Drumleaf Photo Book Demonstration

The Drum Leaf Binding is an adhesive-only binding structure, with no sewing. The book is assembled of one-sided folio spreads or single leaves formed into folios. This allows the book to open flat. Images can span the entire two-page spread. This is perfect for photo books, brag books, art books, and portfolios.

The Drum Leaf Binding was developed by Tim Ely. We will discuss the design choices in developing this structure as well as his variations.

The Drum Leaf Binding is a mash-up of three book structures: perfect binding, Japanese album accordion, and the flutterbook. These structures will be discussed in some detail in relation to the Drum Leaf Binding.

For this workshop, we will use the break-away spine method, though we will discuss several other techniques to cover the book.

All materials included (unless you want to provide your own images)

Students may print their own material for the text block of the book. Recommended print size is 8.5” x 11” with the image set to landscape. I recommend using heavy photo paper around 280 GSM. The paper should be tested to ensure it folds nicely along the short direction. fold the paper to ensure it doesn’t crack at the fold. Print only on one side.

Larger sizes are acceptable up to tabloid (11” x 17”), but let the instructor know (kranzbooks@gmail.com) so appropriate-sized cover materials can be made available. Again, feel free to e-mail Edward with any questions before printing your material. Please limit your number of images to twenty (20) maximum quantities. There is no discount if you provide your own images.

All other students will have blank materials to construct their Drum Leaf Binding with. Images can also adhere to the surface pages later if desired.