Halloween Books

Even though Halloween is a month away, it’s fun to show books I made recently. I also have suggestions on how to use them.

My friend, Liz Constable of Book Art Studios in New Zealand, used skull paper for her book covers. She inspired me to make books with two prints of skull paper I had in my paper stash.

This book is an ode to Liz, who taught me a form of Coptic binding last year when I won her Facebook contest. See my blog about winning - here. Liz will give online classes soon and she is a fabulous teacher, very patient!

The other book I bound with a French Link Stitch to fit into a box. Art Supply on Main in Houston (where I taught last July 2016) sells box kits, the box below I made with their kit.

Important to keep in mind the needle catches under the thread closest to the next hole (or station) to make the French Link. Also be sure to use a Kettle stitch at the top and bottom so your book covers will not wobble.

I came up with these uses for a Halloween book:

1. Visitor book for Trick or Treaters using their costumed character name, such as Wonder Woman, Batman, etc.

2. Halloween party guest book using visitor names and scary comments about horror movies they love!

3. Personalize: write their names on book covers for family and friends.

When would you use a Halloween Book!?! 

Boo!

©Anne Rita Taylor 2017

Learning Coptic Binding

©Anne Rita Taylor 2016

Liz Constable from Book Art Studios posted on Facebook March 17th: You asked! So here I am asking for your help to get me started…Teaching online. What platform do you favor and why? Everyone who comments will go in the draw to win a 1-1 3 hour teaching session with me…

Posting from Liz

I responded that I heard Skillshare is good. And Liz announced on March 28th that I won!  

I was so pleased and excited too!  We started Skyping on Monday April 4th at 4:00 pm my time which was 9:00 am New Zealand time.

Our first session was to determine what I wanted to learn and what Liz wanted to teach. Even though I’ve been bookbinding a good while I find the Coptic stitch to be challenging. I like this style since the book lays flat for art journaling and calligraphy. Liz said she liked the Coptic stitch, so we planned our next one hour meetings for the following 3 Mondays.

For the first teaching session, Liz asked me to have a cup of black coffee available, and to figure out the paper size. I used Arches Text Wove paper - 10 by 6 1/4 inches. Liz demonstrated various ways to dye paper with coffee and other ways to decorate paper. It was most exciting!

Our second session focused on the template. Liz suggested I make the covers the same size as the text block but my covers were slightly larger. (On the covers I used marbled paper a friend brought back from Turkey.) I was a bit derailed with the dreaded template and it took the full hour!

The last session we hole-punched the covers and sewed the book! I had never sewed this type of Coptic binding so it was truly an enriching experience. We went over a half hour and Liz was most patient with me.

The day after our last meeting I sewed another one so I would remember what I had done. 

I used a cloth covered binding this time. I found the Fleur de Lys cloth at Joann's.

I colored the end pages of each of the eight signatures using acrylic paints since they are fast drying. I plan to dye paper with coffee and play with the other methods I learned too!

Coptic binding looks like a row of chain stitches.

Liz is now available to teach via Skype! And she is currently writing an E-Book about bookbinding. I already let her know I am her first customer for that book! Liz can be found on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/BookArtStudios/

If I can answer any questions you have, please ask me by Entering your Comment below.