My New Hand-Bound Sketchbook

A couple of years ago, I really got interested in personalizing my sketchbooks, and in particular, binding books by hand. I checked out a few books from my local library on the subject, and I knew I had to try out some of the techniques I learned from them to take my sketchbooks to the next level.

The first style of bookbinding I attempted was a traditional Japanese technique. I basically took a generic sketchbook you can purchase from any arts and crafts store, deconstructed it, and rebound it using the Japanese technique. I was really stoked about the results!

This past weekend, I attempted a second technique for creating a multi-signature hardbound sketchbook. This method turned out to be way more challenging. I had to start with supplies from scratch in order to create all of the parts of the book: book board, pages for the text block, book cloth, end pages, etc. Instead of just rebinding the parts of a pre-made sketchbook, I was going to be building this one from square one. In the end, I think I'm really satisfied with how it turned out!