El Almiquí Verde
Coptic Notebooks
Ideals to take your notes, keep your journal, your agenda, start an upcoming novel ...
A delicate and original gift, which will always have good use.
Caracteristics
Binding is done in a style called Coptic that comes, of course, from the Coptic peoples of ancient Egypt. (Learn more about it here)
For sewing, we use two types of string, at your choice:
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cotton twine (white)
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hemp twine (natural color)
Inside you can find 80 sheets (160 sides) of paper of your choice:
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White paper (100 grams)
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Recycled paper
Cover is hand-painted with acrylic on cardboard, and then coated with two layer of fixative varnish to protect the artwork. You can choose your design in our Design gallery, and customize it as much as you want.
Our Creative Process
Catching the Muse
I live surrounded by nature, and this is my most faithful and constant Muse. It is not uncommon, then, that when I sit down to paint, leaves, flowers, and all kind of natural designs appears rather frecuently on paper. I also love to visit museums, and can spend long hours letting myself be inspired by the Masters, by their way of doing, by their colors...
Artistic soul
The process of designing and painting of the covers is usually what takes me the most time in creating a notebook. Once I have the idea of what I want to paint, each step takes its time: think about the best composition for the main motive, whether or not it will have a background, choose the colors and, finally, paint it.
Artisan hands
Covers:
After the cover is already hand-painted, it is time to cut the cardboard that will serve as support, and join everything carefully with glue. Once the glue has dried completely, I proceed to varnish each cover to protect the paint from possible damage. Two layers of fixing varnish are applied to each cover.
Paper:
While the varnish dries, the papers are cut to size if necessary, and hand folded one by one to get the signatures that will form the textblock of the notebook.
Binding:
When covers are completely dry, the paper folded and the signatures are formed, small holes are hand opened with a punch in each of them. One Coptic notebook usually has about 56 holes on it, through which the sewing string will pass, either cotton or hemp.
The whole process of making each notebook takes usually a couple of days, or even more, when it comes to finding and painting the perfect design.
Coptic Icon representing San Marcus
carrying a book bound in Coptic style.
short history of coptic style binding
The term Coptic refers specifically to Egyptians who profess some type of Christian faith. The Coptic people date back to ancient Egyptian times. The members of the Coptic church consider that many of their ancestors were builders of the pyramids. His closest ancestors converted to Christianity in the year 42 AD, and throughout the years they preserved their religion.
It was they who developed this binding technique to protect and preserve the knowledge of their people. Books from the 3rd century A.D. already bound with this technique are preserved in the Coptic Museum of Cairo, and there are indications that it was already in use in the second century A.D.
Coptic binding can be used with covers of the most diverse materials (wood, metal, leather, etc.), which guarantees the protection of its contents, and allows binding both booklets and loose sheets, in any quantity. Its versatility and resistance have made this type of binding still useful in our days.