"I would often tell people that there are are "hundreds of ways to make books" and I guess I wanted to prove it to myself!", replied Rhonda Miller of My Handbound Books to me when I had asked her about her crazy project and a permission to write about it.
I'm constantly thinking I should try out more different types of binding structures. Rhonda took that thought so much further and started a project where her goal is to make 365 books using 365 different binding variations.
Most 365 projects I've run into seem somewhat doable (by people other than me), but to me, this didn't. When I read Rhonda's first blog post about the project I was both super excited and terrified for her. I've followed her blog (from a small distance, typical of me) since 2007, so I was well aware of her skills, and it was not that that terrified me - 365 different bindings is simply a massive number to reach for, even if some of the books were finished before the challenge began.
Rhonda's original plan was to post a book a day, but that had, understandably, to give due to a move to a new studio mid-project. Currently she's at book #319, so she's not that far behind! I'm honestly quite dumbfounded by her creativity, her adamancy, and all the amazing books she's finished so far. Through her personal project Rhonda has created an unbelievable illustrated library of literally hundreds of binding variations, and it's really a priceless resource for bookbinders (be it professionals or hobbyists) around the world. Nowhere else online is it this easy to see so many examples of different bindings in one place. If there existed an award for The Most Important Act of Bookbinding in 2015, I'd give it to Rhonda.
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| Photo and book by Rhonda Miller / My Handbound Books |
Book #82 - a fishbone book with the most beautiful choice of paper.
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| Photo and book by Rhonda Miller / My Handbound Books |
Book #204 - a Chinese Thread Book, or Zhen Xian Bao - This Rhonda's post also includes a video of the book in action.
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| Photo and book by Rhonda Miller / My Handbound Books |
Book #287 - a limp vellum binding
Work like this Rhonda's project doesn't get born in a vacuum, so I'd like to finish this post with links to these three bookbinders that stood out the most as I read through the 300+ book posts and found out who were behind some of the binding structures Rhonda uses, either as inventors, authors or recorders of history.
Keith Smith