These handy books are fast, practical, inexpensive, and easy to make. Make several for class notes, sketchbooks for art ideas and mini-books to keep your To Do Lists straight.
The steps are: find and cut your paper, cut covers, paint the covers, punch the square holes and bind it all together with wire loops. That's it! The San Francisco Center for the Book has a wire bind machine that can be rented. I have one also.
The cool things about wire bind books include: use scrap paper • use any shaped paper • use recycled materials • make your own tracking charts, copy them and bind them • they lie flat • they can be thrown in a backpack and beat up -- they don't have to last forever • no worry about paper "grain" • you can use small to letter size paper (larger if you get creative) • you can decorate the covers • you can make a 5.5 by 8.5" book for less than $2 and in less than five minutes.
The cool way I teach cover decoration: If you choose, you'll make an abstract cover layering sponged acrylics, torn papers, and embellishments like metallic inks, glitter and other collage materials.
Additionally, I found I could use plastic spirals in the holes instead of wire loops which means you can make a larger book and reuse the covers by just "spinning out" the plastic spiral and putting new paper in.
Thanks.
The steps are: find and cut your paper, cut covers, paint the covers, punch the square holes and bind it all together with wire loops. That's it! The San Francisco Center for the Book has a wire bind machine that can be rented. I have one also.
The cool things about wire bind books include: use scrap paper • use any shaped paper • use recycled materials • make your own tracking charts, copy them and bind them • they lie flat • they can be thrown in a backpack and beat up -- they don't have to last forever • no worry about paper "grain" • you can use small to letter size paper (larger if you get creative) • you can decorate the covers • you can make a 5.5 by 8.5" book for less than $2 and in less than five minutes.
The cool way I teach cover decoration: If you choose, you'll make an abstract cover layering sponged acrylics, torn papers, and embellishments like metallic inks, glitter and other collage materials.
Additionally, I found I could use plastic spirals in the holes instead of wire loops which means you can make a larger book and reuse the covers by just "spinning out" the plastic spiral and putting new paper in.
Thanks.
