Recycled Longstitch Books 182-183

After taking a longstitch binding workshop with Dan Essig last month, I've been thinking about ways to use longstitch binding beyond what we did in the class.  One thing on my mind was using recycled boxes as covers.

So I pulled out my stash of old cardboard packaging (seriously, my friends save boxes for me out of their recycle bins... it makes me feel like a hoarder), picked out a few interesting boxes, and went to town!  After a little bit of measuring, a little bit of math, and some fiddling I ended up with two recycled longstitch books.

The first is a red shredded wheat cereal box, with a blue button and string closure.  The second book is a green Banana Babies frozen banana box, with a yellow button and string closure.  After making the first two I cut and folded a bunch of extra pages so I can easily make more later.

Longstitch with Dan Essig- Book 121

Friday I had the opportunity to take a workshop with Dan Essig at Small Studio in Westlake.  Dan is an artist that makes sculptural books and is well known in the world of book arts.  He has taught all over the country and had his work featured in publications including 1000 Artists' Books (the photo on the lower left of the cover is his.)  You can learn more about Dan and his artwork at www. danielessig.com

The workshop was about longstitch binding.  I learned how to do the binding called Italian longstitch, and made my first ever leather book.  Longstitch bindings involve sewing the pages directly to the cover (in this case leather.)  After assembling the book, he showed us how to add tintypes to the book as a decorative element and to provide a place for a magnet closure.

I had a wonderful time learning from Dan and I love longstitch binding!  You can expect to see more longstitch journals from me in the future...