I had seen a book in which sticks had been used as a spine and had been fascinated by that idea. And this book was the perfect place to try it, because stick matches would certainly be appropriate. I thought of using actual fireplace stick matches which would have been long enough, but I wasn’t sure they would be strong enough, and I wanted the colored heads to match my covers. So, I decided to make my own stick matches from dowels and polymer clay.
What You Need:
Polymer clay in six colors to match your covers

1/8" square dowels
Step 1.
Cut pieces of dowel to varying lengths, all of which should be taller than the spine of your matchbook cover. The varied heights will be more interesting looking.

Roll polymer clay into small balls and cut them in half. Place the flat side of the half against the end of the dowel and smooth the sides down with your fingers to form a matchhead shape.

You may have to mix some of the colors to get a close match to your cover colors. To mix, just add small bits of one color to another and knead until blended.
Step 2.
Bake according to manufacturer’s directions.

To insure that you won’t get a flat side on your match heads, lay the sticks on a tile or something similar so that the heads are not touching anything while baking. (Make sure the support you choose can take the heat)
Though I encountered the big “warping” surprise doing the paper match heads, and screwed up the titles, the part of this whole project that was scary to me all along was the assembly. I have never been good with sewing techniques, and whenever I need to use my left brain, I have to chase it and catch it with a net! So, the prospect of sewing something in a logical sequence was daunting indeed. I won’t go into how many attempts were made, nor how humorous some of the results were - because I was too confused to remember to take pictures and you would never believe it without pictures! Patience prevailed, however, and what follows finally worked.
What You Need:
An embroidery needle with a large eye, and a punch to put holes in the matchbook “signatures”
Rubber Cement and a brayer
Colored waxed linen cord (Cre8it)
Step 1.
This photo shows the finished insert and cover (the match heads were sanded smoother after this picture was taken).

Because I wanted the back side of the insert to remain fixed inside the cover, I decided to use rubber cement to attach it. I am well aware that rubber cement isn’t right for many things, but it has served me well for many years in the graphic design business, and it was the answer I needed here, because I couldn’t feed the insert through the Xyron machine or spray it.
Step 2.
A very permanent bond can be obtained with high quality rubber cement in the following way:

Coat both surfaces to be adhered with a smooth coat of rubber cement and let them dry. Then, using a slip sheet so they won’t stick until you have them perfectly in place, attach one surface to the other and burnish. This bond is permanent but can be undone with rubber cement thinner if needed.

Step 3.
I then punched three holes in the spine - one in the center and one an inch from each edge.

I made the holes rather large (1/8") because I knew I would be going through them several times with some medium weight waxed cord.

The six matchbooks were now my “signatures”, and the next step would be to join each signature to its color- coordinated stick match - and then to figure out how to join the stick matches together into a spine.
Step 4.
Consider the three holes as A, B, and C, left to right. Start with 2' of colored cord to match the signature.

I brought the cord out of B leaving a tail inside, went around the stick and back into B. Then out A, around the stick, back into A. Then all the way to C, out C, around the stick and back into C. I then repeated the whole sequence. Finally, I brought the cord back out B, around the stick, back into B, and tied off the end with the tail that was left at the beginning
This resulted in 2 loops of colored cord visible at hole A, 3 at hole B, and 2 at hole C, which looked the way I wanted it to. It seemed to me that there was probably a sequence that would have avoided taking the cord all the way from A to C a couple of times and conserved some cord, but I couldn’t figure one out that wouldn’t have resulted in a pile-up of loops at the center hole. So I went with this because it looked good.
Step 5.
Joining the spine - I was really flying by the seat of my pants on this one. I had no clue what to do and decided to just follow what seemed logical.

I stood all the signatures together in sequence in a food container so they wouldn’t be falling all over. Starting with a 2' piece of red waxed linen cord (to match the back signature), I fed it front to back (using the needle) between the spine and the matchstick on both sides of the center connection on the first signature, and tied a double knot at the back side. I then brought the cord under the matchstick on both sides of the center stitches on the second signature, and tied a double knot again - lining up those center stitches as I pulled it taut. I repeated this procedure until I got to the back of the last signature (the red one), where I tied a single knot and fed both ends of the cord back through the center hole to the inside of the red matchbook signature, and tied them off and trimmed them.
Once the signatures are all joined and aligned at the center hole (C), it is much easier to repeat the procedure at holes A and B because the group of signatures is now held in place by the center hole join. The body of the cord and the double knot between each signature gave the completed spine just the right amount of play to allow the book to open and to allow each signature to open individually as well.
Here is the finished book again
shown from a different angle.

Another surprise for me was that it turned out looking like a circus tent! That was not evident in all the mental images I formulated during its creation, but it’s a happy and festive look - and that’s ok with me!

You might apply this structure to a number of different themes. I can think of a few - but I will leave you to your own creative devices.
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