First Official Adventure: Four Books for Beginners

In February, I took a beginning bookbinding class at a local shop. I love books, all kinds of books, and the physical presence of the book is sometimes as important to me as the words it contains. I've been wanting to take this class for sometime now, since I first saw a description in the shop's catalog about its bookbinding and paper-craft classes.

During the six hour class, we made four books, learning new techniques and building on earlier ones as we made each book. Here's a picture of my four books:

The turquoise book, on the right, is the first book we made. Based on a traditional Japanese stab binding technique, it consists of folded text pages sewn into a folded decorative paper cover. While we drilled holes with our awl, pushing the needle through all those sheets of paper was a little tricky at times.

The next book we made is the accordion, or concertina, fold book at the top of the picture. With this book, we folded a long sheet of paper multiple times then glued the ends to boards that we covered with decorative paper. The little ribbons coming off the sides are decorative rather than functional. Still trying to figure out just what I'd do with a book like this though.

The third book is the little green covered one at the bottom. We learned how to sew multiple sheets of folded paper into signatures that were sewn into the cover. The cover paper is handmade in Thailand; the paper makers dry the sheets outdoors and little bits of nature (leaves, bugs, flowers) can fall onto the sheets as they're drying and become part of the paper.

Then we broke for lunch (there were about 12 of us in the class that day); I browsed through the shop and started falling love (ok, maybe it was a little bit of lust) with all the papers, many handmade.

After lunch we worked on the fourth, and most complicated, book: the small hardcover on the left that combined all the skills (paper folding, gluing, and sewing) into one little gem. At one point during the class, I realized that making these little bits made me feel like I do when I step out onto the ice in my skates: alive, and free.

One of the perks of the class was a 10% discount coupon, good for a week, on shop purchases. To treat myself on my birthday I spent several hours wandering around the shop, selecting various decorative and text papers so I can make more little books. Naturally, I've treated myself to several books on book binding since. I expect to start folding and gluing and stitching very soon.

Kicking off the Celebrations

Well, here I go. Last summer, while stopping in Ann Arbor while biking from one side of the country to the other, my sister hurled down the proverbial bike glove and asked "What are you going to do for your 60th?!" That got me thinking. I knew for sure that I wasn't going to ride my bike cross country, so what would I do? Hmmm....

My brother told me about a woman he works with who celebrated her 60th by doing something each month to celebrate her life. Her grandkids took her hiking the Appalachian Trail, on a train ride in the Pacific Northwest, and on a whale watch tour, among others.

After much thinking, I decided on six plus one (as described in the blog heading). Two I know for sure: a beginning book binding class and tandem hang-gliding with my best friend. Other ideas include this blog; learning either kayaking or archery (with the goal of improving my upper body strength); researching my family tree, starting on my mother's side (she was born in Scotland); and traveling to the edge of some big water (a small-ship cruise in the PacNW, the Canadian Maritimes, Cape Cod, back to Maine, and/or the Highlands and islands of north and western Scotland).

So far I've done two of the adventures: the beginning book binding class at Hollander's in Ann Arbor and starting this blog. I'll post the first adventure soon and include a picture of the four little books I made.

If you have any ideas on how I can celebrate or want to join me in any of them, let me know. It'll be great fun!