Japanese Stab Binding

Background:
I am starting to experiment with bookbinding - and this is my first attempt at bookbinding.

Materials:
I took 16 pages of text weight paper and folded them in half and stacked them one on top of the other to make the bookblock. I then placed two slightly heavier pieces of paper at each end of the bookblock and sewed through all the pages at the spine end to hold them together with linen thread. I then cut pieces of bookcloth and glued it to the corners of the spine of the bookblock. I then covered the endpages with decorative paper to create the cover and sewed the binding with decorative thread.

There are three decorative stitches here all using a different pattern of holes - 4-Hole, Noble and Tortoise Shell

Notes:
The "4-hole" was the first one I did. I realized after I was trying to put the cover on that I shouldn't have bound the endpages into the bookcloth with the bookblock - this made it difficult to begin and end the decorative stitching. It does look a bit more "finished" with the spine covered - but it's not right!. I also realized I needed to really get the stitches tight as I did them because you can't go back and tighten them very easily.

The "Noble" was next. On this one I didn't double the thread when I stitched it and had to go back and try to stitch it a second time. Not an easy task.

The "Tortoise Shell" was last. On this one I can tell that I didn't get the holes exactly aligned so the stitching doesn't look neat and even. This is just a practice thing, so I must go practice.

I am showing another book at the bottom which I started during a class to show the basics - you can see some of the steps described above better in these pics.

Picture of front cover 4-Hole binding	Picture of back cover You can see the stitching doesn't always match	No-flash picture to see paper better 4-Hole binding
View of the top edge 4-Hole binding	Spine 4-Hole binding	Inside cover 4-Hole binding
Picture of front cover Noble Stitching	Picture of back cover You can see the stitching doesn't always match	No-flash picture to see paper better Noble Stitching
View of the top edge Noble Stitching	Spine Noble Stitching	Inside cover Noble Stitching
Picture of front cover Tortoise Shell	Picture of back cover You can see the stitching doesn't always match	No-flash picture to see paper better
View of the top edge Tortoise Shell	Spine Tortoise Shell	Inside cover Tortoise Shell
View of the top edge You can see where the sheets have been held together by being tied	View of the top edge The dark side has had cover paper added - the white side is bare	View of the side You can see the edgings better

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