Design*Sponge » Blog Archive

Here is another great craft to explore for wedding projects. I hope this post is helpful if you want to make your own guest book, or special gifts for your wedding party – or if you want to find an expert binder to work with. Let’s start with the experts.

I stopped by Paper Dragon Books recently to watch as bookbinder Gavin Dovey created a custom wedding album. The style was based on the design of the mother of the bride’s own wedding album, a lovely vintage white cover with guilded edges. Paper Dragon has a brand new storefront in Manhattan and produces custom book and letterpress projects.

A friend of mine recently went to specialty bookbinder Sara Auster when she wanted to have a book project designed for her husband-to-be. She printed out all the emails she had exchanged with her fiance in making their wedding plans, and had Sara bind them into a hardcover book. Very old meets new, and a great gift idea.

Nancy Loeber is one of my favorite collage artists, and she also creates the most gorgeous book projects. She incorporates collage and hand-stitching into many of her covers, which make each project completely unique. Check out her website and blog to see some previous projects.

Now onto learning how to create your own books. Below is a list of classes to learn the craft of bookbinding. And please email me here if you know any more!

The Paper Studio
The American Academy of Bookbinding
Hyde Park Art Center
Briar Press Classified
Make Workshop
Paper Dragon Books
Center for Book Arts
Minnesota Center for Book Arts
San Francisco Center for the Book
Virginia Arts of the Book Center
Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts

Finally, there are so many talented book artists to choose from if you’re looking to support an independent artist. Here is just some of the great work I found while prowling around Etsy.

Stellaloella

Handstitchery

Littleputbooks

And I’m sounding like a broken record, but please let me know if you’d like to add any tips or suggestions.

Speaking of wedding keepsakes, I am curious whether anyone has run accross great examples of marriage certificates. These are different from the legal marriage licenses. Quaker marriage certificates are signed by everyone present at the ceremony as witnesses and are often then framed and displayed in the home of the couple. I love this idea, and have run into just a few examples of people doing some really beautiful and artful certificates.

Also, on the topic of bookbinding- there is a woman in California- Cypress Albums, that makes lovely Folios- three or four photos bound into an accordian-style book so that they can either be kept like a book or displayed standing on end. I think this is a nice book idea- often just a few carefully chosen photos can say it all! And it seems like they would make nice gifts for family.

Books are great!

I used an accordian book set + decorative papers/items + glue at Paper Source for engagement photobooks for our parents (pictures here: http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/blogs/amnesia/archive/2007/01/11/so-i-ll-bite.aspx ) They loved them!

I was also planning to make our program books (with more than just the program–little stories, games, other personal tidbits) using a simple version of a stab binding technique (program booklets will be made using cardstock cover weight covers and text weight paper and bound with a hemp thread)

I love the handsewn designs on book covers… that could be cool. There are also some interesting books available on quilting with paper that mix the idea of papers and stitching and could be used with a bookmaking or book-like design.

Hi – this is a great blog topic, great ideas.

I custom make hardwood photo albums and can do matching frames. The albums come with standard post-bound scrapbook pages, so they can be easily added to and customized. They are leather bound.

check out my etsy shop (solidio.etsy.com) or my website (www.solidio.com)

good luck if you are planning a wedding!

Write a Comment:

Design*Sponge reserves the right to restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the conversation at hand, contain profanity, personal attacks or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business.