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 - 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 - 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 - 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 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.

Book Swap 2023 - Rhynn Winstead

Rhynn Winstead created this colourful book for the NSBAG book swap. The structure is a slim case binding in full cloth of natural Cialinen. The textblock is made with a series of painted watercolour papers featuring a variety of patterns and interesting folds. Rhynn was also the lucky winner of our door prize (which was a book about bookbinding) at our last meeting!