Bookbinding and Cartonnage

This part is for crafts that involve the techniques used to make books and bookcases.

Contents:

Cartonnage

Simple Box

Zines

Watercolour Paper Zine

Cartonnage

Contents:

Simple Box

Materials

Pattern

Instructions

See also

Simple Box

Contents

Simple Box

Materials

Pattern

Instructions

Cutting

Structure

Cloth Outer

Paper Lining

See also

This is one of the the simplest cartonnage project: a parallelepipedal box that opens on a hinge.

Materials

You will need:

bookbinding board, 2-3 mm thick;

bookbinding cloth or cloth-like paper;

decorative paper such as that used for book end sheets;

mull, tarlatan or fabric scraps;

plus

contact glue;

PVA or paste;

and the following tools:

metal ruler;

pencil;

X-acto or snap-off blade knife;

a brush or spatula to apply the white glue;

For a small box, such as the C6 one in the pictures, 2 mm board is fine, above that it’s probably better to use 2.5 mm or even 3 mm for something around C4 size and above.

Pattern

For a box of external dimensions w × l × h, with bookbinding board of thickness t, you will need the following bookbinding board pieces:

2 × plates: w × l;

2 × long sides: w × (h - t);

2 × short sides: (l - t*2) × (h - t);

a piece of fabric w × about 50 mm for the hinge;

the following pieces of bookbinding cloth:

1 × cover (w + 40 mm) × ( l * 2 + h + 40 mm);

1 × sides (w + l * 2) × (h + 20 mm);

and finally the following pieces of decorative paper:

1 × inner cover (w - 4) × (l - 2 + 20);

1 × base (w - t * 2) × (l - t * 2);

2 × short sides (l + 40) × (h - t - 2 + 20);

2 × long sides (w - t * 2) × (h - t - 2 + 20);

dimensions in the bookbinding cloth and paper where 20 mm or 40 mm are added can be rounded to the closest 5 mm.

Precalculated dimensions for a box in 2 mm board can be as follows, in millimetres:

Piece

C6 (h 28)

C6 (h 40)

plates

114 × 162

114 × 162

long sides

162 × 26

162 × 38

short sides

110 × 26

110 × 38

fabric

114 × 50

114 × 50

cover

200 × 300

200 × 310

sides

390 × 50

390 × 60

inner cover

158 × 130

158 × 130

base

158 × 110

158 × 110

short sides

155 × 45

115 × 55

long sides

158 × 45

158 × 55

Instructions

Cutting

Cut all the pieces in the appropriate material. When cutting the board make sure that the grain of the side pieces lies along their short side and the grain of the plates lies along their long sides. For the bookcloth and paper try to make the grain run along the long edge of the finished box, but it may not be as critical.

Structure

Using contact glue, attach the four sides to one of the plates, starting from the spine, then the top and bottom and finally the front.

Tip

read the instructions of the glue for details on how to use it: you will probably have to apply some glue to both board pieces, let it rest for a few minutes, then apply some more glue and press together the pieces in their right position with some force.

Put the top plate over the base, spread PVA for about 2 cm around a long edge, on the top plate and the adjacent long side; put the fabric on top and press well to form a hinge.

Cloth Outer

Spread PVA on the bookcloth for the cover, put the box on top of it, aligned at about 2 cm from one end and wrap the cover around it; press carefully and cut a notch at ever place where the cloth is curving.

Note

when glueing bookcloth, make sure to only touch it with hands that are clean from glue, as that can stain the front of the cloth in a way that is very hard to clean.

Fold all remaining edges of the bookcloth so that they are glued to the inside of the cover and to the sides.

Spread PVA on the bookcloth for the sides, put it on the remaining sides, aligning it to the bottom of the box and to the corners with the spine. Clip the top of the cloth at each corner.

Fold down the flaps into the box.

Paper Lining

Spread PVA on the cover lining, put it on the cover, at 2 mm from each edge and going down into the spine.

Spread PVA on one of the short side linings, put it in the box, 2 mm down from the edge and extending into the long sides and the base, being careful to let the corner lay flat; notching the paper may help.

Repeat for the other short side.

Spread PVA on one of the long side linings, put it in the box, 2 mm down from the edge and precisely aligned between the corners, with the excess going into the base.

Finally, spread PVA on the base lining and put it in the box.

See also

The blog post about the box pictured in these instructions [https://blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/11/04-piecepack_and_postcard_boxes/index.html]

Zines

Contents:

Watercolour Paper Zine

Materials

Instructions

See also

Watercolour Paper Zine

Contents

Watercolour Paper Zine

Materials

Instructions

See also

This is a way to sew together a zine that is made of heavyweight paper, such as watercolour paper.

Because of the thickness of this kind of paper, the classical method from a single sheet, with one cut and many folds, wouldn’t work; on the other hand with four, or even just two sheets this is sturdy enough that sewing is an option.

Of course a long-arm stapler would also be an alternative, but that’s a somewhat specialized tool that not everybody has.

Materials

You need:

1 sheet of watercolour paper;

bookbinding or other strong thread;

Starting with an A3 (or two A4) sheet of paper will result in an A6 or postcard sized zine, which is good for mailing, or use other sizes to taste.

These instructions will make a 16 pages zine; dividing the paper in just two pieces for an 8 pages zine would also work.

300 g/m² is a good weight; going above that may be harder to fold.

Bookbinding thread is a thick waxed linen thread, a thick sewing linen thread waxed by rubbing it on a piece of beeswax also works.

As an alternative, something like buttonhole twist can be used, but regular sewing thread should only be used as a last resort, and at least used double.

As for tools, you will need:

a ruler, ideally metal;

X-acto or snap-off blade knife;

a needle big enough for the thread used;

some weight, such as a bag of big washers or a few big books;

a surface suitable for cutting;

a soft surface to work on when making holes, such as a few layers of felt / fabric;

optionally: a needle tip, mounted in an handle;

optionally: an awl.

For the needle, regular big hand-sewing needles will work fine, or you can use specialized bookbinding needles with a blunt tip.

A regular big needle that has been wrapped in a handle made of polymer clay (or any other kind of modelling material) is much more comfortable than just using a bare needle to score the paper, and can also be used instead of the awl to poke the holes before sewing.

Instructions

Cut the paper into four equal sheet (or two, if making an 8 pages zine), twice as big as the finished zine.

Measure and score each sheet in the middle using the needle mounted in a handle (or the needle you will use for sewing the book).

Put all sheets on top of each other and carefully fold them in half into a signature, letting the outer sheets curve around the inner ones.

Put everything under a weight for a while.

Using an awl (or again, the needle you will sew with and some care) make an even number of holes in the fold; for an A6 zine you may make 4 holes, about every 30 mm.

Sew the zine with a backstitch, i.e. the stitch shown in the image above:

cut a piece of thread that is twice as long as the spine plus 10 cm;

starting from the hole at the bottom of the zine, and from the outside, pass the thread to the inside and leaving a 3–4 cm tail;

then outside in the next hole;

again inside and outside;

when you reach the top of the zine you should be at the outside of the zine, go back to the inside in the second hole from the top;

and again outside and inside until you’re back at the bottom, you should be on the inside of the zine;

pass the needle through the last stitch, and in the loop to make a knot, repeat for a second knot;

pass the needle again to the outside;

finish the seam with a square knot.

Trim the ends of the thread so that they are shorter than the book

Put everything under a weight for at least two hours, or overnight.

Carefully trim the pages with a ruler and knife to the size of the outer page.

See also

https://mastodon.art/@rina/110842136688688125 the fediverse thread that gave me the idea.

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Zine making an 8-pages zine with just one cut (where I took the size recommendation from).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XCvTZRVbgg kettle stitch binding for a full book.

Folding Paper

This part is for crafts that involve folding paper: origami, letterlocking, etc.

Contents:

Origami

Document Folder

Origami

Contents:

Document Folder

Materials

Instructions

Document Folder

Contents

Document Folder

Materials

Instructions

This is a practical and useful document folder with a lot of pockets.

The model is not mine, but I’ve found it somewhere on the internet in the early 2000s and can’t find the original source. I’ve drawn and written the instructions from scratch by looking at a model I had folded back then.

Materials

You will need a rectangular sheet of paper.

The size of the fold at step 3 will be size of the spine, and will also regulate how much overlap there will be at step 7 to hold the folder together.

Some size suggestions:

A4 paper with 1.5 cm fold: good for A8 paper and 85 mm * 54 mm business cards;

60 cm × 40 cm with 4 cm fold: suitable for A6 paper;

50 cm x 70 cm with 4 cm fold: suitable for A5 paper.

Instructions

Fold in half on the long side, crease and reopen.

Fold in quarters, crease and reopen.

Fold down the top and bottom edges a bit: this will be the width of the spine.

Fold down the four corners to touch the quarter creases.

Fold down the top and bottom edges, following the quarter creases.

Mountain fold the side edges; turn over the model.

Insert the left side in the triangular flaps of the right side.

Fold in half on the remaining crease.

Turn conterclockwise 90°, done.

Bibliography

Miscellaneous

Index