Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials

by Jeannine Stein

A DIY book making guide that repurposes easily-found items into handcrafted books, perfect for gift giving.Re-Bound is a beautiful book on bookbinding with a fun green twist—all the projects use recycled and upcycled materials. This book shows you how to take everyday materials from around the house, flea markets, thrift stores, and hardware stores and turn them into clever and eye-catching hand-made books.

Genres: Art, Crafts, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Reference, Adult, Design

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely creative projects for making books from unusual things (such as hot water bottles, felted sweaters, window screens, and bath rugs). I'm beginning to suspect (from both my bookmaking class and reading books such as this) that I am not nearly as precise and detail-oriented as most bookmaking requires...

[Ezekiel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the ideas in this book too... self-satisfied. While I'm a big fan of artist's books in general, I a) did not find many of them in this book all that inspiring and b) was annoyed by how few of the projects were meant to be an actual book (aka, a place wherein is written things). It felt like Re-Bound was more about making "book-like objects" than making books.

Oh, and another thing, turning "vintage" items into books is not recycling. Technically it's repurposed, but it hardly is all that impressive. I feel like vintage has become such a "thing" that saying you've used vintage items to make your book beautiful and unique just makes me go, "so? everyone and their mom is in love with vintage. Impress me by making me like something that is truly recycled, not something that you paid money for in order to then take it apart and put it back together again." I think some of my anger at this book is rooted in my annoyance with certain sections of hipster culture that view retro/ironic/vintage things as defacto art, as opposed to as a particular way to potentially achieve art.

The only reason I'm giving it the 2 stars is because it had useful illustrations for stitches and a resource guide in the back.

[zane deann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhhh.

[Cindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeannine Stein begins this book by explaining the parts of every book like the spine, the fore edge and the text block. She also goes into tools and materials crafters and artists will want to have on hand when beginning their projects like various kinds of cutting tools, twines and threads and awls and drills. Before getting into the actual bookmaking she also goes over techniques and guidelines no matter what type of book is being created. This is especially important information for people that are new to the art of handmade books.

The projects fall into five different chapters grouped together by such categories as Hunting Buried Treasure and Dive In. Hunting Buried Treasure shows how to create notebooks, journals and more from thrift store, estate sale and flea market finds. Dive In is all about the finds that can be found in dumpsters and trash cans, in other words, one man's trash is another man's treasure. These chapters are perfect for the person who just needs an idea to use up some materials they already have on hand, or to give a first-time bookmaker an idea of the broad range of possibilities.

For anyone who wants to turn a Vogue pattern book into a purse-shaped design journal, a bath mat into a fold-out scrapbook or beverage coasters into a drink recipe book, this is the book to get. It's full of possibilities not only for creating handmade books to keep, but also for making handmade treasures to give away.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some neat inspiration for making your own books from scratch, especially when first browsed quickly.
However, when seen more closely, many of the ideas are not that practical. Many look pretty, but my favorite ideas are not those presented by the author but by the presented featured authors. Such as using random thin cardboard like cereal boxes or chocolate boxes for the covers. Many of the bookbinding techniques were presented, and materials needed and which materials age graciously and which not were shown. But some of the projects were horribly either short-lived (when you know the paper won't last for many decades), or impractical (like a notebook made from coke cans. How do you plan to use a coke can notebook?).
A beautiful book by its graphical presentation though. I don't think I'll do anything exactly as shown for the projects, but learning some more about bookbinding techniques does not hurt. Get inspired, see how stuff can get done in many different ways, see some more inspiration, and then I guess have your eyes open and you'll see what will be the next project...

[Marlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this book briefly a year ago, then promptly lost the piece of paper with the title written on it. Many google and library and book store searches later I found many other books in this category but none as good. Finally got my hands on a copy and I am jumping into the projects now. This book is great for being eco-friendly and still having great looking projects of a high quality. It is written to be useful to beginners or those who already have a lot of experience. As an experienced book binder I found all the projects had a new feature that I could learn from and use. I highly recommend it.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caught my eye as I passed the "new" bookstand at the library. I have made a few books in the past, mostly from instructions found on the internet and a mother/child class, and find them fascinating and fun to make.

I absolutely LOVE this book and am adding it to the top of my Christmas list for Santa. Re-bound is a great resource book as the author has instructions on how to make several types of books from lots of different recycled materials. She also has a fabulous list of tools at the beginning, templates, a stitch glossary and resources at the back of the book.

[Ligaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the handmade books featured here were very creative! Many were not my taste but the ideas presented were very thought provoking. I was seeing many of the books as purses, bags, or boxes. The book was well organized, the graphics nicely designed, and the photographs were clear and professionally styled. The combination of materials for several of the projects were really well done - particularly the Coaster Cocktail-Recipe Book with stirring sticks as the spine! The Gallery of artists' work was inspiration, as well!

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much on actual binding techniques and I'm not a big fan of art books, but plenty of ideas for using different household materials and 'trash' to make interesting books, not bad, gave me a few new ideas

[Sarahanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of great ideas. I've been making junk journals for several months & this has been a good inspiration when I'm not sure how to move forward.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

The instructions were difficult to follow - they needed more photos or illustrations to make them clear. It was a nice bit of inspiration for hobby book binding.

[Ita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good, interesting ideas, but only a few that I would use.

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

Up cycling is great and all but dumpster diving to find bits of pieces for bookbinding material doesn’t seem to be a hygienic protocol.

[Suzanne Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super inpireing. Great images. Excellent illustrations. I am so happy I purchased this book!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much less impressed with this book once I got it home from the library. The photographs are gorgeous, but I wanted to learn how to make books, ones that I could write in or collect art or something in, and this was mostly just... pretty items, reused or recycled or repurposed, bound together. If that's what you're looking for, great. The materials Stein works with are certainly creative and unusual; perhaps this can inspire someone else.

[RF · Rating 4 out of 5]

auuugggh... went nuts and made an impulse buy at B&N - I love bookbinding and reusing materials. The book artist in me is THRILLED to play with these fun ideas... This is a great way to reuse materials and make some super fun (and mostly simple) book bindings. Well illustrated and will get your bookmaking impulses flowing...

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all craft books, there were some winners and losers in here. Overall, I have enjoyed every Quarry published book I've looked at. They're like artist-crafts. My favorite project was the one on the cover, not so much because it used spent gift cards (credit card sized) for covers (which is so cute), but the binding style is one I'd like to try next.

[Catherine Woodman]

THis is absolutely the best book on making your own bound books that I have seen--since the kids have been making their own books for over a decade, I feel like I have a sense of what it entails, and this book oes through the stitching required for many different styles of handmade books that seems like it would be possible to start with no knowledge and be successful.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the idea of making crafty items using recycled and repurposed materials and this book has some great ideas for doing that! I won't have a chance to try to make any of these items until after we move - too much stuff is packed already, but I am looking forward to re-checking out this book from the library and trying out some of the ideas it presents soon!

[KC · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm interested in recycling materials, crafting, and handmade books, so this book seemed like an interesting choice when I picked it up at the library. I was able to pick up a couple of tips, but by and large the handmade books described/shown in Re-Bound were kind of ridiculous. None were attractive or particularly useful in my opinion.

[Sally]

Found in Milwaukee library system.p;ayin
Sections I'm interested in are:
the Felted Sweater Journal, page 40-43; it uses long stitch binding style.

I like the buttons on the two ends of the spine.
**Double-Sided Notebook, pages 30-33; it uses a double pamphlet stitch.
the use of bolts for spines
spent gift cards for covers

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really specific projects based on making books from recycled materials, but very interesting binding ideas. most materials in the book are things that are easily accessible and are things that we throw away every day.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute and interesting, but mainly just a book where you look at the pretty pictures and then move on with your life. Unless you're a person who will actually make a book out of old Monopoly game boards or potato chip bags.

[Laura Salas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was making books from other things...mostly not what I was wanting to do, but I love the paint-sample book idea. Wouldn't make a photo album, but how perfect is it for a mini poetry collection? Want to try this!

[Victoria Evangelina Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I am not (yet) interested in binding my own books, diaries, sketchbooks, this colorful copy showed me, that such is possible - and all sorts of ideas can be applied to creating cute and practical pieces of art.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat book. Offers ideas and inspiration for more. But really, when am I going to get the time?!

[Mystique]

I'll still need to take a class or see it done, I think.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for re-purposing materials into books. Clear photos and precise instructions. Easy for beginners too!

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to revisit this book when I have more time to experiment with more of the ideas.

[Opal · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are several projects in this book that I'd like to try, but I never seem to have the time or the right materials.