Black and Gold A5 Notebook
This stunning, high-quality handmade notebook is adorned with exquisite black and gold chiyogami paper featuring the elegant Black Ottilie pattern. The inside contains 144 plain sides of high-quality, recycled 'Cupcycle' paper, which is great for a range of different writing media. Coptic stitching in black and gold thread allows the book to lay flat for easy use and writing right up to the edges of the paper on both sides comfortably.
This stunning, high-quality handmade notebook is adorned with exquisite black and gold chiyogami paper featuring the elegant Black Ottilie pattern. The inside contains 144 plain sides of high-quality, recycled 'Cupcycle' paper, which is great for a range of different writing media. Coptic stitching in black and gold thread allows the book to lay flat for easy use and writing right up to the edges of the paper on both sides comfortably.
This stunning, high-quality handmade notebook is adorned with exquisite black and gold chiyogami paper featuring the elegant Black Ottilie pattern. The inside contains 144 plain sides of high-quality, recycled 'Cupcycle' paper, which is great for a range of different writing media. Coptic stitching in black and gold thread allows the book to lay flat for easy use and writing right up to the edges of the paper on both sides comfortably.
Chiyogami paper is sometimes known as Yuzen, particularly in the US. This is because the Chiyogami paper we see today is a blend of two traditional processes - Chiyogami, which is woodblock printed paper, and Yuzen, which is a style of kimono patterns. After the second world war, when kimonos were less commonly bought in Japan, the cloth printing workshops began to print their patterns on paper. Chiyogami paper is now usually silkscreen printed by hand with the strikingly beautiful patterns that it is known for. Traditionally, these would have represented beauty and a long life, but there are now many thousands of patterns available. The process is labour intensive and each colour has to be printed and allowed to dry before the next is laid down.
Lokta paper features on the inside cover; this has been made in Nepal for over 1000 years and is a sustainable product as the bush from which the raw material is taken regenerates to it's full size over five to seven years.
The book is hand stitched using coptic stitch, giving the impression of plaits across the spine of the book, which you will be able to see in the photo. The stitching is delicate, but strong. Coptic stitching was first used by Christians in Egypt (the Copts) between the 2nd and 11th centuries AD. This type of stitching allows the book to lay completely flat. It is worth noting that this also means there is some movement around the spine of the cover boards; however, this does not imply a weakness in the book! Without this movement, the book would not lay flat, so I never attempt to overcome this with glue or other methods.
I hope that you will enjoy using this notebook as much as I have enjoyed making it. I'm focused on quality and make every effort to ensure the corners are tidy, patterns are centralised and lines are straight. Of course, this is handmade, so every item is unique and I am proud to use materials and methods with such interesting histories. This book will be quite hardwearing; it's designed to be used.
