Seed Book

After making curtains the other week, I had some leftover fabric. It has such a great pattern that I couldn't let it go to waste. So, I did what I do with scraps...I made a book!

I made the accordion pages out of Kraft paper. I measured them to be taller than I needed so that I could fold up the bottoms so each page had a pocket.

I coated each side of the fabric with methyl cellulose (this is not the 'correct' way to make book cloth, but it worked for my purposes), and then glued it to book board to make the covers.

Then I filled each pocket with seed packets and wrote a few quick notes about how well each seed grew.

Once the seed packets were inside the book, it didn't close very well (which is why the springy-ness of the accordion structure works so well), so I added ribbons while I was gluing on the covers so that the book could be tied closed.

Class Books

workshop handouts

After being a teaching assistant this past fall, I've taken over as instructor for a few session of Introduction to Bookbinding at the San Francisco Center for the Book. In the workshop students learn about the basics of bookbinding: folding, paper grain, stitching; as well as how to use some tools: bone folders, awls, needles and waxed linen thread. They learn all this while making 5 basic book structures: single sheet book, accordion book, 3-hole pamphlet stitch, combined concertina and 4-hole Japanese stab. The classes have been great so far; in fact, the students I taught this past Tuesday were so enthusiastic we were able to make a sixth structure. 


Here are a few pics I snapped during our break on Tuesday night:

my supplies for the evening: punching jigs, scissors, ruler, linen thread, wax and a glue brush

yellow combined concertina (with some coffee--not made in class)

single sheet books, combined concertina and 3-hole pamphlet stitch

single sheet book, 3-hole pamphlet stitches, combined concertinas and an accordion book with a butterfly cover