Delicious books

I wish I'm still in in school, when autographs were very popular, so I could use one of these for others to write. I wish I still have to attend lectures, and would proudly use one of these for note-takings. I wish I've started working full time, so I could show these off to my colleagues (or perhaps, students? heh!). Why is that the idea of finally giving it a try at bookbinding only occured when I have neither of those? Maybe I could use them as my idea book, for sketches and designs I plan to do for my crafts. They've been everywhere these days - I wrote on scrap papers, books, small notes etc.. need to start combining them all and put them in one. proper. book.

I have to admit, I'm always crazy about books, and always envy those delicious-looking books in multiple colours on the shelves at bookstores. But I've always stop short of buying them, putting a thought at the back of my head - I'll learn bookbinding, and I'll bind books with beautiful covers like these! (and ended up buying those boring looking writing pads in bulk haha). Well, the truth is, I said that ever since high school, but never actually had the guts or the ways of fulfilling that very wish.

Not until last week. When I googled around for something totally un-craft related but ended up on craft websites anyway (why is that always happened to me?! :P) hehe. At first I thought I'll give Japanese bookbinding a try, because it seems simple enough. And so I did. And finally, when tutorials of coptic binding were shovered upon my Window screen (they kept on appearing, regardless how many times I tried to ignore), I decided to give it a try. It sure looks complicated at first, but after hours of trying (almost 4 hours!), I finally made my very first coptic-stitched book. Yeay!

Then I got addicted and started to make more books, and instead of spending hours per book, I spend less than 2 hours to make one. I can even speed up on the stitching part yeay! Unlike Japanese bookbinding where you have to make creases in order to write in the book, coptic binding allows the book to open flat. It shows off the fine spines of the books, which I totally love, and  it gives you plenty of ideas on how to improve your binding skills. You can show off your stitching skills too, though it's not really that nice in my case :P

And the way you stationed the holes for the stitching also play the role of varying the stitching design. And different threads used for stitching will also give different effects to the whole look too. I'm currently using white nylon fishing thread, but can't wait to try other colours as well :)

And as you can see, I tried making the signatures (the folded sheets grouped together) in different colours as well, and the result was amazing!

I already have few ideas and techniques on how to improve - and I simply can't wait to get started.  :P