Primitive Hand bound Books

I love books!  I love books in all forms (yes, even e-books), but my favorite books are the traditional books.  I love the feel of the book in my hand, the sound of the pages as they are turned, the smell of the ink on the pages.  I love books!  So, you can imagine how pleased I was when I found on Etsy a seller called Peg & Awl and they sold a book binding kit.  The book looked primitive and I loved it!

The Anselm Bookbinding Kit has been on my wishlist for awhile, but I finally broke down and purchased it (it was a splurge, but oh so worth it).  I made the book that I got in the kit.  The instructions were easy to follow (with written instructions, a diagram and a link to a youtube video).

Here is my finished book... 

O.K. now I am armed with a little knowledge and experience and I want to do some more.  I could find all the supplies that I needed on line, but I'm not patient enough to wait for them to get here and also it was a little pricey for me.  So I ran to the local craft store and purchased some acid free paper (that I had to cut down to size), hemp cord in fun colors (b/c that's all I could find at the craft store - not really ideal, but it worked), and I used twill tape (again that was what I could find as a substitute).  Here are 4 books that I made for my boys...

I let them each pick a color (that way they would know which one was theirs).

Rance could not wait to use his and turn it into a storybook.  He created a cover and then wrote and illustrated a story.  (When he is finished, I will date it and keep it.)

These books are great because they lay completely flat.  Which makes writing and drawing easier.

The books that I made for the boys are slightly larger than the one I made from the purchased kit.  I really enjoyed making these.  I am planning on making more.  I think it would be neat to have a whole stack of handmade books full of my boys' artwork.

I also like to know the inspiration behind things and this really intrigued me, Peg and Awl said this in their description of the kit...

The style of this book was influenced by my love of Anselm Kiefer and his book 'Transition from Cool to Warm', a book I picked up in Brussels one fine evening many years ago. It includes beautiful uncovered books that, in addition to housing extraordinary paintings, also show (with dirt and bendy corners) all of the love and travels his books endured...