Designer binder Gerritt Vanderwerker has just bound a copy of A Line for us, and we are delighted with the result which we think excellently captures the spirit of Suyeon Kim’s book.

Vanderwerker tells us that this is a modified German millimeter binding. Goatskin and marbled paper over boards with onlays of goatskin and calf. Marbled paper by Iris Nevins, case lined with Strathmore charcoal paper. Slipcase of Strathmore charcoal paper over boards with onlaid goatskin lettering.

Oliver describes her work on this binding as ‘an experiment, playing with dyes on the leather and seeing what happened when I distressed it.’ We love the way she managed to incorporate our single sheet into her folding vision of the river.  

To the City of London was one of the designer bindings exhibited at the Flow Gallery’s exhibition: Covered: Beauty and Art in Contemporary Binding from 22 – 27 April 2010.

See more images of this binding on our Flickr page

Ali O’Brien a keen local photographer, and part-time lecturer in Photography at Bradford College, visited the workshop last Spring. She was particularly taken with the Arab, and the interrelationship between the work we do, and the prints on the walls–our inspiration! We have added some of the photos she took  to our flickr site.

Designer binding for Water

Karen Hanmer sent us this photo of the binding she designed for our book Water based on multiple water molecules. In Bound for Success, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, she describes her work as: full blue goatskin, with inlays and onlays executed in a variety of techniques, and tooling in white gold leaf.

Merry Christmas!

The view from the workshop window shows the transformation of Oldham’s rainy streets into a winter wonderland. It is chilly at the press– the perfect day to sit upstairs in the warmth and begin working on our traditional booklet to greet the New Year.

Cuts of Craftworkers

Another one of Saturday’s Designer Binder Prize winners (winning for her beautiful binding of Le Grand Meaulnes), Nicki Oliver sent us these photos of her interpretation of Cuts of Craftworkers last Summer.

Urban Birds

Winner of the J Hewitt & Sons Prize at the Designer Binders 2009 Competition. Jeanette’s book will be exhibited At John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester from 5 December 2009-31 January 2010 along with the other bindings in the competition.

Jeanette Koch, a Licentiate of Designer Binders, enjoys using exotic skins in her bindings.  Her design for Urban Birds (out of print) uses black ostrich skin and natural goatskin, with multicoloured leather underlays, blind tooling, and multicoloured leather headbands. The top edge has been coloured with gouache. Inside the book has brown paper doublures, and speckled paper flyleaves decorated with coloured strips.

Cuts of Craftworkers

Stephen uses quarter pebble grain morocco with matching skiver onlays individually lettered and blind ruled. Hand-marbled paper sides and matching end papers add more colour to his copy of Cuts of Craftworkers. A matching slipcase protects the boards.

Marbled end papers for Cuts of Craftworkers

Water

Jana Pullman is a book conservator, bookbinder and book artist. She is also proprietor of Western Slope Bindery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On her blog, About the Binding, Jana has written a detailed account of designing and binding her copy of Water (out of print).

There, through text and illustration, she reveals her design process in great detail, including fore-edge painting, covering the boards, and foil stamping.