Crossed Structure Bindings
I've been making some new "crossed structure binding" journals. The covers are made from Saint Armand papers which are beautiful to the eye, wonderful to work with and very durable for book covers. Saint Armand papers are made at La Papeterie Saint Armand in Montreal Canada. Saint Armand is one of the few remaining paper mills to make both handmade and machine made papers.
I found some wonderful sunflower yellow hemp twine (which is also very strong: 20 lb.) at the hemp clothing store at The Forks Market which I thought would be great for bookbinding. With a crossed structure binding, the inside pages are hand sewn onto straps that extend from the back cover, and these straps are then woven into the front cover. The hardest part of making this type of book is making the pattern or template for the covers, and making sure the straps line up perfectly with the holes they are woven through.
These softcover books would make great notebooks or journals. The pages are ivory coloured Strathmore “petal inclusion” papers with lovely flower petals scattered in the paper design.
I found some wonderful sunflower yellow hemp twine (which is also very strong: 20 lb.) at the hemp clothing store at The Forks Market which I thought would be great for bookbinding. With a crossed structure binding, the inside pages are hand sewn onto straps that extend from the back cover, and these straps are then woven into the front cover. The hardest part of making this type of book is making the pattern or template for the covers, and making sure the straps line up perfectly with the holes they are woven through.
These softcover books would make great notebooks or journals. The pages are ivory coloured Strathmore “petal inclusion” papers with lovely flower petals scattered in the paper design.
your new books are absolutely fabulous laura!! and i can't believe i'm saying this, but i don't have any St. Armand paper! it looks wonderful...i'm going to have to add some of that to my collection! :)
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what gsm the cover paper is. I have done a small version in miniature with handmade papers that were like very thin card. Perfect for the binding pattern.
ReplyDeleteI am still looking for stockists too. I live in Aussie and find the best stuff overseas.
I did find a stockist of paper pulp products for making handmade paper, they sell a bamboo product I was reading about and putting on my long list of wanting to try. Anyway, you just add your thing to the pulp. Makes a lovely long grain very natural paper and as its white the perfect base for artistic licence. So must get or make more deckles myself. Sigh, used to have a papermaking studio but no access to beautiful pulp products. Made the paper for my albums so painstakingly.
Anyway I would be interested to hear so I can try something similar. Maybe I should just make it myself, so I can make the thickness. I see more work looming in my future.
thanks for the beautiful inspiration!
Deb