Japanese Bookbinding with Rhiannon Alpers

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love having guest instructors in Wishi Washi Studio!

This past Saturday, Rhiannon Alpers came to Wishi Washi Studio to teach Japanese Bookbinding with a Hardcover Enclosure. Rhiannon is such a nice person, knowledgeable and patient instructor and a quite talented artist. Be sure to check out her websites: her personal site and her studio site called Gazelle & Goat. 

Rhiannon's class samples

 

The structure we made was a softcover Japanese side-sewn binding with a hardcover enclosure. Rhiannon brought beautiful papers and book cloth for the class.

cover paper, book cloth and text paper

We started with the binding and made sweet little books out of the beautiful papers that Rhiannon brought

Japanese four-hole side-sewn binding

 

Then, we carefully measured our own books and made "maps" to figure out the size of our materials so that the case, or enclosure, would fit just perfectly.

 

Graph paper helps with map making

We cut and glued down our book board and spine pieces. This is where everything looks a little ugly before it gets pretty again. 

 

the not-so-pretty guts of the enclosure

 

And, the nice touch of making the loop pieces to hold the bone clasp:

Loops made out of the cover paper

And then you hope that it all fits together - not too tight and not too loose.

Almost done with mine...

 

I'm very pleased with how my sample came out and it was so nice being a student in my own studio - one of my favorite things.

 

Everyone in class did beautiful work!

 

Rhiannon returns to Wishi Washi Studio in a few weeks with a Shaped Boxes workshop. Can't wait! Thanks Rhiannon.