I have wanted to try making a book using the Criss cross binding for some time, so I was excited to see a class being offered at the Frederick Book Arts Center. This binding is also known as the Secret Belgian binding. The allure of this book is the signatures are bound to the spine of the book in a way that lets you remove/replace them. The unique stitching also lets the cover and pages lay flat.
I preparation for the class we cut and covered board for the front, back and spine of the book. I used some fancy peacock feather paper for this. We also folded and pressed 8 signatures.
We punched holed in the covered front and back boards for stitching. Both the vertical and horizontal spacing of holes can be varied, allowing for endless designs. I punched 6 holes 1" from the front edge with varied vertical spacing.
The signatures are 1/4" shorter than the boards. I made a template to punch the signatures that accounted for the difference in hight and matched the vertical spacing of the six holes.
The cover is stitched/woven together first. We used binder clips to hold the three sections of the cover in place while stitching (blue tape can also be used). I used 4 ply Irish linen waxed thread, though often thicker thread or ribbon can be used.
Stating at the top on the inside front cover, go out the top hole leaving a short tail of thread behind, come in from the outside in the gap between the front board and the spine and go back out in the gap between the spine and the back board, then in the top hole on the back cover, wrap around the spine in the opposite direction, tie a square knot with the tail of the thread near the top hole on the front board, continue out the top hole on the front cover, wrap around the spine a third time, go in the top hole of the back cover one last time. The first station is now complete.
Go out the second hole on the back cover, wrap around the spine, go out the second hole of the front cover, wrap around the spine in the opposite direction, go in the second hole of the back cover, wrap around the spine a third time, go in the second hole of the front cover one last time. The second station is now complete.
Repeat the process for the remaining stations and tie off the thread at the end of the sixth station.
We used a sort of running pamphlet stitch to attach the signatures to the threads that wrap around the inside of the spine. If desired, you could attach each signature independently to the spine using multiple pamphlet stitches. Cutting the pamphlet stitches allows you to remove the signatures from the book.
I quickly made a second book using some beautiful marbled paper a friend made. I used a photo of the 2021 Brood X Cicadas for the front and back signature wraps.
