a limited time frame. The invited essays from real mixed media artists provide motivation on making art, making art while busy, making art on a budget and the challenges/pitfalls/traps new artists encounter. If the author had simply made a collection of these types of essays then the book would have been much more informative to me.

P10K: Day 11

Today was a little slow because I was feeling a little bit under the weather and it was also Labor Day. Since the had the morning off from my day job, I had hope to log in some serious hours but I just couldn't get motivated to get out of bed.

I listed some items in my etsy store (1 hr) and I continued to blog (1 hr).

Custom Orders

Someone asked me to share with you the books that were custom ordered for this week. Originally, I had called them the "Nieces" books because they were going to be a gift for one of my co-worker's nieces.

The brief was for two blank, medium, unlined journals. The younger niece likes owls and the colors blue and green. The older niece likes the color purple and is the more mature of the two girls and likes to write and draw.

For the owl book, I cut out an owl face stencil design out of card stock. Because it was a stencil, I had the choice of using the pieces (the positive) to use as an embossed image or the stencil (the negative) as a debossed image. I decided to use the pieces. I cut out four faces and mounted them to the cover board. The book cloth is a beautiful teal velvet paper. The end sheets are hand marbled paper from one of my favorite artists--Rhoda Miller.

Left: Owl Book(l) and Iris Book (r)

Right: Hand Marbled end sheets by Rhonda Miller

Iris Book featuring Hand Marbled Paper by Rhonda Miller

The Iris book is one of my 3/4 bound books. In other words, the book cloth covers the entire back cover and 1/4 of the front cover. The remaining 3/4 of the front cover is a decorative paper. It always frustrates me to have to turn a book over when I accidentally open the back of the book. Without a label on the front, many times it is hard to tell which is the front or the back. This is my solution to the dilemma--the decorative paper is always the front of the book.

Note to Rhonda--You see, I really do use your papers and don't just hoard them.

Iron Craft 23

This week were required to do a craft based on maps. Since my friends were coming for their annual Yankees game outing, I decided to draw them a map for the area so they could have something to do while I was at work.

P10K: Day Ten

I am glad to say that I had a wonderful Sunday. I was supposed to go out for some commitments but I decided to be a little selfish and nourish my soul by making some books. Considering that I had a self imposed deadline, I was working toward a goal.

I finished the special order books that I will share with you tomorrow.

Finished Owl book (2 hrs)
Finished Iris book (1.5 hrs)
Blogging and Etsy Posting (2.5 hrs).

Week Ending total = 32 hrs
Cumulative total = 48 hours (only 9,952 more hours).

Iron Craft 22

This week's challege was to design something associated with al fresco/picnic dining. One of my friends has a daughter who is infatuated with bugs. I designed this cutout paper poster for her birthday.

Iron Craft 21

This week's challenge was to create something based on our cultural heritage. I decided to do Papel Picado which is famous in Mexico. I remember my grandmother cutting these out for special occasions like weddings and birthdays. These are paper banners that usually feature a recurring pattern. They are hung from a string and then draped across the room.

P10K: Day Nine

It was a glorious day in NYC and I was torn between going outside and enjoying the weather and making books. Happily for me, I was able to make some books. I am still working on the custom order for the niece books which are due on Monday (Labor Day).

I was able to make a prototype and was glad that I did because I make a couple of errors in execution. The nice aspect of it all is that I know have an example of an embossed book which also represents a sample of my large blank journal book--so all is not lost.

Owl Book Design (1 hr)
Owl Book Manufacturing (2 hrs)
Blogging (2 hrs)

Iron Craft 20

This week's challenge was to create something using our old T-shirts. I decided to so a freezer paper stencil that some of the crafters had already done. I cut each of the stencils out of the freezer paper and then used my new fabric air brush machine.

Iron Craft 18

This week's challenge was to created something based on flowers. I decided to do this cut paper cards. The entire series is called Garden Party. The backgrounds are tissue paper, colored vellum, plain vellum and printed vellum.

P10K: Day Eight

Today was the Friday before Labor Day and I took off from my day job and had full intentions of creating art until I had to go to the theater. Unfortunately, life threw me a curve ball and I had to spend the morning running around the Bronx trying to take care of some business. Needless to say, I didn't do as many hours as I would have liked on P10K but I was able to log in some hours.

Planning/Designing Niece Books (1 hr)
Blogging (1 hr)
Reading Art at the Speed of Life (2 hrs).

Iron Craft Seventeen

This week's challenge was dedicated to Kate and William's wedding. This is a wedding album that I created for one of my friends. The colors of the decorative paper matched the colors of the wedding and the ginko leaf was a design element on their invitations.

Iron Craft Sixteen

This week's challenge was dedicated to money. I decided to use yen coin for a fashener for one of my decorative boxes. This is a simply dropped spine box that is covered in a green, sun-dyed fern pattern. The tray is covered in a moss colored suede paper and the bottom is lined with the same fern paper.

The closure is a yen coin that his been wrapped with a gold organdy ribbon that is glued under the lid of the box. The corresponding loop is glued under the tray.

P10K: Day Seven

I really think that it is humorous at times when people assume that you can drop everything and make a book. Sure, store bought books are easy to handle in that you simply go to the store, find something that you think that you will like, and then pay for it. You start doing whatever you bought the book for and then realize that it isn't exactly what you had hoped for. If you are like me, you go and look at a different store for the right journal.

When people ask me to make them a book, Ifind it funny that they expect that everything is ready for me to simply complete their order. An acquaintance of mine asked me to make a pair of books for his nieces that have birthdays next week. He was surprised when I said that I might not be able to make them on such short notice. I told him that I would have to cut and fold paper for the signatures (sections), press them, sew them, glue them, press them again, and then case them in. "Really? That's how you make a book?" he said. All I could say was "Yep. That's how I make books."

Cut paper (1 hour)
Folded paper (1 hour)
Stitched Pamphlets for charity (1 hour)
Blogged (1 hour)