The next book in the series is the Gothic Binding. The others in this series are: a Nag Hammadi codex, a late Coptic binding, a limp vellum binding, an alla rustic binding, a limp leather binding, scrolls, a field journal, and a wax tablet. The Gothic was our most involved binding so far, and took quite longer than the others but I really liked how it… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Gothic

The next “book” in the series is the wax tablet. The others in this series are: a Nag Hammadi codex, a late Coptic binding, a limp vellum binding, an alla rustic binding, a limp leather binding, scrolls, and the field journal. The wax tablet was an adventure in woodworking skills (of which I have very little but certainly need for many of our upcoming… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Wax Tablet

The next book in the series is the field journal. The others in this series are: a Nag Hammadi codex, a late Coptic binding, a limp vellum binding, an alla rustic binding, limp leather binding, and scrolls. Unfortunately I have very little information on this binding. My bookbinding teacher, Dan Mezza, learned it from another… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Field Journals

The next “book” in the series is the Scroll! The others in this series are: Nag Hammadi, late Coptic, limp vellum, alla rustic, and limp leather. The scroll, while relatively easy to make, was not as easy to find information on! We relied heavily on Dartmouth’s blog: “The Historical Background of The Ancient Scroll“. We… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Scrolls

The next book in the series is the Limp Leather binding. The others in this series are: a Nag Hammadi codex, a late Coptic binding, a limp vellum binding, and an alla rustic binding. Arthur Johnson says that the tradition of limp bindings continued from vellum into leather, and in 1850 the extended edges became… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Limp Leather Binding

This is the fourth installment of my historical bindings project! Recently I finished the legatura alla rustica binding (or simply alla rustic). The other posts are: Nag Hammadi, Late Coptic binding, and Limp Vellum Binding. While waiting for the woodshop to open so we can cut the wood we need for other bindings (and a… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Alla Rustica

This is the third installment of my project on making models of historical book structures! The first was Nag Hammadi and the second was a late coptic codice. Working with Christopher Clarkson’s Limp Vellum Binding article we created a model of a limp vellum binding in medium and miniature! Limp vellum bindings were common in… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Limp Vellum Bindings

The second book in my historical models series is done (see the first model here)! This is a late Coptic codice. This binding dates from the 7th to 11th centuries. I based my covers off the Hamuli codices found in 1910 near Hamuli, Faiyum, Egypt. These original codices are part of the Pierpont Morgan Library… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Late Coptic Codice

Recently I’ve started on a project with my bookbinding teacher to go through and make models of historical bindings working our way up from the early scrolls to various medieval bindings. We are creating a “normal” size version of each and then preparing two miniature copies (one to keep and one to part with, probably).… Continue reading Historical Bindings Project: Nag Hammadi Codice

Earlier this year I took a class on sewing structures. In this course we made models for some different sewing types. It was really fun class and I enjoyed making the models and learning about the different types of sewing and the history! Below are my notes from the class and pictures of the models… Continue reading Models of Bookbinding Techniques: Sewing Structures