Non-Adhesive Accordion Bookbinding

Background:
This was my fourth experiment with bookbinding. This style of binding was believed to have come into existence to replace the use (or make better use of) scrolls. Papyrus scrolls were rolled and inorder to find the informationin the center of a scroll, you would have had to unwind it. It is believed that this is one reason scroll users began folding the papyrus back and forth on itself in an accordian fashion. This made it ieasier to turn to the page in the middle and read it. A more practical reason may have been that a folded document with a cover or weight on top was easier to store. This style of non-adhesive accordion (or concertina) is made of a folded strip of paper whose ends slide into a cover made of two pieces of thin board and more folded paper. There is no gluing because al the pieces fit together snugly and hold one another in place.

Materials:
I started out by folding a piece of paper 6 inches wide and 32 inches long in half. I then completed the accordion folding by folding each of these sections in half two more times (the number of times to fold depends greatly on the length of the paper and the finished size).

I then cut a cover board tro size for the front and back then cut two pieces of paper to size to cover the boards (and create the pockets for the folded 'scroll' to slide into).

I then created a spine piece to keep the document closed shut. If the scroll is written on both sides - this piece can be removed for viewing and slipped back in to hold the book shut.

Notes:
I am going to research this idea a little more. After papyrus there came other mediums such as palm leaves, metal, wood, tree bark, parchment (sheep or goat skin), vellum (lamb, kid or calf skin) and woven cloth. None of these is as verstile or can be made to fulfill as many different and specific uses as paper (handmade or processed).

The first known use of paper was in the second century B.C. in China. The process of making a formed, dried sheet of paper from pulp or fibers suspended in water was a closely guarded secret. It wasn't until the twelfth century that is reached Europe; the influence of the Moors spread its use from SPain through Northern Africa. By the fifteenth centuey paper was being made in England.

Though this style of binding appears logical to us today, if paper were hard to come by (especially thicker and heavier paper), it wouldn't be logical to make the covers for books that were not extremely important. Perhaps this basic idea of folding the 'scroll' and surrounding it with wooden boards and fabric might work, but i won't believe this is period until I've done a little more research.

Bibliography:
Fox, Gabrielle. The Essential Guide to Making Handmade Books.North Light Books, Cincinnati, OH. Copyright 2000. ISBN: 1-58180-019-3 website: www.nlbooks.com

View of cover from top	View of spine piece attached	View with spine piece unattached

All content including images, patterns and written works are the property of Temair ingen Muiredaich ~ Ann A. Straut-Esden © 2003-2008 and may not be used without written permission. Every article and every graphic on these web pages is considered an intellectual property and protected by the same copyright laws that apply to print publications. All rights reserved.

Please send questions or comments regarding this site to the Webspinner.