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Category: Book Making

Slip knot book binding with fabric covered cover and watercolor paper pages
Decisions on Fabric Book Construction and Binding

Decisions on Fabric Book Construction and Binding

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As my group works along on our year long project of creating a fabric book, we decided it was a good idea to make decisions about construction, size and binding early on. That way we aren’t winging it at the end when we put the book together. Hopefully, the pages that we create will then be a bit more uniform, sturdy and look good bound together. So, I brought a bunch of samples of fabric books to our last meeting.

One of my favorite bindings for a fabric book is the raised chain band binding. The edge of the page that will be bound is stitched every quarter inch with a knotted blanket/buttonhole stitch. The knot keeps the thread from getting loosened with use. Then the pages are bound together with a raised chain band stitch. The pages open all the way and move easily. And I love the look of it. Here you see four different books with the same binding. Most have felt pages, some with a sheer fabric fused to both sides, others, just felt, and one with two pieces of felt, appliqued fabric and stiff interfacing in the middle. The book on the bottom left is a bit of a hybrid. It is embroidery samples mounted on thick watercolor paper. I added an edge of felt to the paper page so that I could do this binding instead of coptic stitch. I learned the raised chain band binding from Gail Harker.

Stick and yarn book binding with chopsticks and silk paper cover.

This is a book binding that I learned in an online class in 2008 by Sue Bleiweiss. It doesn’t look like she is teaching online anymore but she taught us four or five different fabric book binding techniques. If you would like to see more about this postcard book, you can see my post here.

Applique sample book with stab stitch binding

This is a felt applique sample book that is bound with a stab stitch binding. I learned this binding from Gail Harker.

Accordion book of machine stitched color samples with insertion stitch binding.

This machine stitched color sample book was another I made in class with Gail Harker. It is bound with an insertion stitch. There is a heavy interface in the center of the pages and then fabric collages are fused down. The back is covered by a dyed sheer fabric that is fused as well.

Coptic binding on sample paper Edgar book

This was my sample for the book about my dog that I created in Level 3 Stitch at Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts. It is bound with Coptic stitch. I bound the fabric book the same way. I find Coptic stitch to be really fiddly and difficult. If you would like to see the fabric Book of Edgar, there is a video of the full book at the end of this post.

Slip knot book binding with fabric covered cover and watercolor paper pages

Here is a new method that I found on Youtube that is called slip knot binding. There are several different tutorials on this stitch method. It is significantly easier than Coptic stitch. It looks similar and acts the same way as it allows pages to be opened fully and can hold heavy pages with a sturdy enough thread. So this book is made with the slip knot binding.

Raised chain band binding on book with stiffened felt pages and fabric applique.

We decided that we would go with this type of book construction. It is a very heavy duty page, can hold loads of stitching or heavier fabrics. It has two pieces of felt per page with a piece of heavy interfacing sandwiched between. And we’re going to use the raised chain band binding. If you would like to see more of this book, click here.

Raised Chain Band book binding on beaded book (with beads added to the binding).

And anyone who wants to see more about my beaded book, the post is here.

Orange, yellow and brown painted fabric
Painting Fabric

Painting Fabric

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Our local group meeting in November was all about painting fabric. We are still working on background fabrics that will be included in our fabric books. We used a variety of “fabric” paints that are heat set.

Table with painting supplies, tools and several pieces of painted fabric.

Louise had cut up a bunch of different types of fabric to paint on and had a wide arrary of paints.

The idea was to spray water on to the fabric, then add paint and then you could if you wanted, add another piece of fabric on top to pick up extra paint. The photos above show a piece of sheer fabric that was painted, then a piece of cotton velveteen was added on top. The final photo on the right shows the velveteen after all the paint colors were added. This is Sally’s fabric.

Paula was working in shades of brown. These fabrics are all still wet, so it will be interesting to see what they look like dry.

I was working in fall colors. When you see the black printing, those are fabrics that we screen printed years ago that Louise still had in her stash.

Three pieces of painted and printed fabric.

These are a few of Louise’s painted pieces.

Blue, red and printed fabric

And one more photo of one of Sally’s painted fabrics. We left the fabric at Louise’s house to dry and then everything will need to be ironed. Next month, we have plans to do some fabric weaving for a book page.

Ruth's book cover
Altered Books – A Glimpse Inside

Altered Books – A Glimpse Inside

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In my last post, I showed you how we finished up the binding on our altered books. I didn’t manage to get photos of Louise’s book as she was still working on adding to her inner pages. Sorry, Louise. Here are the inside photos of the rest of the books.

Altered book cover with mixed media birds nest.

This first book is Paula’s and this is the back cover. This is her bird’s nest; part of her theme was birds. She had picked several words to base her pages on when she was creating the book.

Altered book with page of painted magpie by Paula Rindal

Here’s a page inside Paula’s book with a painting of a magpie.

Altered book with antique photo of building with men in front by Paula Rindal.

Paula has a bunch of antique photos that she used throughout the book. She also has some wonderful antique papers which you will see in all of our books as she is so generous.

Altered book with two painted landscapes, old book page and fabric strip.

These are some of the mini landscapes that Paula painted.

Altered book with antique photo of men playing cards on porch and stitched leaves.

And another of Paula’s photos with stitched leaves.

Sally's book cover

Now on to Sally’s book. This is her cover and Sally is planning on adding to her inside pages but hasn’t completed that yet.

Altered book with antique flower end paper and music paper.

Here’s Sally’s end paper on the left. Perhaps you can see the dark brown fabric where she stitched her signatures? The first page is from some old music sheets that Paula gave us.

Altered book with mix of papers including old typing paper and dyed paper towel.

Sally has a mix of different kind of papers in her signatures just waiting for her addition of eco printed paper and fabric.

Here are a couple of other examples of the type of paper that Sally used in her book signatures.

Altered book with original end pages kept in place of map of forest regions in the US.

This is the inside cover of my book. I didn’t want to take out this lovely map from the original end papers. So I left it the way it was. I then glued my end paper to cover where the signature had been glued in on the back side of the right page shown here. The map is what is stopping me from putting holes in the front cover to stitch some embroidery.

Altered book with screen printed paper on left and word printed fabric on right by Ruth Lane

Here is the end paper on the left that covers the glued binding. This piece of paper was screen printed with the deconstructed screening technique. It was my original inspiration for the color scheme for the book. You will have seen the fabric on the right if you read my prior post about how we printed the “backwards” writing.

Altered book with painted book page and handmade paper by Ruth Lane

Here’s another one of my pages. The addition of extra paper in the signatures splits up some of the page spreads that I made but to me it adds some interest. I am thinking about adding some poems and quotes about trees on some of the blank pages.

Altered book with pinecone original book page and antique ledger paper.

This page spread in my book shows the back side of one of the book pages that I didn’t change and an old ledger paper from Paula. If you didn’t see all my page spreads that I created for this book, you can see them here and here. Most of them made the cut for the final book layout.

Altered book with collaged papers on left and painted handmade paper on right by Ruth Lane

I really enjoyed creating this book and I’m looking forward to the project that we will work on in the coming year with my art group. We don’t have a plan as of yet but I’m sure we will come up with something!

Stack of signatures with holes made for binding.
Annual Art Retreat 2025

Annual Art Retreat 2025

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My local art group had our annual retreat and enjoyed a wonderful weekend. One of our members that had moved to Wisconsin over three years ago came this year so it made the retreat extra special. Mainly, we worked on our altered book journals.

Inside Kiwanis Lodge on Little Bitterroot Lake in Marion, Montana

Luckily, we have a beautiful place to go each year, the Kiwanis Lodge at Little Bitterroot Lake in Marion, Montana.

Landscape of Little Bitterroot Lake with pine trees, the lake and distant mountains.

We had gorgeous weather this year and it wasn’t smoky yet. The following week was really smoky from wildfires in the northwest US and Canada.

Inside the lodge with Paula, Deb and Sally.

We worked on our altered books and Paula (left) showed us how to do a traditional book binding. There were a lot of steps and I had never done a book binding like this. It wasn’t particularly difficult, just a bit fiddly. For anyone who is an expert at this process, please ignore the fact that I don’t know all the correct terms for each of the processes/parts of the binding.

We used the cover of our books and took all the “guts” out. We had to make signatures to fit the size of the book out of the pages that we had already made. You mark the signatures and put holes to stitch through. You also need a piece of fabric with a marked piece of cardstock matching the signature holes. The cardstock is glued to the fabric with PVA glue.

This is my book, the photo on the left is that stack of five signatures (groups of pages) that have their holes punched. The middle photo shows the signatures and the top header thingee (forgotten the name but it’s at the top left of the signature pile) and my tools. The right photo shows my marked cardstock glued to the fabric where the signatures will be attached.

Stitched signatures being attached to book cover.

I got so involved with the process that I forgot to take photos of all the steps. This is Paula’s book after she has her signatures stitched in place and one side is glued down to the cover. The striped pieces are her headers.

Booking binding in process

Here’s a photo of Louise’s book in progress.

Once you have the signatures glued down to the covers, you need to use “end papers” to cover the inside of the book cover. Paula used different pieces of fabric and then used a portrait she had drawn/painted as the end cover on the front inside cover.

Paula's book cover

Here’s Paula’s front cover after she got it all together. I am not sure if she is adding more to the cover or not.

Sally's book cover

This is Sally’s book, she hasn’t glued down the cover piece yet but thinks she will be using various eco printed pieces to fill her book. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of Louise’s book as she was still working on the inner pages.

Ruth's book cover

And here’s my book. I was thinking about doing some surface embroidery on the leaves and pine cones but I would have to put holes through the cover. This would detract from my inside end paper. So I haven’t quite decided yet. Because this post would be a bit long, I will show you the insides of the books on my next post. It was really satisfying to get this book put together after working on various aspects of it for a year.

Sunset through the trees on Little Bitterroot Lake

And my annual sunset photo.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.
More Altered Tree Book Pages

More Altered Tree Book Pages

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My altered tree book is moving along slowly. I made a few more pages and used some of my scraps from the word printing experiment.

Book pages spread on the work table after being gessoed.

I try to keep some page spreads that already have gesso on them so that I can sit down anytime to create a few collaged spreads. The one on the middle left is gessoed with clear gesso that Paula uses. I just have the white gesso so most of my pages will be covered first with that.

Book pages spread on work table after walnut ink applied.

I then added some walnut ink to tone down the whiteness of the page. I decided to add walnut ink to the edges of one of my miniature paintings too. It definitely helps to tone down the white edges for this project.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Then I have a bag full of scraps and papers in my chosen colorway. It’s fun putting the mark making and other papers together.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The eco printed leaf is one that Paula did and gave to me.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I was much happier with the miniature landscape once the edge was no longer white. The words are a poem about trees.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The old “papers” are such a great addition to the book.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I found this “tree” on the right that I had made but not used in a different collage. It’s made from printed black paper. I finally used my original color inspiration in this spread.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Here’s another one with the screen printed inspiration paper and some mark making from the word experiments.

I have to figure out how I am going to make my signatures. For those of you who don’t make books, a signature is a group of papers that are stitched into the binding in one “piece”. I don’t think I will have all the pages filled. I will leave a bunch of blank pages so that I can draw or write or make marks in the book later. I am also planning on adding some fabric pages into the book. Then those can be stitched when inspiration strikes.

Sally's page with printed words in black, white, yellow and orange paint.
Printing Words with Acrylic Paint on to Fabric

Printing Words with Acrylic Paint on to Fabric

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My art group tried another technique with paper, acrylic paint and fabric. It’s mainly used to make fabric or paper that is then cut up and used in collage.

Louise, Paula and Sally working on word printing on paper and fabric around a wooden table.

It’s a simple process. You apply a “writing tip” to the paint bottle, write some words on paper and then press the paper with the acrylic writing on to fabric. You  then have printed words on fabric but the words are backwards on your fabric. I like this better since it makes the words hard to read. You can still see that it is words but it isn’t “a cute saying” easily read.

Here you can see Sally has written words in white acrylic paint on the brown paper and then she is pressing her fabric down on to the paper to transfer the words.

I wrote on book pages (which I will use later as backgrounds or tear up for collage) and then printing on to fabric. I used lines from the poem “Think Like a Tree” by Karen Shragg. You can see that the words aren’t really legible but it still conveys writing.

Louise writing with black acrylic paint on to book page.

Louise is writing with black acrylic paint on to a book page.

Paula's collaged page of printed words.

Paula was working only on paper this time. She collaged her pieces of torn, printed paper together on to book pages.

Here are a couple of pieces of fabric that Sally printed. The purple circles in the right photo are from eco printing with purple carrots. Sally then printed the words on top of that. It gives a graffiti look, doesn’t it?

Here are the two pieces that I created. These were done on pre-painted canvas (a light wash of grey) which had then been stained with tea in places.  Then I printed the tree poem on top of that. I will use these as some book pages in my altered book I have been working on.  If you’re looking for a fun and easy project, this technique definitely qualifies. You can write whatever you like and get those thoughts out of your brain, but it won’t be legible enough for someone else to read your innermost thoughts.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.
Altered Tree Book Page Spreads

Altered Tree Book Page Spreads

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I have been slowly working on my tree book and got a few more pages completed. You can read about the beginnings if you missed it here and here.

Three page spreads from altered book about trees.

I start with pages from the old tree book that have been gessoed and then painted or dyed. I used walnut ink on most of the pages but I decided I would try the tumeric ink we made a couple of years ago. That was so bright yellow, I added a layer of walnut ink and it is still candescent. I will have to cover up most of the yellow so I don’t overwhelm the book with so much yellow. I have a pile of painted papers and some of the mark making we have been doing over the last 3-4 months.

Three page spreads from altered book about trees.

Then I move bits around until I am happy with the outcome. You can see that I tried adding my little landscapes that I painted recently but I didn’t end up using them. They didn’t feel right to me, most likely because of the very white borders.

Page spread try outs for altered book about trees.

Here’s one of the pages before I glued things down. The yellow and black paper are shreds left over from our paper layering experiments.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s a finished page spread. You can see the same paper layering end product on the right. This is the candescent yellow background page. It has been toned down by layering tissue paper over it.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s one that I used one of Paula’s eco prints on the right. It was perfect for my color scheme. The left reminds me of a feather but it is torn paper that accidentally turned out that shape.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

Here’s another layered paper one with some other off cuts and mark making.

Completed page spread for altered book about trees.

And here’s the layout I showed you above once it was glued. I like how the tissue paper allows you to see through to the original book page. I am enjoying the imprecise nature of this book and playing with mark making, color and shapes.

Page spread from old book about trees
Playing with Book Pages

Playing with Book Pages

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I have been playing around with different techniques and creating a few book pages for the book I’m repurposing that I showed you here. This is another book that will be added to over a long period of time and these pages may change as I go along or might stay the same. Who knows? I’m going to make a bunch of pages and then put them together at some point. Some might not get used or torn up and used on something else. It is a fluid type process that is ongoing.

Repurposed book pages covered with alcohol ink covered packing tape.

Our play with alcohol ink left me with  pieces of colored tape to use and so I taped them down to a page spread from the repurposed book. You can still see most of the page underneath and it gives an interesting. Very shiny though, which isn’t my favorite look. It seems a bit overwhelming all on one page so this might get cut up into smaller pieces but for now, I left it as is.

Repurposed book pages with collage and natural ink painted background.

I had gotten a free trial from Golden paints of Light Dimensional Ground that I wanted to try. I painted it on the book page first and then added some different natural inks over top of it. The ground is supposed to be used to be a surface for watercolor paints on surfaces that don’t accept watercolor paint well. It is clear when dry and gives a bit rougher surface than regular paper. It worked well with the ink as it didn’t soak into the paper the same way it usually would. Then I added some other pieces of collage and a small painting on a ledger page.

Repurposed book pages with collage, painting and printing.

This is just one page as opposed to a spread. This page is gessoed first then painted with acrylic and ink. Next I printed with a small stamp that reminds me of tree rings and added another small ledger painting.

Repurposed book pages with collage and natural ink painted background.

This last spread has the undercoating of Light Dimensional Ground and then ink. On the right page, I added a couple of layers of painted tissue that was part of our mark making session.

You might notice that I am sticking to a color scheme this time, more neutral than my last book. Sticking to the tree theme though, I can’t seem to help that. It’s my favorite subject if you couldn’t tell.

Mark making on papers
Deconstructing a Book about Trees

Deconstructing a Book about Trees

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My art group has started a new project. We are taking old, unwanted books, deconstructing them and then reconstructing into a new creation. Paula has tons of old books, antique papers, photos and memorabilia that she has shared with us.

She found the perfect book for me. A reference book about trees that came out in 1950. It’s a great start on another tree book.

Hand made mark making tools

We had a session on mark making. These are tools I have made in the past for mark making mainly using turkey feathers. They give some random looking marks which was great for our project. We used different tools on different types of paper to create some random and some not so random marks. None of these are finished “works of art”, but will be used in different ways when creating the book.

These first sheets were a start using different tools and getting some lighter, thinner marks and then thicker, heavier marks.

I then started thinking more about trees, branches and leaves. The bottom right is a Japanese newspaper that my friend Louise gave us.

Then I started playing with spraying water on the pages and then adding ink to create pine trees. This is a bit tricky on figuring how much water to spray first and then draw your trunk through the water and watch the ink spread. You can add little dots of ink where you need more branches.

Mark making on papers

This was my favorite of the trees that I created.

Here’s some leaves with different tools used to create different types of marks and lines.

Mark making on papers

I have also been putting gesso on a lot of pages so that I can either draw or add painting to the pages.

Deconstructed screen print on paper with black background and yellow highlights.

I chose my color scheme from this deconstructed screen print on paper. The colors will be black, burnt siena and yellow ochre. Perhaps there will be touches of green but I haven’t gotten very far yet. This will be another long term project that will be a slow work in progress. I will update you periodically on how it’s going.

Handmade book spread with cutout printed leaves on blue plaster page and painted pinecone on opposite page.
Tree Specimen Book

Tree Specimen Book

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I started this book in October of 2022. I have been adding things slowly and painting pages when I had leftover paint from other projects. I had thought I would sketch on the blank pages covered with a mix of plaster and matte medium but they were too rough and difficult to sketch on. I haven’t shown you the book since last year and I decided to “finish” it up because we are starting on a new book project that will be made differently and I didn’t want to try to keep working on this one. I will be able to add things into the book if I like but it at least has color on all the pages and some with more ‘design’ than others. I had to cover a couple of pages that were not in the main color scheme. Somehow I got off track and added red which I shouldn’t have done. The book is mainly browns, blues and greens. The red/pink that resulted from painting a couple of the plaster pages was just not doing it for me. That’s what happens when you aren’t really thinking about what you’re doing!

Handmade book spread with a page that looks like tree bark with lichen.

I am not going to explain each page but you will notice the piece of blue glass and a small rock on the left hand page. I am using these as weights to hold the page open. The problem with this style of binding is that the book doesn’t open out flat unless you hold the pages. So you will see the page weights throughout. You can click on the photos to see them in more detail. Please feel free to ask about specific pages or techniques used.

Handmade book spread with a page that has cracked green and yellow and pine needles on the right.

Handmade book spread with a teabag leaf and dark painted plaster page.

Handmade book spread with a page of ink samples from a variety of natural sources.

The page on the left is one that I covered that was too red. These are small samples of ink that we made from natural ingredients.

Handmade book spread with a print of black capped chickadee artwork and cut leaves behind handmade paper grid.

Handmade book spread with cutout printed leaves on blue plaster page and painted pinecone on opposite page.

Handmade book spread with painted green leaves on blue sky background.

Handmade book spread with dark brown painted plaster opposite a leaf collage.

Loads of tree bark interpretations 😉

Handmade book spread with green painted paper opposite painted "bark" on plaster page.

Handmade book spread with painted plaster page opposite handmade paper grid threaded with orange/brown feathers.

Handmade book spread with sample strip of pea pod ink mixed with various agents.

More sampling of ink.

Handmade book spread with light blue painted plaster page opposite green deconstructed screen print on paper enhanced with paint.

Handmade book spread with lino cut print of birch tree.

Handmade book spread with green painted plaster page opposite hand dyed hemp canvas page.

Handmade book spread with teal painted plaster page opposite teal painted paper page.

I made an error here. Do you see it?

Handmade book spread with deconstructed screen printed page opposite painted canvas page.Handmade book spread with painted plaster page opposite 'bark' collaged to ecoprinted paper.

The bark paper is from a napkin.

Handmade book cover made from deconstructed screen printed hemp canvas and bound with copper wire.

And for those of you who have forgotten or never saw the cover, here it is. On my monitor, the book cover photo is not showing correctly. If yours is also weirdly stretched, please click on the photo to see the book cover.

If you search on the terms “tree specimen book” in the right hand sidebar, you can see all the other posts about this book where I have given more explanation about it.