A Big One

Earlier this year, I bound a new Matricula for University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This university carries on a tradition of having the graduates sign their names in an official matriculation book every year. The books are quite large and each book lasts several years, so this will keep them going for a while.

It is bound in full calf with my original marbled endpapers. The binding is a split board structure with sewn endbands and a leather spine label. I also made a box for it, of course. The book also features some lovely calligraphy by Fran Ornstein. And as you can see, I did not manage a proper photo shoot.

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.

Book #71

Full leather case binding, rounded spine

Case bindings can also be done with rounded and backed spines, of course. This is such an example in full leather.

Book #70

Flat back case binding, full leather

A flat back case binding, full leather.

Leather Journals for Witherstone Gallery

A few blank journals made recently, now available at Witherstone Gallery in Lunenburg. All are full leather bindings, with raised images on the front covers.

An exhibit and a swap

The Exhibit:
I have a couple of items in an exhibit at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado. The exhibit is called "Boxy Books". There are two of my items in the exhibit and both are made with papers that were painted and scribbled on by my son when he was two and three years old. One is an origami cube full of origami cubes and the other is a book inside a box. This exhibit runs until July 3rd. If you happen to be in Denver, be sure to check out the show.

The Swap:
Over at the Book Arts Forum, we are having another book swap. This time we were supposed to incorporate a material that we had never used. I decided to get some FIMO clay and see if I could incorporate it into a book since I've never worked with any clay products before. This clay is shaped and then baked (shape-n-bake, heheh); a rather simple process. In the end, I decided to go with a few FIMO "inlays" on the front cover. And there are a couple matching beads attached to the fore edge ties. I sent this book to Kiley. It is covered with purple leather and the clay stars are embedded into the front. There are two signatures sewn through the spine with an X stitch. The pages are a mix of purple and green papers, cardstock, mulberry paper, etc.

More headbands

After I saw PiedCrow's tutorial for sewing headbands, I decided I could not delay any longer. I learned to sew headbands way back, like 5 years ago. At that time I did a few, but stopped and eventually decided I would never remember how to make them. Iris's instructions were great - it all came back to me. Just like riding a bike. So thanks for doing that Iris! These are all full leather bindings. With two of them I decided to make the covers a bit more three dimensional by adding raised letters and a crane.