Happy Easter Weekend!

To celebrate this membership turning 1 year old (yay!) and the grand opening of Springtime 🌸🌸🌸 I’m sharing a bonus tutorial to make this weekend. It’s an origami rabbit and moon. I originally made this to celebrate the year of the rabbit in 2023 and now it’s yours! Just in time for Easter.

There’s two tutorials - one for the moon and one for the rabbit. Here’s what you need:

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• Bonefolder

• Red paper 10cm x 10cm

• White paper 21cm x 21cm

• Scissors

I also want to just welcome all the new members. I’m so happy you’re here! If you’re looking for all the tutorials they are located here. They are available to all members in the paid tier. I can’t wait to see what you make!

The membership is still open for new members and I’m running an Easter offer. It’s 30% off forever. Would love to see you inside. Join us here

Okay let’s get into making an origami moon and rabbit. 🐇🌒

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It’s a little later than I had planned - I had a knee injury and ended up on crutches 🤪, but I am so excited to finally bring you a slipcase tutorial to house all of your mini books inside.

What is a slipcase?

A slipcase is a five-sided, rigid protective box designed to hold books, CDs, or vinyl, with one end left open to expose the spine for easy identification. They are commonly used for special editions. Traditionally bookbinders would use the same materials as a hardcover - book cloth and Greyboard, to make it extra luxurious, but it’s been adopted in packaging design for lots of other uses, using thin card.

I always tell customers who come to my shop, once you’ve made a hardcover, you’ve almost made a box. So for this tutorial - I’ll be showing you the proper way.

Here’s what you need:

• A4 Greyboard 2mm

• Covering material - I use paper - I’ll explain why below…

• PVA Glue

• Glue brush

• Sand paper or emery board

• Masking tape

• Craft knife

I’ve also included my way of how to cut greyboard in the video as a lot of people were asking for my method. It’s probably one of the hardest things to get right when you’re starting out, so I hope this helps you.

This project is for members. If you’re new around here, you’ve landed on my monthly bookbinding membership, where we learn about bookbinding cultures from around the world, through articles, resources, templates and bitesize tutorials. You can upgrade here to see all the tutorials. Don’t forget all my tutorials are easy to find, in one place. Just head here.

Okay let’s get into it.

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Welcome to Month #5 in our stitch club project. In this tutorial we are learning the Long Stitch binding technique. It joins four other bookbinding stitch projects, where you can learn different bindings across the world. As always, all tutorials can be found here and members can return to each project as often as you like. Yay!

Long stitch binding is a versatile, non-adhesive, and historically rooted bookbinding technique where folded sections (signatures) are sewn directly through a flexible cover (often leather or thick paper). It creates a decorative, exposed, and vertical stitch pattern on the spine and allows the book to lay completely flat, making it ideal for journals and sketchbooks.

If you’re new around here and would like to join our beautiful bookbinding club and make books together just sign up here. I’ll see you inside.

What’s great about this binding is that you can easily remove the pages, making the cover like a refillable journal or folder. Unlike other bindings where endpapers are glued to the cover, this binding doesn’t involve any glue (apart from making the cover of course!) and is a favourite amongst bookbinders across the world.

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Hey Makers!

Welcome back to our series The Stitch Library, where I teach you a new binding in the form of a mini book. Making mini books, mean you can learn the technique quickly and hold it as an example you can return to, for all your future bookbinding projects.

This is our fourth binding in the series. If you’ve recently joined the club, Welcome! It’s so lovely to have you here. It’s best to start this project at the beginning, so you know what dimensions of paper we are using, as I don’t explain that on every lesson. The first lesson is here.

This month, the tutorial is on the buttonhole binding. It’s a great one to play with cutaways in your spine. Try the tutorial and then get creative with your books. Don’t forget to post your books in the subscriber chat so we can all get inspired and I’ll share some of them in a future post.

If you haven’t yet joined our membership yet and want to learn the amazing world of bookbinding, you can join us here. See you inside!

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I’m so happy to share our third binding in our stitch library. If you’re new to the membership, this project shares six books with different bindings from across the world. At the end of the project, I’ll show you how to measure your books and make a slipcase for the books to live inside. It’s a great resource to return to, when you’re devising new book projects.

All tutorials are available to members in the paid tier. They can be found here.

You can drop into any of the tutorials when you have the time and you can make them for as long as you stay in the membership. If you haven’t joined yet, take advantage of my special offer here. This is our 10th tutorial in the membership so far! What a wonderful space!

French Link Binding

The term “French link binding” or “French link stitch” is used to refer to a bookbinding method that appears to have originated in France in the 16th century.

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Today’s tutorial has landed. For our second project in the Stitch Library, we are making a Secret Belgian Binding Book.

There are two bindings in this project, so grab a cuppa and gather your materials and let’s do some mindful Sunday sewing. All tutorials are available to paid members in the bookbinding club. To upgrade and watch all the tutorials in our lovely space, you can subscribe here.

I hope you enjoy this project. I can’t wait to see your versions.

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Welcome to the first in a series of stitched bindings, where we learn a different exposed binding for you to try.

The projects in The Stitch Club are all miniature versions of various bindings, so you can test out the technique first, without having to commit to a larger book. It’s a great way to learn a stitch to see if you like it and get a visual effect quickly.

The first binding is The Egyptian Coptic Binding. Made up of six signatures, we will create a chain stitch that travels up the spine of the book using linen thread. The effect is that you will see the binding on the spine. This method is great if you want your book to stay flat when you’re using it.

Okay, let’s get into it. The video tutorial shows you how to make the book, stitching and glued covers.

Grab yourself a cup of tea and set aside 1 hour for this project. Let’s go!

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I filmed another book tutorial earlier this month, but life got busy and I forgot to share it. Have no fear, I’ve finally found some time to edit it.

Before we get into it, I wanted to remind you that, if you’re wanting to join the paid tier, the price goes up in two days to £99 per year. If you’d like to save £37 then make sure you join before then. Paid members get access to all the tutorials and insider tips on making books, including the one below.

Notes for current members: You don’t have to do anything. Your renewal next year will keep you in the current price you paid when you joined. There’s no need to renew before the end of your first year. I hope that makes sense.

New members just head to the subscribe page and I really look forward to seeing you and all your wonderful creations. There’s now 175 of you in the club. I’d love to get to 200 - cos who doesn’t love a round number?

Take a look at my About page to find out more about the paid tier

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that when I made this batch of saddle stitch books, I was in the middle of binding them in my shop, when a customer came in and bought them all. Crazy!

So, while I was making a new batch (coming soon) I thought I’d share the process of how I make my map covered books. Let’s go!

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This month I’m sharing a quick tutorial on how to make your own book cloth. It’s a great DIY way of making your own book cloth for hard or soft cover books.

For this tutorial I used cotton fabric, but go ahead and try other fabrics too. I prefer to use thin fabric so that turning corners for hard cover books isn’t too difficult on your hands. Linen might be trickier, but if you try it, let us know how you get on.

A History of Book Cloth

Up until the 1830s, books were covered with leather or vellum. Around this time cloth came into use to cover books with paper labels added to the spine. Cloth was cheaper than leather and stronger than paper, so it was perfect for book production. Early examples used dark colours like maroons and greys and blues. You can also date books in this way, which is fascinating.

After the gold rush of 1849, gold blocking was introduced to the covers, with silver also used, but quickly abandoned due to silver damaging the books. In the early nineteenth century dust jackets were introduced, originally to protect the cloth, but later used to advertise the books with easy to reproduce designs, which is what we see on many hard cover novels today!

One of my favourite things to do is to take off a dust jackets to see the cloth underneath, many of which are embossed which we totally miss when we keep the jacket on. Try it and let me know what you find!

If you’re in the membership you can go right ahead and watch the tutorial below. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Share them in the subscriber chat so everyone can see your lovely books. A list of what you need is below the tutorial.

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If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ll have heard that I’ve been in hospital with Kidney stones, so I’ve got behind on many, many things, including sharing some projects inside our bookbinding club. I’m still quite poorly with the stones, but I’m slowly doing bits of work when I can.

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If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll have access to this tutorial and all the others for as long as you’re a paying member. Take your time, enjoy the process and I can’t wait to see your own version.

It’s a really simple, easy make and you can of course use different types of paper and cloth. For this project I used mulberry paper (also known as Hanji, Washi or Kozo paper). I backed the paper with another sheet of contrasting paper and gave it a mitred edge ( it wasn’t perfect but that’s okay). I also attached some thread and a button to keep it closed. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

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Last month, we learned about the history of accordion books along with two tutorials to make an accordion book and then a Flag book inspired by Easter.

Here’s the first accordion book:

And here’s a reminder of the flag book.

For those of you who don’t have the time to commit to our Bookbinding Club and after many requests, I also shared a self paced tutorial on the Flag book on my website. It’s a different tutorial to the one in the club, in case you want to try it.

For this project, I used a whole image (one of my collages) and cut it up and pieced it back together so the image gets revealed. I came up with an easy grid system to get the flags in the right order. It was so much fun and I think it would work great with a photo or a print or painting. If you try it, let me know.

Here’s the tutorial

Use the code Treat25 at checkout to get 25% off in May!

Take a look at how to make your accordion pamphlet below.

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Thank you to everyone who voted for this tutorial. We are exploring a new version of the accordion book today. The structure is a variation of the accordion fold, but with extra elements glued onto sections which create a moving sculptural book. It looks complicated but it’s actually quite simple. I really hope you enjoy it.

What is a flag book?

The flag book structure was originally made by Hedi Kyle and it was named such, because of its movement that mirrors a moving set of flags. There’s so many variations you can try and it has the ability to really get creative with cut outs.

Take a look at these wonderful ideas below:

Today, I’m sharing the basic structure in this video tutorial for you to make at home. You can flip the book sideways to open the book so it is portrait.

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Welcome to the first post inside my paid membership. If you’ve signed up, this is the space where I’ll share with you how to make books, where they came from and a lot of behind the scenes of my online business and physical shop. My shop is located in the historic market town of Hexham, where I make all my projects come to life. I’m so happy to have you here.

April is a tutorial month, which means I’ll be sharing ‘how to makes’ throughout the month. Then next month I’ll be sharing some creative challenges for you to opt into, using the things we learn this month. Sound good?

I’m not sure where you are in your bookbinding journey, so to make sure it’s fully accessible, I’m going back to basics and all projects are aimed at the beginner. If you’re a seasoned bookbinder, stay tuned for some extra ideas on how to expand your knowledge of making artist’s books.

What to expect this month 🪡

• 3 tutorials on this months book structure: The Accordion book

• Fantastic examples from artists who have used this structure in different ways

• The origin story of the accordion book and how I’ve adapted this book into my own work

• An A-Z of bookbinding terms, words, tools and materials so you’re not overwhelmed.

• A ‘Story of Business’ post detailing my journey into becoming a full time artist

• An invitation into my secret Facebook group with almost 700 members

• A special discount on bookbinding kits to get you started.

If you’re ready to delve into the world of Accordion Books, grab a cuppa and let’s get going.

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So far, 8 of you have joined and I couldn’t be happier! What a great result from just one email!

This is your reminder that we officially start on 2nd April, but in the run up to it, I’ll be sharing the tools and materials you’ll need to get started. More on that later.

First of all, I’m sharing a mini Chinese thread book tutorial. If you’ve subscribed to paid, it’s yours at the bottom of this letter.

What’s a Chinese Thread Book?

Chinese Thread Book // Zhen Xian Bao

The Chinese Thread Book originates from China and was made by women in provinces across the country to carry small habadashery items. It was made up of a multitude of origami pockets each which expanded and folded out bigger and bigger. Each pocket was using mulberry paper and hand painted. The original books are an absolute work of art.

I first came across them in this article by Paula Beardell Krieg. I was so enchanted by this practice that I learned to make my own and came up with a simplified version that I could teach to others. It ended up becoming my best selling kit. Now I release a new kit with each season here.

Here’s my version of a six pocket book.

And here’s a mini book, which I teach beginners to learn the folds:

I started to think about how people might use them today? Jewellery, sweets, sewing kits all came to mind. Then last Halloween I thought they would make perfect treat boxes for all your trick and treats.

What other ideas could you use for your Chinese thread books? Tell me in the comments.

Okay, let’s get into it and make your own mini book.

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