Art-Deco Sketchbook

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Art Deco, Art Deco Bookbinding, artist sketchbook, χειροποίητη βιβλιοδεσία, χειροποίητο σημειωματάριο, Αρ ντεκό, Βιβλιοδεσία, δερματόδετο, δερματόδετο σημειωματάριο, καλλιτεχνική βιβλιοδεσία, marbled paper, onlays, sketchbook

Have I mentioned how much I like Art-Deco?
   It’s really hard to define what Art-Deco is: the aesthetic which emerged from it had a very distinct personality, yet its origins and influences were numerous and quite different from one-another. As with most things, the bindings produced during its heyday were astounding pieces of craftsmanship and aesthetic.

  So, it goes without saying I was quite excited when asked to create a sketchbook with an Art-Deco inspired decoration as a gift for an artist.
There were also a number of restrictions/guidelines I had to take into consideration: the client’s budget, the time limit (it was to be a Christmas gift) and of course the sketchbook’s requirements regarding size, type of paper and desired function.

  After discussing with the client I proposed a combination of longstich and a hardback cover. That way the owner would have a sketchbook that can bend in a 360 arc and can lay completely flat when open, much like a regular sketchbook while also being quite durable, and that could be completed within the given deadline.

  The paper used, a 100% cotton paper from Hahnemuhle, is simply amazing. Velvety and strong with great texture. I saw a large map printed on it and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

 Another request was to avoid intense/bright colors. I chose a fine Italian leather of vivid dark red color (wine anyone?) as it works well with gold and underlines the splendour Art-Deco is characterised for.

There are many ways to create onlays – mine is a combination of things I’ve read/photos I’ve seen from other binders and trial&error, as I was never taught the technique.

(Here’s a close up, warts and all…!)

Now, there was the design…
  I am in no way an artist or a designer of any sort and I’m totally useless in drawing. I’m never short of ideas but I usually struggle when having to create a template for the reasons mentioned above. For what is more I consider Art-Deco hallowed ground: I know I cannot compete with the exquisite talents who created the designs for the era’s bindings, yet I had to do the style some justice.
  Taking into consideration the client’s requests I came up with two designs and went for the “safest” choice, the one I felt the most likely to look sound and pleasing. The result is what you see before you today.

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Cloth Bindings

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Hayao Miyazaki, πανόδετη βιβλιοδεσία, χειροποίητη βιβλιοδεσία, Βιβλιοδεσία, Μιγιαζάκι, μαρμαρόκολλα, marbled paper, Nausicaa, Nausicaa bindings

  In the past 6 months, due to a combination of commissions and the seminars I’ve been giving, I have made more cloth bindings than I’ve made in 9 years of bookbinding.

 To be honest I wasn’t really fond of them until recently. I always felt cloth very restricting as a covering medium: it stains easily, is far less susceptible to decorative techniques compared to leather, less pleasant to work with and of course inferior in durability.
 However, working with it more often I’ve also come to appreciate its virtues: big variety of colors readily available, doesn’t require preparation, easy to work with, disposable (in case things get messy) and very cost effective.

Here are some examples of work from recent cloth bindings.

Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki
 The film version use to be on the TV here often, I remember watching it as a kid. Masterfully illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki (widely acclaimed director and animator) for over a decade, Nausicaa is an interesting story with rich and diverse lore.

  The person who commissioned it wanted a classic cloth binding in a color that would represent the earth’s polluted landscape in the story. I combined it with an amazing marbled paper from Jemma Lewis. It was supposed to be a much simpler quarter binding but I wanted to try out this style instead, which was more complicated than I had imagined, and then matching endpapers are a must, but then I also figured it needs some (which turned out to be a lot) gold tooling/framing to really show, and by the time I had finished the binding I realized it took 3 times more work than initially planned. Fellow colleagues, do you feel me?!?

The Holy bible
L.K. brought this bible which was owned by his uncle. It is of sentimental value to the family and -as is often the case with bibles- it was falling apart. The late owner had made a few efforts to keep the book in one piece, most notably sewing the spine (notice the sewing holes) and the front cover in a coil fashion.

  The original plan was for a new simple cloth binding, however I thought it would be interesting to preserve the original covers and spine which, through the repair efforts and the hand-drawn cross, tell the book’s story, that it was used and loved a lot. Plus the cliche stamp on the old covers looks lovely.

 What is interesting with this particular cloth binding is the recessed covers in which the original ones are inlayed as panels. It was the first time I tried this and I’m pleased with how it turned out. I made sure to remove the original cloth covers with a substantial layer of old bookboard still attached to them or else they could tear easily or be permeated by the glue and soil or loose shape.
 The exact opposite was required for the original spine cloth though: it had to lay completely flat on the new spine and follow its flex, keeping the coverboard layer would make it protrude (and thus prone to detachment) and less flexible.

Notice the french groove? Quite neat if I may say so!

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
What do you do when you simply can’t find a way to split a title/word in a grammatically correct way?
Answer: what word? what order?

  Problem with thin spines is that you have to either tool with very small type size or tool vertically. The first one leads to an impractical result – a book’s author or title need to be distinguishable on the shelf. The second can easily lead to misaligned letters, plus it’s not always possible, especially with long titles or author names.

  There was another thing as well: I could not split “Labyrinths” in any grammatically correct way because of the 4 consonants at the end (seriously, what’s wrong with you english language?!?). So I decided to have some fun by going around the problem and at the same time elevate the title into a small design element, hinting at the title’s meaning by altering the correct order of letters and adding a small gold trail line!

I’m really fond of using letters and a book’s title  as part of the decoration (here are some examples from my work). Will do a post featuring some great works by various binders on this decorative approach in the future.

Marbled Diamond pattern

Tags

Design binding, handbound journal, χειροποίητη βιβλιοδεσία, χειροποίητο σημειωματάριο, δερματόδετη βιβλιοδεσία, leatherbound journal, longstitch binding, marbled paper

Here’s a small experiment of mine; presenting the Marbled Diamond pattern.

The idea behind this journal was to take classic elements, most notably marbled paper, and use them in a way that would look new but at the same time convincing and natural, as if this kind of decoration could have existed as a standard form in the 19th century.

This is the design I had in mind; a diamond pattern onlaid with marbled paper. As far as I’m concerned I have never seen anything like it, however if some experienced or knowledgeable binder/conservator out there is aware of any similar historical binding/s please do share the information (and as a bonus trash my creative excitement in the process)!
On the one hand it strikes me as strange that there aren’t at least a few historical examples of such a design, even as an odd piece or excercise of creativity. Then again, judging by the time and measurements it required, production or time-efficiency wise it is a somewhat impractical design.

I opted for the longstitch because much as I wanted to try the technique I wasn’t very keen on producing a laborious sewn-in boards fine binding.

As you can see I committed the sacrilege of using 2 different decorative papers for the cover and endpapers, a marbled and a paste paper. Before you grimace in disgust and search for stones to throw stay your hand and consider my reason behind such blasphemy; the marbled paper I wanted to use had the grain wrong. So, if it would be used as endpaper it would have to be placed in the correct grain, thus the pattern would be running horizontally in contrast with the vertical pattern of the cover pieces.
I preferred to match it with a paste paper of very similar colors hoping to achieve some relevance between the two designs. It’s not ideal but I suppose it wouldn’t be called “the ugliest juxtaposition of patterns one has ever seen”, to quote Brien Beidler on one of his findings!

As for the verdict, I really like the pattern and the resulting visual. I believe there’s more to it and will definitely return sooner than later for a second go. I also have a couple of ideas that could make it less time consuming and more repeatable.
As an extra note I have to admit there’s something a bit “off” about this specific journal, a few people who saw it expressed the same feeling. Longstitch aside, I attribute this to the blind tooling. I wasn’t sure about it but after completing the marbled diamond pattern the remaining spaces felt somewhat empty so I decided to do some blind tooling as a remedy. Came out a bit too “chatty’ for my taste, should have gone with double gold lines so that an inner linear rhombus would be created in each gap – more discreet.
In any case I look forward in trying the design again, next time on a more classic form.
Until then what do you make of it?