Bookbinding

I haven’t tried bookbinding yet so I thought it would be a good idea to have a go. I bought a beginner bookbinding kit and found a tutorial on creating a simple stitch binding on YouTube. I grabbed my zine from the first assignment to use as a guinea pig.

Even though it is already stapled I have approached this experiment as if it wasn’t. To begin with I secured the pages together using the clips provided.

In the tutorial I watched, holes were created by sight but a ruler would usually be needed for accurate measurements when doing it professionally. A hole is created in the middle and then roughly an inch from each edge.

The thread goes through the middle hole and then back out of the bottom hole, before going into the middle hole again and then out through the top hole.

At the end the threads are tied in whatever manner you desire.

This technique creates a very simple but reliable binding.

I wanted to try something a bit more complex so I found a different video which featured 8 techniques. I chose one of the more complex techniques which the author calls a ‘chain dash’.

With this method more holes are needed (10 in this example). The thread is weaved in and out of each hole alternatively. Once that is done you weave through every third hole and create chains around the preexisting binds.

This looks more sophisticated and pleasing to the eye. I’m aware that this is still only the tip of the iceberg with stitch binding possibilities, let alone book binding in general. It has however, been a really fun exercise and it has inspired me to try more in the future.

References

Johanna Clough. (2016). Easy Binding Tutorial For Beginners. [Online Video]. 3 September 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oqu96yxw8g. [Accessed: 8 November 2020].

Sea Lemon. (2020). Learn 8 Beginner Bookbinding Stitches! | Sea Lemon. [Online Video]. 28 March 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUmioC9-_5g. [Accessed: 8 November 2020].