Gunter Creative • Handmade Books

Making books by hand is a long process & that's why the vast majority of books now are machine made. Because my books are precious and one-of-a-kind, they are used to keep things that are important like photographs, drawings or journal entries.

I begin by assembling the raw materials. Materials can include book board, hand-printed papers, book cloth, leather, linen thread and acid free blank paper. The inside papers are torn and folded by hand into signatures (groups of paper folded together). The cover papers are either printed with a linoleum block or stamp or drawn by hand.

Above: Printing with ink on a linoleum block

The linoleum blocks that I use have been designed and carved by me. Every print is different because I print them by burnishing on the back of the paper with only the pressure from my hand and a brayer. I also choose from 50 different colors of paper and limitless shades of ink. There are too many possible combinations to count!

When I have decided what type and size of book to make I cut the book board and the cover papers to the appropriate sizes. This is where each type of binding goes it's own direction.

Above: Materials are cut & assembled. The board on the left is completely covered & the board on the right needs one last piece for the inside.

Leather bound books: My leather books are quarter leather which means the leather is only present on the spine and usually about 2 inches of the covers.
The inside papers are assembled and folded. Next, I attach the leather to the front and back boards (no spine board is used) with Positionable Mounting Adhesive. Then decorative elements and another piece of leather is added to the inside. The spine being complete, I add papers to the front and back until the entire cover is made. Then I devise a sewing pattern based on how many signatures I'm using. I mark the pattern on the inside of the leather spine and the signatures, poking holes with an awl. Lastly, the signatures are sewn into the leather spine, making a decorative pattern on the outside.

Coptic Stitch books: Coptic Stitch is an exposed spine method. It is one of the earliest methods of sewing individual pages into a cover to form a book (codex) and probably began in North Africa. I like the coptic stitch because it's beautiful and most books today have spines that hide the books stitches.
After the pages are torn and assembled I cover the boards completely with decorative paper - the book boards remain separate from each other. Next I mark the sewing stations on both covers and signatures. I drill holes in the covers with a drill press and poke holes in the signatures with an awl. The last and most time consuming step is the coptic stitch itself. See a Coptic Stitch book in detail.

Above: detail of the coptic stitch

Japanese bound books: Usually, a Japanese bound book does not use boards or adhesives. The pages are assembled and the cover papers are cut so they can be folded over double. Then I mark the holes and drill them through all pieces at once on a drill press. This can be done with an awl, but a power tool makes it quicker and easier. Lastly the book is bound using waxed linen thread in one of several designs.

Above: The Japanese stitches I use are (from left to right) 4-Hole, Noble, Hemp Leaf & Tortoise Shell

Case bound books: These are your traditional hard cover books. The book block is sewn and glued together independent of the cover. Then I cut the cover boards and spine board. They are covered on the front side with decorative paper and the corners are mitered and sides are turned in. The last step is to glue the front and back pages of the book into the cover. The only stitching seen is inside of each signature. Sometimes I use leather around the spine and add some decorative stitching that's just for looks and has nothing to do with the structure of the book.