Handmade and Artistic Book Craft: Surfaces and Structures
Domain 6 tests the decorative and structural book arts, where the book is made as an object in its own right.
Decorative surfaces
- Marbling: carrageenan size in a tray; paper pre-treated with alum mordant, otherwise the colour will not fix; acrylic colours dropped on the size, combed, paper laid and lifted, rinsed, dried flat.
- Paste paper: cooked wheat starch paste coloured with acrylic, brushed and combed; cheap and stable.
- Suminagashi: ink floated on plain water, no size needed.
Structures
Accordion or concertina; Japanese stab (four-hole, tortoise-shell); Coptic exposed sewing; drum leaf, where leaves are glued only at the spine edge; flag book; tunnel book; dos-à-dos, two books sharing one cover; Jacob's ladder.
Worked example
A Coptic book of ten signatures, four leaves each. Punch two holes per signature, about 20 mm from head and tail, and matching holes in the boards. Sew with waxed linen, keeping tension even: tight stitching makes the spine curl inward, loose stitching lets signatures wobble. A correct Coptic book opens completely flat, which is the whole point of the structure.
Traps
- No alum on the paper, so the marbled pattern washes off when pasted.
- Adding ox gall after colours have already spread; skim the tray and start again.
- Wetting handmade paper unevenly, causing cockling.
- Punching holes after sewing has begun.
- Gluing across an accordion fold and destroying its flex.