Fabric Covered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook - Three - WHAT TO DO WITH THE ENDS

"WHAT TO DO WITH THE ENDS"

The signatures are all done. Now you need to make sure they all stay in the right order. Stack them so they are all aligned. Mark each signature in its top right corner - "T" for top, and the number of the signature. Set them aside, or put them under a stack of books to press them.

Now you need to decide if you are going to wrap the ends. You don't have to, of course, they look just fine as they are. And they look fine if you bind them into a book . . . .

But, for this book we are going to wrap them. And you have a lot of choices. You could use all sorts of hand-made art papers, or paper from the scrapbooking section of the art store, or heavy wrapping paper, or even plain brown Kraft paper. I have used paper I made in a papermaking class . . . 

. . .  and Washi paper (Origami paper) . . .

. . . or my favorite, Lokta paper from Nepal. It is colorful, strong, fibery and wonderful . . .

  . . . the paper I used for the book we are making is Lokta computer printer paper, 8 1/2 X 11. It is strong and works very well. For this cloth bound book I cut six 2" strips to use as end wrappers. They are just as long as the pages, and will be folded in half, lengthwise.

At this point you also need to make a stitching template from a piece of heavy paper. It needs to also be just exactly as long as your pages. Fold it in half, then about 3/4" from each end, place a mark in the fold. Place two more marks evenly spaced, in the fold. You should have 4 marks. Also, be sure to mark the TOP of the template in the upper right hand corner.

Now find yourself an old phone book. Open it to the center and drop the folded wrapper for signature one into the fold.

 Place Signature One in on top of the wrapper, making sure it is aligned with the marks at the top.

Now drop the template into the signature and make very sure everything is lined up perfectly and all the arrows are pointing in the right direction.

Use the needle-pointed awl to punch holes through the template, the signature and the end wrapper. Be very sure the template and the signature are aligned. Check the mark you put on the upper right corner on the outside! Repeat this for all of your signatures. Be sure to restack them in order. 

Check to be sure all the awl holes are perfectly aligned. If they aren't you have a signature flipped! When you start to sew the book, it will be all crookedy. Not good! Put your signatures back under your stack of books to keep them from getting knocked off your work table by the cats. 

Now would be a good time to prepare your thread. You need two pieces, one of each color you've chosen. Each piece needs to be as long as one signature spine, times the number of signatures, plus two. If you are using Perle Cotton, run each piece of thread through the wax 3 or 4 times. If you are using pre-waxed linen thread, of course, this is not necessary. Thread a needle onto each of the four ends. 

You will have two pieces of thread and four needles. If you need to, check back to the first post for suggestions on thread. 

We are ready to move on to making the cover next. 

Fabric Covered Coptic Stitch Sketchbook - Two: TO DECKLE OR NOT TO DECKLE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

"TO DECKLE OR NOT TO DECKLE. THAT IS THE QUESTION"

Well, here we go! If you are back with me I assume you have gotten paper of some sort with which to do this little project. A word on paper - there is no reason you can't use anything you have on hand, up to, and including, computer printer paper. BUT, as many of you have found, not all paper works well for sketchbooks. Some of it is too lightweight and wrinkles when you work on it with water. Not good. Regular watercolor paper is fine, but has a lot of texture that may not work well for pen and ink. It doesn't for me. I like 90# Hot Press. 

If you ordered the Strathmore Mixed Media Hot Press paper I suggested, and you have it, it looks like this. It is 22" x 30", has four clean, smooth edges, a lovely, smooth vellum finish and is a soft, off-white.

Life's Little Mysteries Dept. - I SWEAR the last time I ordered it, this paper arrived with two deckled edges and was a noticeable creamier color. What the heck is this paper?

Well, it makes no difference. You just have to decide how you want your pages to look. If you like nice clean edges on your pages, you can stop right here and get out your scissors. If you, like me, want nice, soft, raggedy deckled edges on your pages, then we have more work to do. 

Deckles happen in the papermaking process. If some edges (or all) of the edges of your paper are cut, we have to improvise. There are several ways to do this. I use this easy method for my sketchbooks. 

First, use your fingernails to score up about 1/4" on the long edge of one side of the sheet of paper. 

Then use the back of your plastic spoon, the side of the handle of the plastic knife, or a bone folder (if you have one), to make a nice sharp crease. 

 Slide the serrated knife into the crease, hold the paper securely with your free hand and saw down the length of the fold. Due to the grain of the paper, this procedure is harder on the two long edges and may be a little taxing.  If you get some raggedy looking tears here and there, more's the better, I think. If you need more precision, maybe cutting, instead of tearing, may be more to your liking. I happen to like the one or two places I get that look like they were gnawed on by wharf rats. 

I like my sketchbooks to open in "book" orientation, with pages that are the length of the spine, top to bottom. So, MY next step is to fold the paper, with its FOUR deckled edges, the long "hot dog bun" way. Of course, if you haven't done the deckling, it is the same deal, only with four SMOOTH, sharp edges 😍.

 Crease the fold well, and use your serrated knife to tear down the crease.

Now you have two long, thin sheets of paper, with four edges all the same. 

 Fold each of these pieces into fourths, across the strip, the hamburger bun way (how many of you can tell from this that I was a schoolteacher?) 

 After you've creased and folded, and sawed down the crease, you will have 8 leaves from your one sheet of paper. Do this again with your other sheet. Now you have 16 leaves. Fold and crease these in half, BUT DO NOT TEAR THEM. These 16 folded leaves give you your 32 pages. This is a very handy amount, I have found. I LIKE the feeling of finishing a sketchbook, and find that 32 pages is a very manageable amount to get done in a month or so. AND THEN I GET TO MAKE A NEW BOOK!!! 😃😍

 I like to make a book with six signatures. So, for me, four signatures of THREE leaves, and two signatures of TWO leaves, is ideal. Of course you can mess around with more pages, more signatures, etc., etc., to your hearts content. 

 This is the way the pages orient if your initial fold of the paper is HOT DOG WAY. 

If you choose to, or if you made a mistake in folding, your book orientation may be like this - long way. That is nice, too, isn't it? Try it both ways. 

Now stack up your signatures and look at your handiwork. 

I have 6 signatures with lovely, soft deckled edges. 

Does EVERY project you do involve the approval of a cat?

Next post will address "DEALING WITH THE ENDS".

A FOUR NEEDLE COPTIC STITCH BOUND SKETCHBOOK WITH A FANCY FABRIC COVER

We can try to make this book (or one like it) together. I don't know if this format will work, but we can try it out.

I am looking for the first things that I know you will need for sure. I have included screenshots of the products so that you can get a running head start on ordering them, if you need to. I will update the post in a week. That way any of you who are ordering things should have them by then. 

This is a list of the things THAT I USED. You don't have to use them. Use anything that you think might work instead, BUT, I won't know how to tell you how to deal with what happens as you use them, because they are not what I used. Fair?

PAPER - I use only Hot Press paper for my sketchbooks because I like how it works FOR ME. It takes pen perfectly without bleeding, paint doesn't show through, it lays flat, and stands up well to scrubbing, etc. You get 4 sheets in this package and 2 sheets make a nice book. So, one package = 2 books.  From http://www.dickblick.com

GLUE - You need to order some good glue, if you don't already have it. This glue is for bookbinding, has particular properties that work well with all bookbinding techniques. It is PVA and archival (books you make with it will outlive you). And it won't discolor or crack.  I got the 16oz bottle and have only used half of it so far. 

AWL - Get a FINE needle size (so the holes you make aren't too big. 

THE PAPER THE GLUE AND THE AWL ARE ALL FROM DICK BLICKhttp://www.dickblick.com

COVER MATERIAL - You will also need, very soon, some fabric and some micro-batting. Unfortunately, the fabric I used came from The Fabric Gypsy who only sells at fabric shows and from her own showroom in New Mexico. She does not do website orders. Sad, but true. You can, of course, hit your own stash up for gorgeous fabric to use for your cover, or you might check out the Asian Fabric section of eQuilter.com for some.  

These are pretty, aren't they?

PADDING BATTING - My ultra-thin batting for padding the covers came from Amazon.com

BINDING THREAD - Eventually we are going to sew, so you might as well start gathering up stuff for that, too. You can get wonderful Irish Linen bookbinding thread, if you can find it. But it is expensive. I have found that good old DMC Perle Cotton, the kind you can find in any sewing or craft store, works great! And it comes in a zillion colors. Just get size 3, and you are all set. For our Four Needle Coptic binding we will need TWO colors that coordinate or contrast with the cover fabric.

You also need a stick of beeswax, which you can get at the craft store, or at the hardware store. 

You also need needles. These that come from the craft or hobby store work just fine. You will need FOUR of them, and they need to have very large eyes.

BONEFOLDER - For what we are going to do you don't even need a bonefolder, although it is nice to have one. For the paper folding and tearing we are going to do, you can get by very nicely with a heavy, throw-away plastic spoon (we'll use the back of it) and a plastic knife with sharp, serrated teeth. This is a very useful tool, and, because you use it a LOT, it will wear out. So snag a couple when you find them! 

The last thing you need to get started is some lightweight cardboard. It can be tag board, or poster board, or even heavy cereal box cardboard. You could even take apart a large shoebox and use that. We don't want anything as thick and stiff as corrugated cardboard, though.

I also wrapped the end of my signatures in decorative paper. You don't have to do that at all. It is totally optional. It may be hard to find paper that works for you so don't feel you have to do it. My Casey's Crafts store, here on Whidbey Island, happens to stock a very wonderful line of (believe it or not!) computer printer paper that is fantastic! It is made from Lokta Paper from Nepal, in a variety of colors, 8 1/2" x 11". Because it is printer paper it is very uniform and strong, but is also fiber-y and has a lot of character. The purple paper in the photos is a sheet of it. You can find it online from a variety of sources, or you might want to see if you can find it in a store that stocks papers for the printer. 

I think that might be all we need to start. Once you have the paper for the pages in hand, and the needle, thread, wax and serrated knife we can begin the making of the signatures. I will wait here for you to get the supplies you need, and when you rejoin me, we will start in.