Binding Sketchbooks By Hand
- By Jared Lim
- 1 min reading time
At the height of the pandemic, any and all non-essential movement & commerce ground to a complete stop. Weddings, family & baby (or any) portraits and virtually all photoshoots were prohibited. Needless to say, demand for albums, boxes, prints were non-existent. Even if there were, I could not operate as all my equipment were at the bindery, and traveling to work was not permitted.
Going back to basics, I realise there was a demand by artists everywhere who were stuck at home - creating, drawing & painting. Making sketchbooks require less, almost no equipment, but rather more knowledge and skills of traditional bookbinding methods.
Importing watercolour papers from the world renowned paper maker of Hahnemuhle, with a needle, thread, and several other basic tools, I started offering hand sewn sketchbooks at my own (now defunct since the pandemic ended) website https://jaredl.im (yes, I learned how to build websites too during the lockdown).
I'd have to say that going back to the roots of bookbinding has been an amazing and very cathartic experience, especially during lockdown where everyone was stuck at home.
Here are some of the sketchbooks, custom made boxes and journal, carefully sewn & bound, made up of amazing Hahnemuhle papers, acid free cover boards and Japanese canvas cover materials.
A custom cover sketchbook.
A handmade 3-fold folio with pen & paintbox holder sections.
Handmade sketchbooks in Japanese canvas.
A custom handmade box with pen holder, a brush suite, and separate 2 layer sketchbook & paintbox holder.
Handmade sketchbooks for sketching & watercolour, various sizes.
A custom handmade journal.
