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 - 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 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 - Jeffrey Cowling

Jeffrey Cowling created this robust tome for the NSBAG book swap. This book is full bound in Italian simulated leather. The textblock is made with classic laid paper and the front cover features a blind embossed crest. You can find Jeffery online via his website.