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 2023 - Emily Brown

Emily Brown created this lucky blank book for the NSBAG book swap. The front cover is dark green book cloth with a layered, oval inset featuring a pressed four-leaf clover. The binding is a criss cross binding (also known as the secret Belgian binding) and the first page is printed with Emily's hand-carved lino stamp.