Bookish Talk/ Highlights/ Tutorials

Introducing the Pianel Binding by Ben Elbel – Bookish Talk #8

, , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment

We have another Bookish Talk with a guest today. Ben Elbel was the first person we interviewed on our large podcast, and now he returns to talk about a new tutorial he recently announced.

Pianel Binding is a variation of the piano hinge binding that was known for a couple of hundreds of years. Ben first started experimenting with this structure a decade ago, and now the results of his work are ready to be tested by a wider audience of bookbinders.

Audio

Video

Listen to this episode on:

Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding

Join us on:

Follow Ben’s projects:

00:00 – Beginning
01:11 – Shifting to an online presentation of the new tutorial because of Covid
04:15 – There are 6 tutorials already!
04:38 – Introducing the Pianel Binding
05:43 – A brief history of the piano hinge binding
07:31 – Opening the book flat was one of the goals in improving the traditional piano hinge binding
08:48 – Other examples of piano hinge bindings
10:14 – How long does it take to make a Pianel Binding?
11:07 – Why is it possible for this binding to open flat?
11:49 – Cover separated from the book block
12:46 – The level of difficulty of the Pianel Binding
14:07 – Why Ben’s bindings have slightly curved covers?
17:09 – Challenges of making a tutorial for the Pianel Binding
20:11 – How this and other binding structures were envisioned in the first place
24:48 – Is the creation process similar to other structures Ben created?
26:15 – Is there a chance for experimentation and variations with Ben’s bindings and tutorials?
29:03 – Plans to introduce a French version of iBookBinding’s podcast