Japanese and Coptic bookbinding. The best option for sketchbook and artist’s book.

Hi everyone!

During my backpacking trip through Latin America I had to generate money with something that allow me to move freely in the moment I decided. At first when I started I had not thought of this however I had some job opportunities to get money and continue my trip which was the most important to me at that moment.

I wasn't completely happy because most of the Jobs were not well paid or simply they were boring and the most important, I lose them if I moved to another place.

Because of this one day I decided to learn bookbinding by my own and work on this while I was on the way. I started making sketchbooks and I used to sell them in craft fairs or places where many tourists go, to my surprise my idea had a good result, more than I even expected.

Me in Carondelet Palace, Quito – Ecuador.

This was how I started in the bookbinding world. Gradually my sketchbooks got better and until today it’s something I do frequently as I get orders from friends and artist who use them to draw.

I will show you two types of bookbinding, these are the ones I have used the most because of the ease and low cost of production, also many of these sketchbooks are made in part of recycling material.

Coptic bookbinding

It comes from ancient Egypt and was linked to religious writings.

Born from the need to keep the booklets attached to the book cover done by a wale not, it hasn’t loin which makes it a bit different of the current bindings.

It is also important to note how durable and strong is, basically it's impossible for a leaf to fall because of the quality and strength of the needlework.

It is convenient for sketching and writing, since has not loin becomes much easier to handle. Another advantage, especially when you make it, it requires very few materials and most of the time we have them at home.

Japanese binding

As its name says, comes from Japan but it’s made in Korea and China too.

The Japanese binding doesn’t have loin either and the needlework is very simple but mathematically perfect. In China they prefer odd numbers when making the holes where the needle will pass through, instead of Koreans and Japanese who prefer pair numbers.

It doesn’t have booklets contrary to the Coptic and it can be a bit less easy to handle because the binding occupies a small space on the page, but allows us give it different uses like, artist’s book, photo album, catalog, etc.

The simplicity of this binding give us something that others don’t, if is necessary we can undo the needlework after the book it’s already done and add or remove sheets and later needle it again. For artist’s books this is very nice because we are often adding new art works.

As the Coptic binding we don’t need too much space or materials to make it.

This is it for my second post.

If you have any questions just let me know in the comments. Also If you want to learn and apply this technique to your projects I would gladly do a tutorial for you, just let me know!

I hope you enjoy it!!

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THANKS!