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Two Needle Coptic Binding 1

Added Aug 10, 2018 •

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Welcome to our video on making a Coptic binding on contact bindings are some of the most fun to make there simple even though they they look very involved and very kind of ancient feeling and the original Coptic bindings were actually very old and I want to show you a couple of different approaches this type of Coptic and let me zoom in a little bit so you can see this this beautiful almost braided look that Coptic bindings have this one also these two larger sketchbooks were made using a Coptic binding that is sewn a long the spine so you can go back and forth along each set of pages that's called the signature and these the type of Coptic binding uses only one needle but it can be a a curved needle can be helpful for that and I'll be showing you how to do that Coptic binding in another set of videos in this set of it I'm going to show you how to do an across the spine Coptic binding which is all of these smaller ones across the spine Coptic bindings are actually a lot more I guess you call it to authentic type of Coptic binding and again let me zoom in so you can see that these also have that braided look and that you can mix and match the threads to even more texture and more interesting effects in this one I added beads to each of the knots along the spine so that adds another element of texture and kind of an interesting these two small books are also completed with Coptic binding but so are all of these miniature books that are glued to the to the covers Above This and That so one of the fun things to me about across the spine Coptic bindings is that they're so transferable to different sized books and you can can change the number of stitches that you do and as well as their placement to create some beautiful patterns you can also actually combined across the spine and along the spine bindings to create even more interesting effects and this one is using I am or kind of Richard rustic thread and the so that creates another another effect as well okay so once you have decided that you want to work on a Coptic binding whether you were making a large book or small one there several tools and materials that you need I like to use a rotary cutter it's actually made for quilting but it's very hand for cutting papers well I'm you can also use scissors and and I should have some scissors laying here too because they're very handy to have even if you do use a rotary cutter you also wants to have it all and it all is just a very sharp and did you know pointing tool that you use to pierce both the book cover as well as the the papers how to pencil you wants some needles and in this set of videos I'm going to show you the two needle Coptic binding and there's a specific types of needle that you want to look for okay you don't want needles that have very large eyes because if if the eye is too large it will kind of stretch out and enlarge the pierced hole that you have made in the paper and Expo did end so your book sewing will not be as strong you also if you can get some that not only have a fairly small I there also somewhat blunt rather than really really sharp that's also helpful because then the needle go through the holes that you have already pierced in the in the papers rather than being so at the end up making new new holes so these are often called tapestry needles or a cross stitch needles depending on the size I'm so if you're going to be making a large book with kind of large large piercings on you can use a larger I'd needle with a blunt tip if you're making a smaller one use a smaller needle and if you're making a really tiny book you don't really have much choice but to sharp needle you can kind of file it down so that it's not as sharp on the tip but with really tiny books you end up I end up just using the needles that that I have not really modifying I know me two of those for the across the spine Coptic binding I'm you will also want to have a nice measuring device and if you're using a rotary cutter you want a plastic one if you use a metal one with rotary cutter not only are you going to be wanting your blade but you know when you go up against the metal but it's also kinda like fingernails on a chalkboard those are there at the main tools and that you also want to have a yacht a cutting service and once again I like to borrow from a quilting and use just a quilting cutting mat with book making it doesn't have to be a real large one just one like this that works great and that keeps you from ruining your table and it also actually has some nice straight edges and stuff that you can use to line things up for the materials want to have some wax and this is a chunk of beeswax and Beeswax is kind of the traditional Choice I'm if you don't have access to that you can also use paraffin and this is just one of those chunks of paraffin wax that you can put in one of those warmers and it's scented this one is scented with vanilla and and sold the paraffin works fine to even if it is scented and I'll show you how to use that in a in a moment you can also use like a soy-based wax if that is more available then you want to choose some some thread and I like to use slightly thicker thread so when I use embroidery thread most of the time I use the full width of it which is actually several very thin string kind of grouped together but you can also pull these apart and use you know only one or a couple or few know however many this is a different type of embroidery thread as you can see it's quite a bit thinner so that's also an option the color that you choose and the thickness really depends on the effect that you want to create and the pattern said that you plan to to create as well finally you will want a couple of kind of stiff boards cut to size that you need both the same size and you can either paint them to decorate this is very lightly painted you can kind of see it's a little bit metallic on black you can also just use plain cardboard which you can cut from you know the facts of notebooks you can cut apart so like cereal boxes things like that if you're using extremely thin cardboard it's probably good idea to all kind of laminate them together to make one thicker piece of cardboard so that it has some some rigidity and some strength to it and then cut it to size after that has dry when you press it so that it's flat you also want us some paper and you can find some beautiful paper for resumes at various copy centers and print shops and such you can also just use plain your paper or notebook paper anything like that for most books that you want the grain of the paper to follow the same the same direction as the spine most machine made paper has the green running vertically so if you have a at all sheet of paper most of the time the grain will be vertical that's just the way the machine makes it I'm you can kind of what direction the grain is by kind of taking your thumbnail and curving it and the side that has the grain will not curl as much but the side this kind of going against the grain is perpendicular to the grain will curl so you can see that I'm you can also tell because it's easier Rowlett this direction Bend is to roll it this direction is this just a little bit more resistance and if you get it wet you know if you either spray it with some water or if you wash it over with pictures of brush usually it'll curl along the grain rather than against it okay although as sandpaper is drying it tends to kinda crawl all over the place but just kind of notice so if you don't want to really tall book like this for regular printer paper you can simply measure this standard printer paper is 11 inches tall so at five and a half be sure you line this up at the top 5 and a half always Mark your measurement twice so that you can line up your measuring tool with both both measurements to make sure that you have it drawn accurately draw a cross double check k and then you can use your rotary cutter and was handy about bees quilting rulers is that you can actually line up these lacrosse here to make sure that that you're cutting square or measuring square K & a difference I rotary cutters have a different way of activating the blade hold it firmly and then headaches put the two sheets together and then to make a an even fold kind of slide Crosslines it up and then folded like so okay so that's how you make a signature when you have chosen your your boards you also want to either have some decorated paper and this is just some paste paper that I made you can also use book cloth and I show you how to make book cloth as well as case paper in some other videos that you can watch if you'd like to do that and then I will show you how to glue the the decorated paper or book cloth on to your later on in this video okay so that is really all of the essential tools and material

Uploaded by Mandy Wilson.

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Two Needle Coptic Binding 1

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