Dear Everyone ~

The Crafter’s Box (TCB) is not an object, it’s a subject: an enterprise dedicated to providing crafters of all skill levels with tools, materials, and highly detailed video experiences. I have recently spent an action-packed week in San Diego filming four videos for TCB.

Bookbinding and boxmaking are new realms of creative endeavour for TCB. The company has developed a very large, engaged audience around the world—some of whom have been clamoring for bookbinding & boxmaking experiences. I am TCB’s inaugural instructor for two bookbinding videos and two boxmaking videos.

My first video, “Case Binding with Bari Zaki,” has just launched on the TCB website. The experience provides a link to the video plus a kit of materials and tools. This particular kit includes materials to make four complete books. TCB has such a large audience that some of the papers I typically use in my workshops were not available at scale. I enjoyed making suggestions to TCB for alternatives. I am delighted to share that the papers in this kit are Hahnemühle Bugra for the pages, and Japanese decorative papers & bookcloths for the covers. The kit also includes a bookpress, which was made to my specifications. Crafters have the option of ordering additional sets of materials without the bookpress and tools.

I am particularly sentimental about the case-binding structure. It was one of the first books I learned to make 30-ish years ago, and I’ve made literally thousands of them in the ensuing three decades. I love that it combines all elements of making a book: from folding paper to stitching, to trimming bookboard to glueing. And of course, it is a hard-cover book! Yes, I still have my very first case-bound book, as you can see below.

Back to TCB: The bookboard and Hahnemühle Bugra for the case-binding kits were cut down by my longtime “master guillotiner,” Frank Lemke. I had the pleasure of watching Frank make the first stacks, or should I say towers! My second bookbinding video, “Hand-stitching with Bari Zaki,” will be announced next week on the TCB website. My two boxmaking videos will debut this fall.

Case Binding with Bari Zaki

Truly Completely Bestitched, Bari