Coptic Bound Handmade Book - Green Floral

Several years ago, my sister and I attended a book making workshop taught by Daniel Essig.  If you've never seen his work, I encourage you seek out his website; his sculptural books are like nothing you've ever seen.

After taking his class, and walking away with a very satisfying wooden coptic book, I wanted to make another book to help reinforce my learning.  This is the first book I made after that class.

First Coptic book on my own

The process involves so many steps that are all different. (This is not intended to be instructional, as there are many resources on the internet and in books that have this covered.)

First you make the signatures.  These are the sections of paper that make up the pages of the book. I enjoy this process because of how satisfying it is to hold the stacks of signatures when they are complete.  The decision to go with cut edges or torn edges (deckle).  Torn edges require more precision and deckle edges require a good heavy edge to get a good tear.  Some papers don't work well for deckle, if they don't tear well.

Making the covers is fun, and there are a lot of options.  In the class, we made wood covers that we manually "weathered", painted with milk paint, sanded, then polished with clear wax.  Here, I covered book board with acid free paper using appropriate papers.  Since making this book, I have used cloth, and am interested in figuring out leather or vinyl.

With the signatures and the covers complete, by stacking them together I can start to see the book coming together.

Green Floral Coptic Book

Next, creating all of the holes necessary.  The folded edges of the signatures need to have holes punched using an awl.  One trick we learned is that using the edge of a cardboard box is helpful.  By placing each opened signature so that the folded edge lays over the edge of the box, you can punch right through the signature edge and the edge of the box for a safe, well aligned process.  The covers will need to have holes punched, too.  In the class, we used a hand drill to create holes in the wood.  For these covers, I used a Japanese hole punch.

Green Floral Coptic Book

The last step is the sewing, which is done with waxed linen thread.  For this book, there are two separate steps.  The rust colored thread is what binds the book parts together.  This is done with two very long strands of thread that each have a needle on either end; as such, it is called the two-thread four-needle approach.  The dark green thread is sewn on each end separately.  This is not only decorative, but provides stability to keep the book from becoming wobbly.

This book was a gift to my sister.

Green Floral Coptic Book