Customer Reviews

Making Books by Hand: A Step-By-Step Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As an experienced bookmaker, I was anxious to try some of the projects in this book. BE VERY CAUTIOUS! I found many errors in measurments in this book, which can cost you valuable paper and time! This book can be very vague about what size your papers should be and exactly how much of it you need. If you simply rely on what the author says, you may find yourself frustrated with a project that didn't work out.

Other than that, there are some nice inspirational pictures in the book, but I don't know if that justifies the purchase. So, unless you're prepared to do some serious math/measurment checking, I'd go with a book that the editors actually took time to edit.

This is a great book for any beginning bookbinder. The entire book features full-color photos with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions for many simple, but beautiful and impressive looking projects.

First, materials and how to use them are covered. There are clear photos of all the materials. Then, the author demonstrates how to make corners for 3 different types of paper.

Next, instructions are given for making several accordion books, a pamphlet stitch journal with either a soft or hard cover, a tied-binding album, & a post album. Two gorgeous box books, & a scroll are also demonstrated.

There is a wonderful gallery in the back that really helped spark my creativity. Contact information on all the contributors is also included. A resource list and other suggested readings are a great bonus.

The information provided is informative for a beginner. However, the MAJOR drawback was that the pictures illustrating the techniques were much too small. Hence, it was difficult following the instructions cause I couldn't see exactly what the author was doing.

This is one of those books that copies all of the information from other books and tries to call it their own (an does not give all the information needed to do the few examples). If need information on bookbinding, the best I have found is Hand Bookbinding: A Manual Of Instruction by Aldren Watson (also available here).

I took a class with the author and loved it. The book is very inspiring with lots of good projects. The only thing I found fault with were the hand shots. They were a little too far away and it was hard to tell what they were trying to show. Other than that, a great book, well worth the money.

This book was excellent when my daughter and I decided to start making books together. It has some great simple ideas and teaches the basics in an easy to understand way. We have had a lot of fun with this little book!

The best thing about this book is the birds-eye-view photos of each step. The projects use only very basic stitching. I think this would be ok for a beginner, but I still think the best way to use how-to books like these is to take a class first; otherwise the steps can seem overwhelming.

I was looking for a book on bookmaking for my daughter's 28th birthday. Something visually interesting with clear instructions. Something with a variety of projects both basic and creative. Making Books by Hand completely fits the bill, so much so that I had to send her something else for her b-day, while I incorporate some of the ideas from the book into my own work. Actually I think I will just get her a new copy and add this one to MY library

The collaborative effort of self-employed book artist Mary McCarthy and educator/writer Philip Manna, Making Books By Hand: A Step-By-Step Guide is a direct, to-the-point, "user friendly" instructional guide to the art and craft of creating beautiful and useful scrapbooks, photo albums, diaries, blank books, and more. Full-color photographs illustrate each part of the process of crafting accordion art books, photo albums, box books, scrolls, etc. Making Books By Hand is commended as being first-rate guidebook for those interested in cultivating their skill in a unique and satisfying hobby, or who want to make exceptional and memorable gifts for friends and loved ones.

This book was well worth the wait. It is clear and concise and has beautiful examples that are easy to follow. I will make good use of it!