Bookbinding Sewing Cradle Tutorial

A friend recently asked me to make new sides for her sewing cradle. I decided just to make another sewing cradle and give the instructions here.

You'll need:
2 pieces of book board that will form the main body of the cradle. Shown here are two 13"x 4.5" (33 x 11.4 cm) pieces.

8 pieces of book board about 3"(7.5cm) long x .5"(1.3 cm) wide. These will form the supports on the "legs" that will hold up the cradle..

2 pieces of book board for the legs/ends. The pieces here are 3.5" (9cm) high x 6"(15.2 cm) wide for a 13" (33cm) long cradle.

And you'll need 2 strips of book cloth that are about 3.5-4" (9 to 11.5 cm) wide and slightly longer than the length of your cradle.

Instructions:

1. Measure approximately 1" down and 1" in from each end. Mark a slit that is as wide as the thickness of your book board. It should exactly match the placement on the other board, but be a mirror image. See photo. If necessary, err on the side of making the slit too narrow--you can always use an emory board later to enlarge it. 

2. On each of the smaller end boards, mark a 45 degree "V" in the middle. Do this on both sides, and on both sides of the other board this size. I find a small quilting ruler to be quite useful for this.

3. Carefully glue each small side support piece along the sides of the 45 degree Vs you just made. They will meet just at their tips on the bottom, as in the photo.  They won't reach all the way to the top--don't worry about that. Do this on all 4 sides. Put aside to dry.

4. Join the two main cradle pieces by gluing a book cloth strip down the center, as shown (the book cloth is on the underside in the photo). Leave 2 board thicknesses space in the middle.

5. Do the same on the other side. The book board will be sandwiched between the book cloth. It's fine for the book cloth to hang off the ends. You'll trim it after it's dry. Put it aside under weight to dry.

6. After drying, trim the extra cloth off the ends and trim open the slits:

The book cloth isn't exactly centered here because I was ditzy.
It won't be elegant, but it will work.

7. Using your bone folder, you can score down the middle of each side to neaten the joint in the bookcloth.

8. Slide each slit over an end piece/leg. Use an emory board or trim slightly to enlarge the slit if necessary (but be cautious--it should fit snugly). The V-shaped supports will hold up the cradle.

Your finished item will look something like this. You can take it apart for storage and travel.

I've made a couple of these for my own use. One is smaller than the other. That's the one I tend to use most, since I like to make small books.

Punch those sections with confidence.

This is my favorite hole punching tool--a pin vise. These actually come with different kinds of handles, including some that look like craft knives. You can attach a needle on the end of it, for nice holes that are smaller than those made with an awl.

Now doesn't that look delightfully menacing?

Experiments with Paste Painting on Tyvek, Wet Media Dura-lar and Yupo

I experimented the other day with non-paper materials for paste painting. One of my more interesting discoveries was that you can paste paint on Wet Media Dura-lar. It won't curl, and the paint doesn't flick off (although I haven't yet tried to fold it...).

I've paste painted on Tyvek before, but I thought I'd try some texturing tools I hadn't used much yet. In general, results on Tyvek often seem more textured than on paper, and it usually doesn't curl. Here, I twisted a square cookie cutter in various directions:

This was done on Tyvek with foam letter stamps, stamped in all directions until the letters themselves became mostly illegible :

This is on Tyvek again. The paste was brushed on and then dabbed at with a towel:

And then I played around with the scans in Photoshop, to see how the textures could be further altered:

This was a paper that I'd begun a while ago. I first made a faux-wood pattern in a greenish-blue color. I then later went back and added a fresh blue layer on top and dabbed at it with a rag:

 

And then played around with the scan a bit in Photoshop:

I discovered that you can paste paint on synthetic Yupo as well. I thought the result was rather interesting, although I'm not sure yet what I'll do with it.

It occurred to me that a long time ago I said I was going to add a paste painting tutorial on here. It seems I never got around to it. Someday... However, there are many tutorials online, easily found with a search. 

I just discovered this good recent one from Lili's Bookbinding blog. I'd never prepared cornstarch paste using her method before (my method is mentioned here), so I decided to give it a try. She doesn't simmer the paste on the stove. She makes a slurry and adds boiling water to it while mixing well with an electric mixer. It was fun to watch the paste suddenly whoosh up into form in the bowl this way. I found this paste differed from my usual version. Not bad. Just different. I thought it tended to form a skin more quickly, but otherwise it had a nice consistency. I'd like to use it again. The recipe is on her post at the above link. 

Another tutorial I've liked is at Buechertiger's blog (here and here). She also provides links to further resources.

If you know of any other good paste painting tutorials or resources, please feel free to recommend them.

Volvelle Tutorial

My stats say that a few people landed here recently after Googling "how to make a volvelle." I guess volvelles are gaining in popularity. I've mentioned them before, but not how to make them.

However, I have taught a workshop on how to make one without using a brad or other hardware. Google suggests, and I will offer.

It looks long and intimidating, but this is actually pretty easy once you get the idea. I'm just wordy.

You'll need:

• Heavy paper or card stock.
• A compass.
• Pencil.
• X-acto knife or scalpel with sharp blade and cutting mat.
• Optional: tracing paper, large hole punch or circle template, Tyvek. A ruler or straight edge can be helpful.

1. Fold your paper.

For our example, we'll use a piece of heavy paper or card stock folded into 3 panels to make a card, and a separate piece of card stock for the wheel and turning mechanism.

2. Make your wheel.

Open the card. Using a compass, measure a circle that will be just a bit smaller than the width of the page (one of the sections)--but don't draw a circle here. Lift up your compass and draw this circle on the piece of card stock that you would like to use for your turning wheel.

Now shorten the distance between the legs on the compass so that you can make another circle that will be roughly around .75" (2 cm) or so in diameter. This doesn't have to be an exact measurement and can be smaller or larger (when this circle is too small, it's more difficult to work with, but if it's too big, it leaves less room for your outside window and the pictures or text that you will put on the wheel.)

Place the point of the compass in the indentation left in the middle from making the bigger circle and draw a smaller circle in the center. You are making a small circle centered inside a big circle--a donut shape.

If you'd like you can use something like decorative edge scissors around the outer edge of your donut/wheel. This will make the wheel easier to grasp when your are trying to turn it. 

3. Make the turning mechanism/hub.

Keeping the compass measurement exactly the same as from the inner, small circle on the donut, draw another little circle elsewhere on another sheet of card stock. (Or, cheater's method: simply trace the small hole from your wheel.)

Now increase the compass size to make another circle roughly .5" larger than the little circle you just made. Draw this around the smaller circle. You should wind up with two nested circles.

Cut out around the outside edge of the larger, outside circle.

What you are creating is the hub that is going to hold your turning wheel in place and allow it to spin--sort of a big paper version of a brad.

Now make an X across your nested circles to create a guide. Cut 4 slits from the outside circle just to the inner circle (see photo at left). This will allow you to form two tabs on either side. If the slits you cut are too big, your volvelle will wobble. If too tight, it won't spin.

Now fold up two opposite ends to make tabs, as shown. Rolling these tabs a bit as needed, slip them through the hole in the center of the wheel, then flatten down.

4. Make a space at the edge of your card so you can turn the wheel.

You need to make a little space at the edge of the card (or page) for your fingers. You can use the edge of a large circle punch or stencil. Or you can center a little cut out section at the edge of the card. The photo at left is the idea. Don't make the opening too deep, or the pictures or text that you add to the wheel will be visible in this opening as you turn it. You want enough room to allow you to grasp the wheel, but no more. 

5. Position the wheel.

Position the wheel on your card stock. It won't be exactly centered, but will overlap the edge a bit, matching up inside the slit/opening you made. Lightly mark around the wheel so you will know where it will be attached. Now remove it and put a small amount of PVA or strong double-sided tape on the back of the hub only (don't get glue on the wheel itself or it won't turn). Position into place. 

6. Make the window on the front of the card.

There are many ways to make a window. You can use a stencil or a hole punch, measure an opening where you'd like it, or even make an irregularly shaped window. You just want to make sure--very important--that the hub tabs or edge of the wheel won't show through where you make your opening.

Keep in mind that this can also be a two-sided structure if you also put a window (or windows) on the other side of the card or book page. 

Here is a method for making an arched window. Take a piece of tracing paper the size of your card. Open the card and place the tracing paper on the wheel, carefully lining it up with card edges, like this:

Keeping in mind the position of the wheel and hub and tabs (so you can be careful to avoid having them show through), mark where you'd like your window. Follow the contour of the wheel edge as a guide. You can use the compass as an aid.

Remember doing this in school? Turn the tracing paper over and trace in pencil over the window you just made. Turn this back over onto the front of the card and rub with a pencil or burnisher to transfer the markings.

With the card open, cut out the window.

7. Finish.

It helps a lot if you lightly trace around the window opening onto your blank wheel as you turn it, showing where you'd like to add your pictures or text. 

Once completed, seal the card using a small amount of glue or double-sided tape along the edges. Be very careful not to get any glue or tape on the wheel. If you do, you will have a stationary wheel, rather than a turning one.

If I was planning to make anything fancier than a casual card, I'd lay out the wheel pictures on the computer and print them out directly on the wheel. Even when doing this, it sometimes makes it easier to use a wheel with window tracings as a template to scan and work over. You can erase the window markings in your photo or graphics program before printing.

The dotted lines show
where you can add adhesive.

This was solely a mock-up for demo purposes. Which was a good thing. When I was done sealing up my 2-sided wheel, I realized the side with the writing displays through the window upside down (if you just opened the card and didn't turn it around, like I did here for the photo). But that's why we make mock-ups, no? (And why I consider coffee an art supply.)

8. Variations.

If you'd like a volvelle that is simply a turning disk (or other shape) on top of a page, without a window, simply make a hole the size of the "donut hole" in the card front. Thread the tabs of a hub through, and glue your disk or shape onto the tabs, on top of the card. 

The hub mechanism forms the basis for many animated paper engineering structures. Books and websites on paper engineering can lead you to more.

Alisa Golden shows a similar volvelle in her new Making Handmade Books. She suggests using Tyvek for the hub. I haven't tried this yet. She also uses a much smaller hole. I can see how Tyvek, being stronger and more pliable than heavy paper, would make using a smaller hole feasible. This sounds like something to experiment with.

Making Book Cloth

Book cloth making time! I first did a few sheets following the directions I learned a long time ago from a book, using rice starch paste. Then I experimented a bit.

[Please be patient and try not to get confused, since I took pictures at various times when I was doing different cloths. We might jump around from florals to squirrels without notice.]

First, you need a smooth flat surface to work on. I've saved my old worn-out cutting mats and use the back sides of those. Spritz the cloth with water--get it good and damp. Smooth it out with the right side of the fabric facing down:

On a piece of scrap paper (here, newsprint), brush an even layer of paste onto the backing paper, which should be just a bit larger than your piece of cloth. Always brush from the center out to the edges and be sure not to miss any spots. I'm using basic Japanese kozo:

Smooth backing paper, paste side down, over the fabric:

Using a dry brush helps smooth the paper:

As does using a rolled up towel to tamp down the paper onto the fabric. This also, especially, helps create a better bond between fabric and paper:

I also use another method to smooth down the paper onto the fabric, but almost hesitate mentioning it. This could potentially stretch your fabric and push too much glue onto the side of the fabric you don't want it on. That said, I've discovered that carefully using a roller (going, as you always should, from center outward towards the edges) will give you incredibly smooth and well-bonded book cloth (you might not even want it that smooth--this could partly be a matter of what you desire):

The original method I was taught was that one should now carefully turn and smooth the book cloth over onto a new, clean surface, right-side up, then paste around the edges to hold it down flat as it dries:

From recent experience, I can report that this is also an excellent way to drop your wet, newly-made cloth and ruin it. (I did not take a pic for posterity.)

So what I started to do was just leave the cloths in place--don't 

touch!--right-side down to dry, without an extra turning step. (Do you know why we are supposed to turn over the cloth? Does not turning increase the likelihood of paste getting onto the side of the fabric you don't want it on?) Regardless, I've found that, at least for the dropping-prone, the leave it alone method works:

When dry, peel it off, trim off the extra paper edging and voilà--book cloth: