I’ve been really busy this month, so I’m feeling some casual blogging. Question: why don’t origami books take a page from music books? It’s a pun, because I’m talking about book bindings.
Music books are designed to stay open, because you can’t very well hold the pages open while performing. Origami is likewise an activity that requires the use of hands while also looking at the page. You see what I’m saying? Origami books pose a problem that has already been solved in music.
Music books come in a few different varieties. There are small books that are essentially stapled together. Larger books come with rings or spirals. And of course there’s the classic solution, no bindings at all, just put them in a trapper keeper, or stuff them in a folder, or leave them lying around in loose disorganized stacks. Problem solved?
But blogging has ruined me in a particular way. I can’t just ask inane questions anymore. I have to do my due diligence and actually look up answers to inane questions.
Apparently ring/spiral bindings, also known as coil bindings, are more expensive and less durable. As someone at the origami convention put it, origamists are really cheap because they can get hours of entertainment from a simple sheet of paper.
The staple method is known as saddle stitch binding. It only works with smaller books and doesn’t leave room for the title on the book’s spine. It also doesn’t entirely solve the problem of keeping the book open (to the musician’s frequent chagrin).
Aaaand I suppose in music you need to be looking at the page continuously while making a time sensitive performance, while origami diagrams just need occasional reference.
stuff like this is how u keep tha baloney rollin, which is the essence of blogging
Yeah, saddle stitch only really works with small books. A standard 32-page comic book is only eight sheets of paper, after all. Anything more than that, or better quality (i.e., thicker) paper, and it starts becoming difficult to fold it flat in the first place as the binding is thicker than the rest of the book. And, as you noted, there’s not really any spine to put a title on. There’s a reason why thicker books usually use multiple signatures of about 16 pages each, and then sews (or glues) them together across the back and wraps it in a cover to provide the spine. Hardcover books usually use two layers for that, one directly attached to the signatures that bends toward the reader as the book opens, and an outer spine that allows the covers to fold in slightly behind it because the covers will be closer together at the back when the book is open, and not leaving enough flex in the spine means the book won’t open flat.
Of course, as you say, most origami books are cheap and they usually use ‘perfect’ binding, which involves no stitching at all: just line all the pages up, cut them completely flat at the bound side, paint glue along that edge, wrap a soft cover around it, and clamp the whole thing in a vise until the glue dries. Perfect binding is simple, cheap, and pretty good for mid-sized books (80-100 pages or so, bigger than you can easily do with saddle stitching but not big enough to be worth the extra work of full multi-signature binding), but you lose a chunk of the page closest to the spine because the pages are literally glued together at that edge. It’s also impossible to safely open it completely flat, and any cracks in the binding can let individual pages fall out.
Why yes, I have actually done bookbinding and even taken classes on it. I also inherited some of my grandfather’s equipment; he used to slice the spines off of magazines and use perfect binding to make books out of them, because they took up less space on the shelf that way and now actually had spines with to indicate the magazine title and date range.
I always thought it would be wonderful if origami books would stay open, especially while attempting much more complicated diagrams. I suppose paperweights will continue to suffice. “origamists are really cheap because they can get hours of entertainment from a simple sheet of paper.”, this line made me chuckle; it is very apt. I have always been rather ‘frugal’ as well as easily amused by endless hours of paperfolding.
@jenorafeuer – That is really neat that you’ve dabbled in bookbinding! I always thought it would be an interesting skill to learn. Thank you for such a detailed description on the differences between bindings.