Book Swap 2025

Keeping with our November tradition, a group of NSBAG participants gathered once again to swap handmade books. In this swap, everyone creates a handbound blank book and brings it to the meeting. The books are all wrapped in brown paper so we can't see the books right away. The packages are each assigned a number, then the participants each draw a number and receive the corresponding package. Finally, we open the packages and marvel at each other's wonderful work! As always, there was a wide range of techniques and materials and creativity in the books this year.

Have a closer look at each book:

Sally Crawford made her book with a variety of her own eco-dyed papers bound using a traditional Japanese sewing.

Larry Colwell made a traditional case binding, quarter cloth with marbled paper.

Tarika Stitt's book is a traditional codex with faux leather, handmade paper, hand-sewn endbands, and customized painted endpapers.

Mallory Kinley made a hardcover longstitch binding with her original watercolour illustrations for the pastedowns.

Heather Loney made a book using the Criss Cross Binding (also known as Secret Belgian Binding) technique with custom book cloth on the covers.

Rhynn Winstead made a book with custom linen bookcloth, decorative paper, hand-sewn endbands, and her original kitikate relief prints for the pastedowns.

Joe Landry's book is a Rubow millimetre binding with brown leather and marbled paper.

Stephanie Morley's book is a German case binding in full cloth with elephant paper endsheets.

Emily Brown made a full cloth case binding with embossed design and custom endpapers, design inspired by the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Marilynn Rudi bound a journal using the reverse piano hinge binding technique with a mixture of decorative papers.

Rhonda Miller's book is a Rubow millimetre binding with purple goatskin leather and her original hand-marbled paper.

Book Swap 2024 - Marilynn Rudi

Marilynn Rudi created this handbound book for our recent book swap. It is a case binding with coordinated Japanese Chiyogami on both sides of the cover boards. The binding is an exposed lattice pattern sewn through the case.

Book Swap 2024 - Katherine Taylor

The next book to be featured from the NSBAG book swap is a hardcover book by Katherine Taylor. The cover is custom book cloth. The book is a rounded spine case binding with brown endsheets and matching striped endbands.

Book Swap 2024 - Jeffrey Cowling

Next in our book swap lineup is this handbound journal made by Jeffrey Cowling. Jeffrey's contribution is a flat back, case binding in full cloth.

Book Swap 2024 - Sally Crawford

Sally Crawford's contribution to our book swap is a Chinese Thread Book or Zhen Xian Bao. Sally made this using her own eco-dyed papers. Her thread book creation consists of over thirty individual folded boxes.

Book Swap 2024 - Emily Brown

This unique book was made by Emily Brown for our book swap. It is bound in full cloth as a case binding, featuring a rasied frame and bee on the front. The cover boards and the pages are all cut as hexagons and the tricky hexagon endsheets feature a coordinating bee print.

Book Swap 2024 - Joe Landry

Next in our lineup of books from the 2024 book swap, is this book made by Joe Landry. This is a millimeter binding with goatskin leather spine and corners with cream-coloured paper for the covers and endsheets.

Book Swap 2024 - Stephanie Morley

Here is Stephanie Morley's contribution to our book swap this year. The stitching and cover wrapper are based on a 16th century limp binding structure. The cover of this book is handmade paper from Papeterie St-Armand and it is stitched with linen thread. There are also hand-marbled flyleaf pages and a Velcro closure.

Book Swap 2024 - Rhonda Miller

Rhonda Miller made this book and box for our recent book swap. The book is made using the sewn board binding technique with custom endsheets that feature an original lino print. This custom clam shell box and matching book are both made with Rhonda's original marbled paper. There is a faux leather spine and the marbled paper has a polished beeswax coating.

Book Swap 2024 - Heather Loney

Heather Loney's contribution to our book swap is this lovely cloth-covered book with rounded corners. The binding is sewn through the case using a decorative pattern in two colours of thread. The paste-down on the inside of the case is Heather's own marbled paper.

Book Swap 2024 - Larry Cowell

This is Larry Cowell's handbound contribution to our group's book swap this year. This slim, hardcover book is a case binding in full cloth with perfectly-placed geometric endsheets.

Book Swap 2024 - Rhynn Winstead

Rhynn Winstead made this wonderful book for our recent book swap. The cover features Rhynn's meticulous embroidery and there are also hand-sewn endbands. The embroidery and the endbands are sewn using wool and silk loom ends. The pages are heavy mixed media paper. The book is casebound with block-printed endpapers.

Book Swap 2024

NSBAG's 2nd annual book swap was held Monday, November 25th at the Central Library. Eleven books wrapped in brown paper were numbered and placed on a table. Participants each selected a number, and then one by one, the parcels were slowly unwrapped to oohs and aahs. The creator of each book gave details of their work.

Just like last year, participants outdid themselves creating a lovely variety of one-of-a-kind hand bound books, from traditional to modern. Each book uniquely displayed its maker's creativity, style and skill. Well done, bookmakers!


After the book swap, Heather Loney spoke about NSBAG's participation in Nocturne 2024. She showed the remains of the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary that was dismembered to create miniature books, and offered leftover mini books to attendees. We also had an antique iron to give away as a doorprize. Congrats to Sally who got to take it home.

You can find photos of each swap book here:
Rhynn Winstead Larry Cowell Heather Loney Rhonda Miller Stephanie Morley Joe Landry	Emily Brown Sally Crawford Jeffrey Cowling Katherine Taylor Marilynn Rudi

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Submitted by Marilynn Rudi

Book Swap 2023 - Stephanie Morley

This handbound book, festooned with flowers, was created by Stephanie Morley for the NSBAG book swap. The structure is a hardcover buttonhole binding in full cloth. Stephanie backed two different pieces of fabric for this book: one print for the outside and a different print for the inside. The first page includes an apt quotation by Laura Ingalls Wilder, "The store was full of things to look at. All along one side of it were shelves full of coloured prints and calicos. There were beautiful pinks and blues and reds and browns and pruples." You can find Stephanie on Instagram: @morleyambiguous

This is the seventeenth and final book to be featured from our recent book swap. Thanks to everyone who participated and making our first swap a great success. See the full list of participants here.

Book Swap 2023 - Rhonda Miller

Rhonda Miller made this half leather binding for the NSBAG book swap. The structure is a split-board library binding and the cover features some of Rhonda's original marbled paper paired with dark green goatskin leather. There are silk hand-sewn headbands and Bugra endpapers. Rhonda can be found online via her website and on Instagram: @myhandboundbooks.

Book Swap 2023 - Taryn Neufeld

Taryn Neufeld made this distinctive blank journal for the NSBAG book swap. This is a hardcover case binding with a textblock made of Academia paper. There is book cloth on the spine, endbands, and a nature-theme printed paper on the covers. You can find Taryn on Instagram: @tear.neuf

Book Swap 2023 - Andrew Fraser

Andrew Fraser created this handbound book for the NSBAG book swap. The structure is a flat-back case binding. The cover features Andrew's original paste paper with book cloth spine and corners.