you will need a stack of paper
a special whole puncher that makes wholes no more or less than a couple of millimeters in circumfrence
a needle and thread
some cardboard
glue
a pen
an exact-o knife
First separate your papers into stacks of five sheets. Place them horizontally in front of you and fold each of them in half, one by one. Place each of the folded
papers on top of each other seem to seem. Unfold the stack, thread your needle, tie a knot at the end of the thread and carefully sew the seems together
vertically from top to bottom before refolding the entire, now connected stack in half. Repeat with each stack of five pieces of paper. You should now have a
number of folded and sewn stacks of paper. Keep them folded in half and punch wholes vertically down the side of the stacked seems. Re-thread your needle, tie
a knot at the end and weave it vertically threw the punched wholes from top to bottom before tying the thread into another knot at the end of the stack of paper.
You should now have a stack of paper sewn tightly at its vertical seems. Each five sheets should be sewn and each set of five sheets sewn to one another. Place a
piece of un-sewn paper of the same size upon a flat cardboard surface. Trace its edges with a pen or pencil and proceed to trace this line with your exact- knife.
Paint a layer of glue onto just half of the paper-sized cardboard surface. Press one side of your sewn stack of paper onto the glue covered side of the cardboard
and place a weight upon it until it is dry and the paper and the cardboard are bound to one another. Fold the un-glued side of the cardboard over so that it
protects the other side of the stack of paper. Decorate your book's cardboard cover however you see fit.
papers on top of each other seem to seem. Unfold the stack, thread your needle, tie a knot at the end of the thread and carefully sew the seems together
vertically from top to bottom before refolding the entire, now connected stack in half. Repeat with each stack of five pieces of paper. You should now have a
number of folded and sewn stacks of paper. Keep them folded in half and punch wholes vertically down the side of the stacked seems. Re-thread your needle, tie
a knot at the end and weave it vertically threw the punched wholes from top to bottom before tying the thread into another knot at the end of the stack of paper.
You should now have a stack of paper sewn tightly at its vertical seems. Each five sheets should be sewn and each set of five sheets sewn to one another. Place a
piece of un-sewn paper of the same size upon a flat cardboard surface. Trace its edges with a pen or pencil and proceed to trace this line with your exact- knife.
Paint a layer of glue onto just half of the paper-sized cardboard surface. Press one side of your sewn stack of paper onto the glue covered side of the cardboard
and place a weight upon it until it is dry and the paper and the cardboard are bound to one another. Fold the un-glued side of the cardboard over so that it
protects the other side of the stack of paper. Decorate your book's cardboard cover however you see fit.
This is a very interesting piece. I'm assuming the paragraph breaks (or line breaks, similar to poetry) have some correlation with the separate pieces of paper being bound together, but I may just be projecting meaning on it. It's useful information, but I feel like I'm missing something. Are they just directions?
ReplyDeleteI read this as a How-To instruction article. This is technical writing, and in the absence of creative writing elements, I'm not sure how to critique. If this post is trying to be subtle or ironic, or operate at some other level beyond the literal, I'm not getting that.
ReplyDeletevery interesting. I once made a comic book in elementary school as a project similar to this. I appreciate this pieace. Really brought me back.
ReplyDeleteThis was an odd one - not in a bad way, mind you. I almost viewed it like a poem with the line-breaks, and once the beginning (the list) ended I was making sure to take note of exactly where they occurred, and why - it was interesting to see, though at ‘a knot‘, the only reason I could see for the break was the new instruction. Which could very well be it!
ReplyDeleteI had to do something like this for high school, and it looks like you’ve given a good bit of instruction - I feel like I might be able to bind a book from scratch with this. In fact, I might give it a try - thanks!
You can't use a half punch? Proofread, he said once more. I'm all for handmade books, the how-to as an organizing principle. But for this to make it into the realm of cnf, the writer must appear. Give us some context, a specific book you've made as example, a fairy tale about a son seeking his mother, etc. How did you come to be binding books? Where did you learn? What do you do with these books?
ReplyDeleteYou might also research the terminology of bookmaking: some good words to know like folio and gutter and spine.