Bookbinding Not much in the way of bookbinding this week, but I have an excuse: heat and laziness on my part. I did, however, purchase several tenugui that I will eventually turn into book covers. The latest (and second overall) book cloth I made came out very wrinkled. I attempted to iron it flat but I should've ironed it flat Before I added copious amounts of glue and backing (shoji paper, in my case.) Fiction Fiction‽ What can I say about fiction? I’ll tell you what I can say about Fiction! Creation and Forgetfulness. First, the Creation part. I started writing two novels simultaneously. On ..read more

Bookbinding We (meaning I, i.e. the royal We), made an A6-sized (pocket book) Coptic-bound, blank notebook with seven signatures of four folios for about 112 pages. Pages are numbered for easy reference. Unremarkable really as I’ve made a few of these bunkobon (文庫本) books in the past. So, what makes this edition warrant special mention? First, 文庫本 is an A6 size book equivalent to what Americans refer to as a pocket book (but not a pocketbook which is an accessory for holding cash and credit cards). A pocket book measures about 4.25" x 6.87" whereas a 文庫本 measures 4.1"×5.8" The remarkable part ..read more

Bookbinding We finished the renovation of a client’s well-used travel book. It got a new map, a new cover, and new endpapers. The client also requested a blank notebook so I sent two blank notebooks. Knowing that one book was going to an artist, I sent a coptic-bound book because coptic-bound books open flat and are much more useful for drawing and sketching than case-bound books. Case-bound books are your usual hardcover books. Secondly, I finished a creative outlet book that had two purposes. One, to see if I could make a book in one day. Two, to see if I could use up some scraps of paper an ..read more

Bookbinding We found ourselves finishing up two blank notebooks this week. One yellow and one mostly red with a slightly floral motif.  The Yellow One has a title on the front cover: Dibujo & Kaku (the Kaku being, in Japanese, 描く. Both carrying the meaning of Draw or Drawing. On the inside title page of the yellow one is a sketch of the front of a steam train, an umbrella, a cloud, and rain. The word Train is over the umbrella. T/Rain was the idea.  There are 105 numbered pages in Dibujo/描く. Each page has one part of the sketch on the inside title page: the train, rain drops, the ..read more

Bookbinding A client sent me a book that needed to be rebuilt, repaired, and improved. I need to fix the covers, the spine, and a map is glued to the back cover. Because I have to fix the covers I was thinking of updating the map, too. This is an exciting proposition because I have to investigate maps! Also, the client wants a soft cover so he can cram it in his book bag without fear.  Fiction I finished Molly Bright! I have included sub-plots concerning Molly (trouble with her boss), Merengue & Early (who want to help homeless orphans) and the marital problems of Keiko of Kyosuke. I ..read more

Bookbinding In my New Year’s Resolution (NYsR©) to podcast more frequently, I require more content. This is good for you the listener/readers. Thank you. For this episode, I made two A6 blank notebooks which you can use for sketching or doodling during Zoom meetings or, and more importantly, taking notes during real face-to-face meetings with other real flesh-and-blood humans. The first notebook is 112 pages in 7 signatures. It also has page numbers for ease of referencing and finding your masterpieces. The name of this book is Sketchbook in both Japanese – スケッチブック–, and Spanish – Cuaderno de ..read more

Bookbinding In mid-December a client made a request for a 2024 schedule to be ready soon. By soon, I think they meant before January 2024, which, as you know, zoomed by quite quickly. I told them that was impossible because I was taking a short break for New Year’s and subsequent joys and regrets about failed New Year’s Resolutions. However, I finished it and shipped it off. The client was disappointed that it came so late but not with the final product itself. I warned them it would be late. I guess the lesson here is I shouldn’t take orders for schedules so late in the year. Each schedule I ..read more

Bookbinding   The second book of 2024 (maybe I’ll stop numbering them. Maybe.) is a 2024 Schedule delivered to the client halfway through January of 2024; a bit late. But not as late as the next one. It’s an A4-sized schedule perfectly bound (a style that uses a lot of glue, not that I bound it perfectly) of 16 pages (two for each month and some endpapers). The cover is of a textured paper I acquired years ago plus two parallel red lines of the same type of paper indicating the front. The client then attached their favorite stamps on the front. The back is decoration-free. The client comp ..read more

Bookmaking The first book of the year 2024 is a B6-sized coptic-bound 100-page blank notebook with a nice endpaper, red paper cover, and a cup of cocoa which I thought was coffee, but it came off of a bag of cookies from Miyazaki (Miyazac). I can’t believe I started it last year. It’s been sitting on my workbench for at least two months. I finally finished it as part of my New Year’s Resolution(s)tm Speaking of NYR(s)tm, one of them is to read more real books. I’m currently plowing through Joyce’s Ulysses (again; I read it in college, too.) and Marcel Proust’s Within a Budding Grove (Book two ..read more

Bookbinding I discovered cardboard. Not originally, but in my stack of leftovers and the myriad boxes that my local grocery store piles up after receiving shipments of everything from drinks to bananas. More importantly, I’ve started to use them in my bookbinding. Yea! Free supplies! Last month I made two French link stitch blank notebooks wherein I used cardboard strips to strength the covers. The covers are usually paper folded over to match the size of the book. Flexible but not suitable for what I want to do with the books: write on them while sitting with them on my lap. This month I made ..read more