How to make & Use A Piercing Template for Bookbinding

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A few weeks ago I had a comment from Laurence asking about Piercing templates and where to get them. So for Laurence and anyone else needing assistance here is an idea of what they are and how to make your own.

What Is A Piercing Template?

It is no more than a card pattern used to place into a stack of folded sheets ‘known as a signature’, which you pierce through, to make the holes through which you will sew your book together.

 

What Size Is A Template?

There are many different bindings and the size of your template will vary to match the size of your book. Well the height of the spine of the book  

The placement of the holes on the template will vary to match the type of bind you are doing. For example if you are sewing across tapes on the spine of the book, the gap between the holes would be the width of your tape. So you can see any template is custom made to the project it is being used for.

 

How Do I Make My Own Template?

 

Tools needed;

Pencil, ruler with steel edge, scoring tool, bone folder, piercing tool, signatures to the size of your project and 220gsm card (I’m pointing at it to show it is the same size as the signatures), a foam mat, and a self healing cutting mat.

 

• You will first need to decide what type of binding you wish to use for your project, and the size you want to make your book. This will dictate the size of the template and the position of the holes.
• Take a piece of sturdy card 220gsm would be ok or a little thicker if you have it. Cut it to match the height of the spine of your book, and about 2″ or 5cm wide.
• Score your card along the centre of the long side and fold it in half length ways. Use a scoring tool and ruler to score your line, and a bone folder to reinforce the fold. This will ensure you have a clean accurate fold.
• Using a ruler mark where you want to pierce the holes. The instructions from the book you are copying your binding from will give you these measurements or a guide for how to calculate them to fit your project. Mark in the centre of the inside or ‘valley’ of your fold.

 

• Place your card board template on to a foam mat, you could use the soft side of a mouse mat, but do put a self healing cutting underneath in case you pierce right through.
• Using a piercing tool, of the same diameter as the needle you will sew with, pierce a hole into your card board directly into the centre of the ‘valley’ fold.

 

Congratulations, you have now created your piercing template, it is as simple as that. If you use a sturdy cardstock to create your template and are careful as you pierce your signatures, you will be able to re-use your template for more than one book.

 

How Do I Use My Template?

• One of the most accurate ways to use a template is with a piercing saddle. This is usually a wooden structure that will have a ‘V’ shaped holder, that you place your pre folded but open signatures into, your template on top and then pierce through the pages. There is a small gap in the saddle that will allow the tool to pass cleanly through the pages and out the other side.
• If you do not have one of these (like me then) you could try these alternatives.
• A mouse mat, soft side up on a self healing cutting mat.
• A sheet of foam, they sell 12 x 12″ sheets of this for rubber stampers to use as a cushion to stamp onto, they are about 1cm thick. Again place this ontop of a self healing cutting mat to protect your work surface.

 

Here is a picture of how I hold the signatures to ensure that I pierce through the centre fold NOT to the left or right of it. If you use this method you will need to be very careful about where the holes come out, go slowly and you will be fine.

 

LINK

I hope this has been of help, if you would like more information on piercing saddles and how to make one do check out http://www.tjbookarts.com/ as they have a tutorial on this and many other aspects of book binding. Their forum is also very welcoming and friendly especially to newbies. There is a link to it in the side pannel of this blog.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading, any questions or comments let me know and I will get back to you.

Billie

 

 

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Hi- Vis Rulers by JudiKins; Review

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Today I would like to do a review on two tools, The Judikins Hi Vis Rulers in both Imperial GT013 and Metric GT014 measurements.

OK so apart from the obvious difference in the measurements these are the same thing. These rulers have been very useful as they not only have traditional measurements along either edge, but also a centring ruler through the middle.  This means that you can easily find and mark the middle of your chosen piece.

The best thing about these rulers over others on the market is that none of the branding is over the gridlines on the ruler, no names but there is another ruler that has just come out and the branding takes up two inches on one end and the hanging hole negates an inch the other. NOT so the Judi kins one, the whole surface is useable.

The ruler features a steel edge on one side, so if you want to cut with this ruler using your craft knife just turn it round so you have the steel edge next to your knife and you will be fine. Don’t forget to work on a self healing cutting mat if you do this though

The gridlines on these rulers are HI Vis orange which means it it easy to see where you are measuring weather you are using light or dark card.

I would definately recommend these rulers, they are substantial, well made and a joy to use.

LINK

Here is a link direct to the manufactures for pictures of the rulers I have reviewed today;

Imperial ruler;  http://www.stampstampstamp.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=S&Product_Code=GT013

Metric ruler; GT014 no link to this.

I hope you found this review useful, if you have any questions do leave me a comment and I will get back to you.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie xx

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Making Memories Tool Kit; Review

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Today I would like to share a review of the Making Memories Tool Kit

What the Kit contains

• A hammer
• An eyelet setter
• Two needles
• A piercing tool
• A hole punch tool
• Round Nose Pliers
• Tweezers
• Three sizes of bit for the hole punch

This kit is useful for paper crafters but would be handy for bookbining too as the piercing tool is nice and fine and would be a good size to pierce signatures with.  All the tools in this kit are substantial and well made. There is a variation of this kit available now that has some additional tools.

A good buy for papercrafters, bookbinders and scrapbookers. This would make an excellent gift for the crafter in your life

Links

JGD Stock this kit.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie

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Cover to Cover by Shereen La Plantz; review of the book

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Today I would like to share a review of the following book;

Cover to Cover; Creative Techniques for Making Beautiful Books, Journals & Albums by Shereen La Plantz.

This is published by Lark Books and the ISBN

13:0-937274-81-x (hardcover) 0-937274-87-3 (paperback)

10:0-937274-81-x (hardcover) 0-937274-87-9 (paperback)

 

Contents

• Bookbinding Basics
• Pamphlet Stitch
• Basic Codex
• Stitches
• Stab Bindings
• Fold Books
• Combination Books
• Unusual Bindings
• Presentation Counts

 

Description

The book starts with an overview of the tools and equipment needed to get into bookbinding, there is a recipie for Wheat Paste, this is a form of adhesive used when PVA would show through your cover material.

All the projects in this book are described in step by step format and have pictorial diagrams of what is being described. There are also plenty of photographs of finished books that have been created using the form of binding that has just been shown. This is inspirational for the new binder as it shows you what you can expect your finished project to look like, and how others have varied the technique and used different card/ paper to get a variaty of finishes.

The contents list doesn’t do justice to the scale of the viariety of projects described under each heading. There are several projects within each style so there is plenty for the beginner to try as well as more challenging binds for the more experienced.

I believe that this book is currently out of print, but it is well worth searching for this book as it has a wide range of projects to get your teeth into what ever level you are at.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

 

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The Bind It All Tool Kit; Review

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Today I would like to share a review of the Bind It All Tool Kit made by a company called Zutter. This kit is made to accompany their Bind It All machine but is a very useful starter kit for all kinds of papercrafter.

 

 

Features of the Kit

 

• A sturdy cover with a zip round closure keeps all the contents secure and clean
• Elasticated bands hold all the tools securely, but also make them easy to access
• A pen
• A 15cm ruler
• A needle/piercing tool which has a srew off end that allows you to store needles within the tool itself.
• A bone folder
• A Craft Knife
• Spare blades for the craft knife
• A retractable tape measure

 

 

  

 

On the second panel, over the page as it were are the following tools;

• A pair of scissors, small but very sharp.
• A pair of round nose pliers
• A pair of wire cutters

 

 

 

Here are detail pictures of the needle holder.  Unscrew the end and you can store needles inside the piercing tool.

 

 

 

 

So who is this kit for?

 

This kit contains all the basic tools to get you started and would be very useful to the following groups;

Bookbinders

Paper crafters

Scrapbookers and card makers; this is great for taking to clubs and classes.

Jewellry makers

 

On line demo

 

The wonderful people over at the Paper Studio have made a video that shows you all the contents of this tool kit and how it would be useful to bookbinders.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xXrclxjjNfo

 

Links

 

Here is a link to the manufacturers website;

 http://www.binditall.com/

 

Well I think that covers it. If you have any questions or comments do leave me a message in the box below and I will get back to you.

 

Best wishes and thanks for reading

 

Billie

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Long stitch book with wrap around cover; Anna Griffin style

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For those of you who know me from http://www.stampingmadforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl you will know I am a big fan of a stamp designer and paper crafter Anna Griffin. This is a bit of an irony as I am such a tom boy kinda girl, that the floral style of Anna Griffin shouldn’t really appeal, but I adore her botanicals range of stamps.

Today’s book was made on 4th June 2008, as you can see given the learning curve I am writting stuff for the blog ahead of publishing dates. This book is another in the longstitch bindings, and features a wrap around cover, which I created using the Scor It board.

 

 

 

Here is a closer look at the longstitch itself. I bound this one using a lighter Barbour thread of 25/3 cord, which I coloured using the same Adirondack ink that I had used on the cover, Pink Sherbert. I then waxed the thread to keep the colour sealed in as the dye ink would run without this.

 

 

 

Since this book has such a feminine stamped image, I decided to add a Pink organsa ribbon to help hold the book closed and add interest to the cover.

 

 

 

My book is A7 in size and features ivory pages, which I cut using the handy Dream Kuts machine. It will be going to my Auntie for her birthday in September. For details of where you can find out how to learn longstitch for yourself see __LINK TO PREVIOUS POST__

 

If you have any questions or comments please use the box below.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie

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Long stitch book; ATC holder; made using Scor It Board

Welcome back

Today I would like to share with you the ATC or Artist’s Trading Card holder that I made with the help of the Scor It board.

       

As you can see this book has a wrap around cover and the scoring for this I achieved using the Scor It board, simply taking the measurements from the pages, to guide me where to score.  I used a Crop A Dile tool to punch the two holes and then a craft knife to join the holes together, to form the slit into which the back covers edge fits into to hold the book closed.

The pages themselves were cut from a 12 x 12″ scrapbook cardstock, using my trusty DreamKuts machine.  I then stamped with the oriental images using Adirondack dye based ink in Willow. I added photo corners to hold the ATCs in place.

This shows the longstitch itself, which is the binding that is holding the pages in place. I used Barbour thread, in this book it is the 18/3 cord the same as I used on the Stab bindings 

http://billiescraftroom.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/japanese-4-hole-binding-my-first-attempt/  I cut thread to length and then waxed with Beeswax before sewing, to help keep the knots in place. This book is 3″ wide and ?” tall.

Further reading

If pestered I could do a tutorial on how to cut and score the cover but you will need to refer to the following books if you would like to learn the longstitch itself. This is because it is FAR too detailed to go into in the confines of a blog space.

Keith Smith Non Adhesive binding Volume I

Cover to Cover by Shereen La Plantz

For further details of these books please see the BOOKBINDING tab at the top of the blog.

Best wishes and thanks for reading

Billie

 

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