Crossed Structure Binding
It’s time for another OLLI book arts course—Cross Structured Bindings. These wonderful books require no glue and the sewing is straightforward. I will teach two stitches that should be in a book artist’s repertoire—the long stitch and the kettle stitch—and we will use acrylic inks to create background designs for our pages. I will be supplying paper for the pages and faux emu upholstery fabric for the covers (see photo above). See the list below for materials to bring to the class.
Carmencho Arrigui adapted the Cross Structured Binding from historical structures. If you are interested in seeing more of this type of book, her website is filled with information.
Out of Binding: http://www.outofbinding.com/00_origin.htm
Details:
Basic Toolkit: cutting board, cutting knife, metal ruler, sharp pencil, bookmaker’s awl, bone folder, wet wipes, sewing cradle (or telephone book), size 18 or 22 Tapestry needle. Materials: 1-3 bottles of FW Acrylic Artist lnks (or similar), lnexpensive 2”-3” flat brushes, 1 inexpensive large round brush, cotton perle embroidery floss (or linen thread).
date ………. Tues/Thurs., July 22-24
time ………. 1-4 p.m.
This is such a great structure. For a while I was making journals similar to this with paper-covered covers and giving them as gifts. They’re simple and easy once you get the hang of doing them, but the results look substantial. How wonderful too that you will not be making blank books! I’m sure your students are going to love this class.
Thanks Ellen. We had a wonderful first day. It was very relaxing for all of us and I will post some of the results today. I am also going to quote you on the “hang of it” and “substantial”. We sew tomorrow and I’m busy making a huge “book” for a demo.
I’m so glad the class is going well! I’m flattered you want to quote me. By all means… 😉
I think the “hang of it” thing is so important for beginning binders to be reassured about. I was just having a back-and-forth about this with a newbie the other day, who was disappointed that the stitching on her latest effort was wonky. She thought maybe she was doing it all wrong, but, really, part of the problem was she just hadn’t stitched enough books to acquire the experience and muscle memory to get the tension right.
Exactly. I’m reading a book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg; the scientific explanation is fascinating. It brings back memories of learning to knit. All thumbs. But now I can knit while riding in the car. Haven’t mastered knitting while driving yet.
Knitting while driving… hmmm… Now that would make for some interesting muscle habit learning…