December 1, 2017

Japanese Album Accordion

This is a simple but effective binding called Album Accordion from Kojiro Ikegami’s Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions From A Master Craftsman. If you’re interested in the classic Japanese bindings, this is the best resource and worth the investment. This is book number 45 in my 50 Book Challenge.

Its construction is similar to a Flutter Book but the folded pages are attached at the fore-edge rather than the spine with a thin bead of glue.

I made my own version of the cover by attaching independent boards to the first and last pages, and leaving a small overhang at the spine, which I protected with a piece of leather. A little unorthodox but I like the way it looks. The pages are eco-prints on Stonehenge printmaking paper.

I overprinted some of the less successful eco prints using a gelatin plate.