i have always liked books - already full or yet to be filled with thoughts and sketches and stories.
the first book i "made" was a notebook that i didn't actually make - i altered it although i didn't know it was called that when i did it. i was 15 i think or maybe just 16.
it had a really hideous plastic-foil cover that was grey and had white dots and purple - ahm - little lines or something - on it. anyway it was ugly and gluing nice paper onto the cover didn't work because it was plastic and the glue never really dried at first and when it finally did the paper i had glued on fell off again.
argh
time for drastic measures.
i cut out the block - which included tearing out the book end papers - oh my!
in case you ever wondered: the book end papers are those pages at the very front and back of a hardcover book that are heavier and sturdier than the other pages and seem to be kind of seperate from them. they are what attaches the block (the whole bound stack of paper with printing on it) to the back and front cover of the book. they used to annoy me when i was little - so i took them out and wondered why my book fell apart.
don't do anything to the book end paper of your books - doodling on it is okay ;)
i cut out the block of the book and tore off the part of the book end paper that was glued to the inside of the cover. finally i could get to the edges of the ugly plastic cover and rip it off! i was left with the bare bookboard cover and an intact block. i figured if i just cut some heavy paper to size i could reattach the block by gluing one half of my new end paper to the cover inside and the other half to the first page of the block. i covered the bookboard with some fabric that i had marbled and glued in some new end paper. it worked. it didn't look very neat and one could definitely tell the book had been meddled with but it worked as a book again.
it's still far from full but at that time i took that book everywhere, writing short scenes, stories, thoughts, obervations, ... i doodled and drew in it and i used it from both sides.
that was the beginning of my love for making books.
(i don't count the time when i was 7 and had made lots of mini books from folded sheets of paper i had taped together and drew and wrote picture stories of the easter bunny that i then "sold" to our neighbours.)
around that time - when i was 17 i think - my sister had just started studying at the university of applied arts in vienna. she came home one day and showed me a booklet she had made in an optional course she had signed up for. it was a book-art course. years back you could get a degree in book-art at that university but it was reduced from a degree course to an optional. lots of students take it. it comes in handy to be able to bind your own assignments and exhibition programms when you are studying at an art university. makes it all that more artsy...
my sister told me about that class and i was totally beside myself with excitement and made her promise to take notes of every single step when she went to the next class. and she did. i actually made a book following her notes and sketches - but i didn't take any pictures of it and i could bite my butt i didn't because i don't have it anymore...
a little later i asked my sister if i could come to university with her and see the bookbinding workshop. she said we could even work there if i wanted to - students could borrow the keys to various workshops of the university - they just had to be signed up for one of the classes that were held there. i think i almost hugged her to death.
we went to buy paper - big sheets of paper - and bookboard. i loved the workshop with it's huge windows and lots of light, the long wooden work benches - all furrowed from the cutting and poking with sharp and pointy tools, the machines and paper presses.
oh, and the paper guillotine - it was enormous - at least as far as i was concerned but i'm sure there are bigger ones. i was glad it was an electric one and that we would have needed a key for it, which we didn't have. students are only allowed to use it when the teacher is present. we met her on the second day when we came back to take our blocks and covers out of the presses. she peeked over my shoulder to look at my work saying i did a good job. i think i floated a couple of inches above my chair with pride...
(later i watched her working for a while: she glued the spine of a huge ledger that held all the speeches of our former federal president and when that was left to dry she went on to prepare the cover which was bound in red goats leather - it was rather mind-boggling.)
she let us use the paper guillotine and now i have one handmade book with a perfectly cut block.
it was quite impressive seeing that angled blade go down at a push of a button. it is over one meter long and i took an extra step back just to be sure. (my only comfort was that if you did get your fingers in there at least it would be a clean cut and fairly quick...)
the book is rather tattered already. there's still plenty of room in there but i use it frequently to make sketches of projekts i don't want to forget about - mostly sewing-projects.
after that i tried various different techniques of bookbinding, some more professional that others.
i made ten A5-sized (ca. 8,5" x 5,5") books for a friend who had ordered them to give as gifts using the coptic stitch binding. (i'll ask her if she still has one so i can take a picture - i never used to take pictures of anything.) they turned out really nice - she had painted the paper i used for the front cover herself.
in autumn 2012 i was in desperate need of distraction and dove into the making of lots of stuff for a christmas market.
among all that stuff were these:
they are leporello-books. leporello is a character in mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" who keeps a list of all the girls his master has seduced. this list is accordion fold for the dramatic effect it provides when it is being pulled out and folded open. that's why accordion fold is also called leporello fold, which i think is nicer.
i had originally made them to be used as funky notebooks even though i learned how to make them as photo album/mini album. i feel like hereabouts people don't really get the purpose of a mini album or scrapbook or smashbook. and those who actually make/use them don't know what it's called - at least that's my experience with people i know and met at that market. they all needed an explanation on how to use these books and what they were for. and i knew it would be like that beforehand anyway - so i just made them as notebooks with boring writing paper in them.
maybe that was a mistake because i didn't sell many of them.
three to be precise...
now i'm taking them apart as far as it's possible without destroying the basic structure to turn them into junk journals, photo albums, sketchbooks, ... whatever the potential owner wants it to be really...
i'm taking out the signatures of boring writing paper and ripping out the pockets i don't like any more.
i replace them with signatures of pattern paper, solid coloured paper, vellum, transparencies, envelopes, ticket strips, book pages and whatever else i find and can think of.
doily, tag, on-the-edge-die-cut vellum, paper
paper, bookpaper tag, on-the-edge-die-cut transparency, envelope
my daughter assisted me with turning the pages here...
tags, vellum, little file folders
ticket strip, vellum tags, bookpaper file folder
little file folders, vellum envelope with bookpaper in it
facsimile torn from an old book on literature (the original must have been gorgeously coloured)
vellum envelope, ticket strip, torn brown packaging paper, book paper, plain paper
i make new pockets or envelopes to cover up any traces of destruction:
if i feel like it i use sprays, inks and stamps on the papers.
stencil and distress ink on the white back of pattern paper
stamping on a stiched-in ticket strip - these can be and are supposed to be torn out and added to other pages
splattering ink all over solid cardstock
i came up with a tiny collection folio - tim holtz style - to put in the very back of the book.
it holds little file tabs for the owner to put whereever needed and desired - matching the rest of the book of course.
(i painted the inside of this one with golden ink - in the picture it looks blotchy but in real life it has nice coverage and great shimmer.)
this one is actually stiched into a signature and has the Tim Holtz - Collection Folio-style cascading spine which the owner is free to either use as intended, use somewhere else in the book or discard...
the envelopes and pockets will be filled with matching tags and ephemera to write on or for pictures.
transparent envelope with pattern paper card
vellum envelope with torn bookpaper cards
i don't know yet what i'll do with all of them when they are done. with each one that i'm working on i feel like: "i wanna keep you for myself!", but i can't keep them all... and in the end i don't use them because i don't want to spoil them...
i'd rather have someone else spoil them...
EDIT:
guide: leporello book - part 1 - cover
guide: leporello book - part 2 - leporello insert
guide: leporello book - optinal inserts
guide: leporello book - part 3 - signatures and finishing