How to make a glueless concertina book

On Thursday, while we waited for the bitumen paint on our copper etching plates to dry Bernie taught us how to make a concertina book. He had several samples of small artist's books, many of which were inspiringly interesting, beautiful or intriguing. There are many ways to make your own books, here is one way of quickly making a good looking and useful book.

here's my sample book

How to make a glueless concertina book :-)

You need:

• strips of paper 11cm wide and about 60cm long. We used two strips so we did in fact need a little glue (glue stick type, it doesn't wet the paper and make it warp) to join our two strips
• 2 pieces of 11cm x 11cm card
• paper to cover the board covers (we used magazine pictures because they were convenient and quick to use, but obviously one's own drawings/prints/artwork would be better
• bone paper creaser and folder (you can see one of these in the second picture down from here
• metal ruler
• craft knife

Then..

This diagram shows you how to fold the pieces of paper, using 'mountain' and 'valley' folds.

Measure the 11cm squares and score along each one using the bone tool so that the concertina folds are crisp.

like this

If you are going to join two pieces of paper, trim the excess off one end (visible in the above pic as a 3 cm end piece) to 1cm long then glue the 1cm piece to the back of the other folded piece of paper (or card) to form a 'valley' fold.

Next make the covers:

You will need the 11cm square pieces of card.

Then cut two cover papers, one with 2cm tabs on the sides and one with 2cm tabs on the top and bottom, as can be seen in this picture.

Now you fold the cover papers around the card, then slide the whole cover over one end of the concertina book.

Repeat this process for the other cover, your book should look like this.

Then make a 'spine' for the book, as you can see in the pic below. This is a piece of paper matching the covers (or contrasting if you prefer!) which is 11cm tall and about 6-7cm wide. Fold it in half and slip it into the covers.

How fabulous is this?

I added a sliding panel to the front cover of my book

Then fill your book with something fantastic, interesting, subversive, wild, humorous.....let the imagination run wild!!

I made this book as a sample and have used other people's art work for the covers so it is inappropriate for me to put my own stuff in it but I can't wait to make my own art filled book.

Great process, fab books! Thanks Bernie.