bookmaking – Fiber Artisans of San Jose

September 21, 2015 – Beginning Bookmaking

We met on an extremely hot day and met early to beat the heat. The subject for our September meeting was making covers for handmade paper notebooks. Frank Mikulastik was our fearless leader. Frank makes 40 pieces of handmade paper in his kitchen on Sunday afternoons! Frank is a good teacher and showed us how to size a cover for the size of the paper, told us what materials to use and showed us how to sew a signature into a cover. He is quite inspiring with his own indigo dyed notebook covers.

Sandy brought some leather that we cut for notebook covers. She was able to cut them to size with a metal ruler and a box cutter. She made them big enough for two signatures. It is a nice pliable soft leather and will be great for notebook covers.

Sharolene shared her madder dyed fiber that she dyed in the last few weeks, linen towel that she just pulled off the loom and cotton from the garden. The madder process was

Sharolene's Linen Kitchen Towel, just pulled from the loom. — Sharolene’s Linen Kitchen Towel, just pulled from the loom.

Madder from Phyllis' and Sharolene's garden were used to dye this yarn. — Madder from Phyllis’ and Sharolene’s garden were used to dye this yarn.

Sharolene's madder dyed fiber. Madder was dug from Phyllis' and Sharolene's gardens. — Sharolene’s madder dyed fiber. Madder was dug from Phyllis’ and Sharolene’s gardens.

Notebook made with handmade paper and store bought batik fabric cover.

Sandy making her handmade paper notebook.

The designs on the paper were from liquidized paper, squirted on after the paper was made.

Frank used a cut plastic bottle and poured liquid paper into it for the designs.

Attendees at meeting were: Phyllis, Frank, Sharolene, Sandy, Marsha and Carol Lewis (new member).

August 2015, Paper Making on a hot day

A post from last August when Frank lead a day of recycling paper.
Next month we make books out of the paper that was made!

Sandy blends paper to make pulp — Sandy prepares paper pulp

Marcia and Frank get ready to dye — Marcia and Frank prepare dye

We used a 2-layer technique to paint on a piece of paper with different colored paper. Yes, painting with paper pulp not paint.

Paper was drying everywhere, even in the bird garden. Lots of paper was made and will be made into books next month!

Frank’s refillable 2 signature cloth book cover

I finally got the right size refillable book cover to fit 2 signatures in!

Frank’s cloth book cover Part 2

I increased the pattern by 1/8 inch both in height and width and things fit better.

I like the contrast of the sunburst on both inside covers

Note that the signature fit so much better that only one strand of yarn was needed to hold it in.

Frank’s Refillable Cloth Book Cover

Materials : cloth, fusible interfacing, thread, signature booklet, sewing machine.

I used hand spun yarn to hold the single signature in the cover.

If You wanted to have 2 or 3 signatures in the book, the cover would have to be wider and you would need more yarn loops to hold them more signatures in. These are minor adjustments once you understand how to make the single signature book.

Frank’s May Dye Project

I decided to do 2 small pieces 18 X 11 inches. These will be used for covering the covers of handmade books.

Piece #1 I accordion pleated the long way with 1 1/2 inch pleats, giving me an 18 inch strip 1 1/2 inch wide. Then I pleated the the other direction in 1 1/2 inch pleats. This gave me a cube that I tied several times around both directions.

Piece #2 I accordion pleated the long way with 1 inch pleats, giving me an 18 inch strip 1 inch wide. Then I tied the strip about every 2 inches.