How I made my own sketchbooks

[EricChadwick]

Hiya, new member here. CA member blankslatejoe recommended I post some sketches here after a life drawing session at his place. I brought an old sketchbook of mine to work in, and it got me thinking.

Any of you make your own sketchbooks? As in choose the paper, cover material, endpapers, thread glue and bind the thing...


Here's my 15-yr old sketchbook. It's about 25 by 35 cm, filled with nice watercolor paper. Been a blast using this thing, exactly what I wanted in a big book.

I kept detailed notes from when I made this monster, the results of a RISD class held by other students when I was there. I'm wondering if anyone wants to try building their own, in which case I'd consider digitizing the notes and posting them here. (update: notes posted here)

I'd also love to see books others have made for themselves (or had others make for them).

[asoir]

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...an0017copy.jpg



Materials used-

*random amount of a4 pages
*2 staples

[JoshuaJames]

Making your own sketchbook is great. I often find that when I buy them from stores they get overloaded and burst at the seems, so I have to go back and rebind them anyways. I kind of like rebinding broken sketchbooks too. With the type of work I do it has a nice overall aesthetic quality.

[loomer]

I'd really be interested in it. Everytime I look for sketchboos, I get really flustered...because I NEED the perfect one for me, and obviously the art companies aren't tailoring their products just for me.

[Marie]

That would be awesome if you'd post the notes

Nice sketchbooks by the way too

[arghmisfit]

i made one last year, bounded it with dental floss.. it was a pain in the ass to make cuz i used thick paper

[Gerulaitis]

It would be great help if you posted the notes! I had the idea of making my own sketchbook just a couple of days ago, but couldn't find that much practical info on how to do that.

[helix7]

I never made a sketchbook, but I did hand-bind this thing a couple years ago:



It was a collection of digital sketches that I wanted to put into a book for my senior portfolio show. It's just Epson prints on Epson paper, stitched with waxed book binding thread, glued at the spine into the cover, and then wrapped with a glossy print cover.

[Stitchface]

Hey try these out: I bought one and I love it, it folds flat and is very durable. It will even take watercolour washes beautifully!! They are expensive but worth the investment. I recommend the Travel/Writing Journal in Medium size. You can customize them even, by requesting your own paper that you prefer to use, the end papers, the tie closure and more. The larger sketchbooks are more expensive too.

Renaissance Art

No I don't work for them I just really liked this sketchbook, I am very picky!!

Nice pics you guys! I'd like to see more of them and I am interested in the notes on maybe making one myself.

[loomer]

interesting site stitchface, gonna browse around...window shop for a bit.
Thanks for posting all this stuff so far...

[EricChadwick]

Hey cool! Glad there's interest. I'll get on it, post something soon I hope.


Asoir :: hilarious! Good point you make, doesn't matter how it's made as long as it works, right?

JoshuaJames :: What type of work is that? Can I see some? Couldn't find anything in your linky...

loomer :: Yeah. I remember friends and I buying sketchbooks in this shop in Florence Italy where the guy did custom jobs. Niiiice books, but man they weren't cheap.

Marie, Insect666 :: Will do!

arghmisfit :: Looking in my notes, I found the thick needle I originally used to bind the thing, taped to my notes! Forgot I did that. I think there was something in there about drilling/binding thick paper.

helix7 :: Nice, would love to leaf through that. Maybe when I visit the Edison Museum... kids keep bugging me to. Ever been?

Stitchface :: OOoh those look nice. Somehow though I'd be afraid to mess one up. Do you ever get self-conscious when working in it? Even with my big beefy mess of a book, I had to force myself to let go at the start. Glue collected crap into it when the mood struck, mindlessly doodle, use it as a stepstool, etc.


Notes coming soon. I found it isn't that hard to make a book, and make it well...

[Kittywolf13]

i'd love to learn how to make a sketch book for myself! as well as others...hmm it would make an excellent gift for a birthday comeing up.

[Form]

yeh, i made my own too. it was really simple and cheap materials at the time, but i put a few envelope things in the inside cover to put clippings in, i had tracing paper alternating with cartridge paper so i could trace over my own work or write notes over it, and i had some panels on the back inside cover for various purposes (mixing, cutting etc)

Im thinking of making a new book now that im 2 pages from completing my current one. Any idea how expensive it is to by a sheet of leather to make the cover? or where?

[Steph Laberis]

I made artist books in college, but they were unconventional and themed pieces rather than functional journals.

Like this one, my Popover Book (those pans are paper too!):





Or this one, a lil 2'' book about my childhood:





I have a stack of handmade paper that I made in school, so when I see you at the museum Eric, wanna share some binding tips?

[EricChadwick]

Willow-whisp :: those are really cool! The popover shell reminds me of a pomegranate. And the roll of paper is really cool. Personal books are the best. All my tips will be in the notes I'm going to post, but feel free to grill me just the same!

Form :: I don't know where to buy sheet leather, but if I wanted some I'd drop by my local shoe repair shop and ask them. There are some tips in my notes about using leather for the cover, so that should help.
Also, I totally get you about including different types of papers. At the back of my book I bound some cheap thin newsprint for notes and rubbings, worked great. I could even tear pages out without remorse.

Kittywolf13 :: In my eyes, nothing says love like a handmade gift. I hope this will help you out!


I'm working through my notes, feverishly trying to remember the missing bits. It might take a few days to get it online, but I will.

[Dizon]

I thought this was gonna be a "How to". I hope someone makes a thread on that topic....*ahem *ahem.

[Steph Laberis]

Boring but thorough tutorial

The Boston Sketch Group should have a book making workshop... *nudge nudge* [/hijacked]

[arghmisfit]

yeah, i was hammering the needles thru, i broke like 5 until i got the bright idea to goto the dollar store and get really thick ones..

[EricChadwick]

patdzon, sorry man, I was trying to gauge interest before embarking on the process of cleaning up the chickenscratch disorganized mess of notes. Gonna be out of town this weekend, then I hope to get back to it early next week. No promises though, reading to my kids takes precendence any day!

Willow-whisp, hahah, I think you'd be disappointed! It's been like 14 years since that one single class. But yeah maybe, maybe.

arghmisfit, hehe.

[EricChadwick]

OK, sorry for the delay. Here are my notes. Let me know if they help, or if there's something grossly wrong...

http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples...ookmaking.html

[Kittywolf13]

Reading your tutorial makes me wish my parents still owned their print shop. then i'd have access to all sorts of neat things like book glue, and giant hole punches and paper cutters.

this is really cool. i never thought it would be so involved. I guess thats just naive of me huh? Thanks for going through the effort of organizeing this however. i will certainly try to use it, even though there are some bits i dont quite understand. i dont know if its because of the termanology or the drawings are a bit un-clear....but i'm an artist, as well as someone who likes tinkering...so if i try and make one and am confused, i'm liable to try and figure out my own solution. so no worries.

its book marked either way for my reference. thank you once more!!