Binding your own (note)books

[caracalled]

During the course of my studies I got to learn how to bind books using a bunch of different methods and it has absolutely changed the way I think about notebooks and planners (but also the way I view books in general!)

I have started to make my own notebooks and planners for me and my partner and it's much cheaper and much more customizable which I love! For example I often look up DIN measurements for work and next time i make a planner I will just include a page with them at the end of the planner to always have with me.
Plus I've been trying a bunch of formats to see what works for me specifically instead of relying on whatever I can find at the store, like folding the A4 paper in half differently from how you normally would with an A5 notebook so I have a really slim tall notebook that fits in my bag perfectly, or making notebooks that fit my partners jeans pocket size perfectly :D

Does anyone else here do something similar? What are things you might have discovered on the way or what would be things you'd like to try out?

[Dibs]

I went to a bookmaking workshop towards the end of 2023 and have since picked up the materials to do some at home! I've been a bit busy, and I'm stuck for interesting ideas on what to do with them, but I'm excited to give it another go. Your ideas about sizing books for specific places has already got my mind whirring. What do you tend to do with your books?

[caracalled]

I went to a bookmaking workshop towards the end of 2023 and have since picked up the materials to do some at home! I've been a bit busy, and I'm stuck for interesting ideas on what to do with them, but I'm excited to give it another go. Your ideas about sizing books for specific places has already got my mind whirring. What do you tend to do with your books?

Ohhh that's so cool!! Please send any experiments in here, I'd love to see! Especially if you have more ideas about the sizing of books!

I actually study graphic design and my specialty is book/editorial design so a couple of my "books" are class projects that either end up being used in presentations/exhibits for my school (nothing fancy tho believe me) or kinda just sitting on shelves and catching dust! The process is super fun nonetheless!
Otherwise I've been a little short on time lately but I have this idea for a  personal project I wanna do! It's a collection of recipes i cook a lot with magnet sheets on the cover so it can be stuck to the fridge and used hands free!

[Dibs]

Otherwise I've been a little short on time lately but I have this idea for a  personal project I wanna do! It's a collection of recipes i cook a lot with magnet sheets on the cover so it can be stuck to the fridge and used hands free!

Ooooh, that sounds both very cool, and like something you'll get to use a lot! I'd love to see it when it's done!

Here are the books I made in the workshop:



The pink one is your average one-signature lil booklet (showing off the binding thread, I loved using beeswax on it), as of yet blank. Then I have an accordion-style one where we got to make the hardback covers from greyboard and bookcloth, and a version without a cover where I experimented with using ink! It's meant to be a progression of micro scales, so on one end is bacteria, and on the other is void and buzzing. Damn just noticed I put it upside down. Oh well, works either way.
If I owned any ink, I'd use some red on the other side to work my way up the macro scale up to the view of the cosmic web, which should look uncannily like the end of the blue side, if I know what I'm doing...

[Cobra!]

Ooh! This is a subject I really want to get into. Back when I used social media, I found a very satisfying video where someone wrote a book using the old printing press method, and then leather bound it, and I fell in love. I cannot to save my life find that video, though...

I went to a bookmaking workshop towards the end of 2023 and have since picked up the materials to do some at home! I've been a bit busy, and I'm stuck for interesting ideas on what to do with them, but I'm excited to give it another go. Your ideas about sizing books for specific places has already got my mind whirring. What do you tend to do with your books?

Ooh! I didn't know those existed! I should be on the lookout for them where I live!

[caracalled]

Ooooh, that sounds both very cool, and like something you'll get to use a lot! I'd love to see it when it's done!

I'll show you if I ever get around to doing it!! I have so much to do for Uni right now but I'm hoping I'll still be able to do it!

Here are the books I made in the workshop:

OHHH THESE ARE SO COOL!! I love the idea of the progression in the liporello booklet!!

Ooh! This is a subject I really want to get into. Back when I used social media, I found a very satisfying video where someone wrote a book using the old printing press method, and then leather bound it, and I fell in love. I cannot to save my life find that video, though...

God that must've been so exhausting! I pressed the title on the book in one of the pictures below and assembling the letters alone took so long already, let alone pressing them. I cannot imagine printing a whole book like that!



These are some books that I made recently as references to come back to if I want to replicate the binding method!! I also designed, layouted and bound a little book on fish for my partner recently, so if I can find that one I'll post pictures here as well!!

[Dibs]

OHHH THESE ARE SO COOL!! I love the idea of the progression in the liporello booklet!!

Thank you!! I'm trying to think of inventive ways to use linear and non-linear books to tell stories... Maybe I'll stack some liporellos perpendicular to each other to form intersecting narratives.

These are some books that I made recently as references to come back to if I want to replicate the binding method!! I also designed, layouted and bound a little book on fish for my partner recently, so if I can find that one I'll post pictures here as well!!

Woah!!!! I love the variation in simple black and white, they all look so interesting in that box together. And they're so clean! Absolutely beautiful.

[Swiftpaw]

Our first assignment for our design course this semester was to bind our own sketchbook and it was a lot of fun. I'd love to do that more in the future, but we have a backlog of notebooks we've bought over the years we need to get through first.

There's something a lot more personal about making a book yourself I'd say. I can't place why, but I feel a lot more comfortable using the sketchbook I made than the sketchbooks I bought.

[plasticseaslug]

I love making my own notebooks and sketchbooks!! The biggest habit of mine regarding it is that I tend to collect random things that could potentially be supplies. Stuff like cardboard, old books, magazines, stickers, ribbon, buttons, etc. I try to make my notebooks as modular as possible, so I can really enjoy myself and have plenty of wiggle room while I work.

[plasticseaslug]

Our first assignment for our design course this semester was to bind our own sketchbook and it was a lot of fun. I'd love to do that more in the future, but we have a backlog of notebooks we've bought over the years we need to get through first.

There's something a lot more personal about making a book yourself I'd say. I can't place why, but I feel a lot more comfortable using the sketchbook I made than the sketchbooks I bought.

One thing I do to get through notebooks I don't want is taking multiple apart and using them to make one bigger sketchbook! Taking them apart also means that I have room to add in more fun pages, like cardstock or magazine clippings.

[gizurrr]

oh man i've always wanted to bind my own sketchbook one of these days and i have quite a large piece of cardboard (big enough for maybe a thousand pages lol) around. hoping one day to get the rest of the supplies needed for bookbinding :3c everyone's books look amazing tho!!