Chapter 9

Whilst handmade paper edges have wonderful ragged and organic edges it is sometimes desirable to have a neater and finished edge for a front page or a cover.

It was therefore our task to look into stitched edges bearing in mind our research and lettering ideas.

For this chapter I needed to find out how to get a clean fold especially as my paper is handmade. To do this I needed to score the paper. I measured and marked where the fold belonged and whilst holding a ruler along the marks I ran my bone folder along the ruler hard enough to make a pressure score or groove. Without moving the ruler I folded the paper up by running the bone folder on the outside of the fold, pressing it harshly against the ruler.I then removed the ruler and and flattened the fold by running the bone folder over it. [ details from Cover to Cover by Shereen La Platz]. This worked brilliantly and produced a beautiful neat fold.

First thoughts about stitched edges:

Samples 1 and 2:

Sample 1

And reverse:

Sample 2

And reverse:

Sample 3

And reverse:

I used some spare white handmade paper produced earlier in the module but I appreciate that sticking to my colour scheme would have been more effective.

It was aslo interesting to see the right and reverse sides.

Sample 4

I really like the effects of these two inserted stitches [beaded and threaded] when they decorate the folded page:

Sample 5

A combination of machine and handstitching – beautiful together.