At the end of August I attended the Society of Bookbinders conference at Leeds University. As usual, I had a great time. I met with a lot of old friends and made some new ones. My niece Annette was there as well. I attended the following presentations: Don Etherington (Stiff board vellum with slotted spine); Tracey Rowledge (Gold tooling on paper); Kate Brett (History of paper marbling); Stuart Brockman (Gold finishing); Stephan Ortbauer (Small books, big books) and Peter Jones (Composite boards). All of them were informative and interesting. I should have run to the studio immediately on my return to put things into practice but the New Year holidays have interfered. Here are the books I put into the exhibition there. The first is Pamela Silver’s book “Maybe I Saw Myself as Black, Maybe as Christian” for which I printed the text. The beading was done by Temma Gentles of Toronto. The next is my “Sloppy Retro”, a book of designs from various bindings I have done over the years, without the concern for neatness that usually haunts my work.
On the way there I visited with friends in London and went to see the Designer Bookbinders traveling exhibition at the St Bride Institute. I also dropped in on Mark Cockram at his studio. He didn’t come to Leeds so I couldn’t buy him the beer that I owe him or collect the one he owes me. My Shakespeare binding in the DB exhibit:
It is made up of hundreds of thin strips of different coloured leather glued together to form the profile of WS on the front and a maril-like panel on the back with the same profile marked with green leather, with WS himself peeking through on the spine. The show is traveling around the world and the schedule can be seen on the Designer Bookbinders web site.
