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The Exquisite Notes

By Sylvia Ramos Alotta

The Exquisite Notes are the graduate school study notes of renown book artist and bookbinder Sylvia Ramos Alotta, as she was taught by various master-instructors at Columbia College Chicago's Interdisciplinary Arts MFA Book and Paper Arts Program.

These very unique sketchbook instructional manuals (complete with detailed explanatory notes) visually document many facets of the art of bookbinding. They represent an overview that will guide the reader from the basics of folding paper sections and sewing them together, to creating a quarter-leather binding with raised cords!

The Exquisite Notes are here published for the first time by Bookbinders Workshop.

"The Exquisite Notes" $79.00 plus postage  

Purchase from Bookbinders Workshop online Catalog

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Special Offer:

Purchase the "Fine Bookbinding with Don Etherington & Monique Lallier DVD" & "The Exquisite Notes" for just $159.00.

Purchase from Bookbinders Workshop online Catalog

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Bookbinding Basics
• Concertina
• Basic Single Section Pamphlet Stitch
• Single Section Case Binding
• Soft Multi-Section Binding
• Limp Vellum
• Flat Back Case Binding
• Slip Case Binding
• Round Back Case Binding
• Link Stitch Text Block in Soft Case
• Soft Case
• Coptic Binding on Wood Board
• Basic Sewn Board Binding-Limited Edition
• La-Di-Da Longstitch
• Langenstitch/Kettenstitch
• Fray Cord Lap Component
• Lap Component Case
• Book As Structure – Paste
• Various Studies of Leather Frames
• Create Your Own Cord
• Ribbons
• 15th Century Binding Structure
• Notes About Leather
• Paring Leather
• Corners and Turn-ins
• Ethiopian Bookbinding
• Armenian Bookbinding
• Built-in Groove Adhesive Binding
• Lap Component Binding- Repairing Existing Book
• Case Binding
• Limp Vellum
• Raised Cord Binding
• Box Making

In the words of the author........

As a young child, I would always find myself sketching in my quiet moments. Whether my sketches were from imagination or from my surrounding environment I would draw on anything that had white space such as napkins, margins of newspaper or the local TV Guide.

For me as an artist, drawing is the purest form of expression of a concept or idea. Once the concept has been drafted it can either rest quietly on the page or I can choose to bring it to another of level. The Exquisite Notes represents a reawakening of my drawing skills after spending 15 years drafting on the computer. The three volumes represent the formative years of my studies in bookbinding.

What began as a personal sketchbook has become a visual narrative of the various structures taught by the masters who taught in the Book and Paper Arts graduate study program at Columbia College Chicago 2000-2003. This body of work represents a fraction of my continuing studies and is a fresh view of the process from a student’s point of view.

My hope is that The Exquisite Notes will provide a basis of understanding and give clarity to creating beautiful books.

Sylvia Ramos Alotta