Tying Your Work Together: Artist Aurora Cacciapuoti Introduces Japanese Book Binding

Below is a simple demo on how to make a book using Japanese Book Binding.

You can use this to tie all your work together or to make a sketchbook for either of the Draw Together Assignments.

You Will Need

Paper

Scissors

Waxed Thread

Large, Sharp Embroidery Needle

A Book Binding Awl

Bull Dog Clips

 

Below, artist Aurora Cacciapuoti introduces the method in a simple, step by step video.

 

Select Paper

Either gather drawings that you'd like to bind together or an assortment of paper that you like.

 

Make sure that the paper is all the same size.

Cut to the same size if necessary.

Make a Template

You will now make a template so that when you make holes into your book for the purpose of binding (sewing) them together, that the holes will be evenly spaced apart and you will be able to easily thread them together:

Take a piece of paper the size of the book that you'd like to make.

Fold the paper in half 3 times.

 

 

 

Unfold the paper and mark a dot 2 cm down on the first fold (panel).

 

Then mark a dot, the same distance down, on every two panels/folds (that's two panels apart from each other) as shown in the photo below.

 

Making Holes

It's easier to work with small piles of paper so divide your paper up into manageable piles of about 5/6 pages. Take a small pile and align your template over the top of it.

Secure the pages together with bull dog clips.

 

Use the template as a guide to make holes all the way through the pile. Use a book binding awl for this job. If you do not have an awl then you can use a sharp embroidery needle instead.

Repeat this process through all the pages including the front and back covers.

 

 

Threading the Book

Cut a piece of waxed thread approximately 5 times the length of the book.

 

Once you have threaded an embroidery needle, with the right length of thread, take your pages and find the second hole along.

You can use bull dog clips again to secure all the pages, neatly, together.

Hold the pages together and open the book about half way open. Take the needle and thread down from the open part of the book and pull the thread all the way through leaving about five cm of the end the thread in the middle of the book.

 

Later, once you have finished binding (sewing) the book together, you will tie the two ends of thread together and the ends will be hidden in the middle of the book.

Now close the book again and this time thread all the way up and over the second whole, wrapping around all the pages, binding all the pages together. Make sure that the stitch is tight.

 

 

Then go down through the next hole, wrap around and back up.

 

When you get to the end, wrap around the corner, making a stitch at a right angle to the other one as in the pictures below.

 

 

And work your way back up and down through all the holes to the other corner.

 

Once you have wrapped around the other corner work your way back to the second hole again, where you started. Go up half way and find the other end of the thread. Pull the needle through at this point and pull the thread all the way through the middle of the book.

 

Tightly tie the two ends of thread together. Snip if necessary.

 

Now enjoy your very own book!

 

• Drawing Space Assignment
  Exploring the power of drawing as a tool to 'draw space' and express how we interact with space and place.
• Autobiographical Drawing Assignment
  Using drawing and collage materials to exploring self- portraiture.