Wednesday 23 April 2014

Coptic Stitch Bookbinding 古老式手缝书

I have learned Kettle stitch and French stitch bookbinding techniques. Both stitches are beautiful. This time I'm learning another bookbinding technique, Coptic binding, a very old bookbinding technique which was used from as early as 2nd century AD by the early Christians in ancient Egypt. The stitches look like connected chain. Hence, some called it Chain stitch binding. 

The original method of Coptic stitch binds all the signatures and the book cover together with a connected stitch. Hence, Coptic binding can hold the signatures and the cover together tightly compare to Kettle stitch and French stitch binding which only bind the signatures together but not the cover. 

At the recent bookbinding workshop that I attended, I learned two methods of Coptic stitch binding; one is the original method, the other one is the modified method which only binds the signatures together but not the cover. I find the modified method is more convenient to prepare as I can bind the signatures first and then decide on the design of the book cover later on.


Original method of Coptic binding
Binding all signatures and book cover together with a connected stitch

Modified Coptic binding method
Beautiful Coptic stitch
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