Rubow Binding

I really like making books using the Rubow binding technique, which is one of the various types of millimeter binding that came out of Denmark in the mid-20th century. They were traditionally made with paste papers on the cover. I intended to use paste paper on this book, but as sometimes happens, when I first made the cover for this book the size wasn't quite right. So, I had to start over and make a new cover and didn't have any more paste paper that worked well with the purple leather and the purple edge painting that I did on the head and tail. So I used some of my marbled paper instead and it turned out quite nice anyway!

An edition of popup cards

Earlier this year, I made an edition of fifteen cards for a card exchange. Inspired by a line from Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman, I made these popup cards featuring a nighttime cityscape.

The front of the card has the text, "Gotta break your neck to see a star in this yard," as spoken by the main character, Willy Loman. I used antique brass type to print it, black on black.

Inside, the cityscape is made from an original lino carving, hand printed onto some of my original marbled papers. The city and the background sky are then partially obscured by the foreground tangle of trees and weeds.

Anne of Green Gables

As I mentioned in June last year, I was fortunate to have two of my books accepted into the Kindred Spirits Exhibit, a juried bookbinding exhibit organized by CBBAG. The exhibit is in recognition of the life and work of L. M. Montgomery, to mark 150 years since her birth. The exhibit is travelling to various galleries in Canada and is currently at Western Univerisity. The project website has the full exhibition schedule.

One of my books for this exhibit is a full leather rebinding of Anne of Green Gables. This is a 1952 edition that belonged to my mother. She gave it to me a few years ago and suggested that I repair it, since it had some damage to the covers and part of the spine material was missing. So, when this exhibit was announced, I deicded it was time to do something with it. I also made a custom box for it. The marbled paper is my own and it is used as the book's endpapers and inside the box.


The second book is more of an artists' book, called "Summer." I used just a few lines from Anne of Green Gables as the content for this book.

Anne had the golden summer of her life, as far as freedom and frolic went. She walked, rowed, berried, and dreamed to her heart's content and when September came she was bright-eyed and alert, with a heart full of ambition and zest once more.

Each of the pages is hand-decorated with watercolour washes and ink drawings and I printed the text with some antique brass type. The book and box are covered with yellow bookcloth and have some of my own marbled paper inside. The book is a hardcover, 2-hole stab binding.


You can find more pictures of the books and order the catalog on the Kindred Spirits website.