This time Pavel decided to snatch the role of the main host and made me the guest of iBookBinding's podcast. We talk about how my interest in books and bookbinding began, study at the AAB, and the process of making tools for bookbinders.
Another bookbinding throwback. I made this binding some ten years ago or so. It was my second attempt on cover design with leather inlays. The first try was much-much simpler — I should probably show it some other time.
So, here is the first book I ever bound. While the top photo is quite dramatic, check the other images to see some mistakes I made. The spine is stitched because I recycled the leather from a jacket and wanted to cover the old holes.
I have been asked to "Just do a workshop" ... "locally, so it need not be a special thing" ... oh yes... and that four-letter word beginning with F or f that professionals dread... "for free"! After all, "it's just bits of paper, isn't it?"
Thanks to a group of photographers who wanted to know how to make photo books, I made this one-off thing, an introductory bookbinding class. The initial plan was to be done in four hours, and at 23:00, we were done!
When I friended Ingeir Djuvik early in 2016, I didn't know what an inspiring treasure I found. He hasn't stopped to amaze me with his bindings since. And at the end of this August, he received a prize from the British Society of Bookbinders.
I make handmade books which are tributes to the writers, the artists, and the stuff of life that delight me... So there’s one celebrating dogs, and one shouting about the wonder of trees, and lots of tributes to dead writers who have enhanced my existence beyond compare.
Adelene Koh is one of the winners of the first Open•Set Competition; she also received a Highly Commended Certificate of the Designer Bookbinders’ Bookbinding Competition for two years in a row in 2014 & 2015.
This happens again and again. Time after time. Every evening before a new class, I’m feeling a great anxiety about what will happen tomorrow. Even while I’m absolutely sure what to show my new students, and historically 99% of students are happy with the results, I’m really worried and nervous.
Almost during all my classes I have to face the same problem time after time: I almost never finish the book I’m making with my students.
Every month I add new blogs to my feed. It is really inspiring to see all these fine people writing about bookbinding and book conservation tricks, their projects and thoughts. At the same moment, it becomes harder to filter links for our monthly digest — there is just too much I’d like to share with you!
I am invited to different events quite regularly to entertain visitors (kids and adults) and teach them some simple bookbinding. This was exactly why yesterday I was at the Shalom Moscow festival.
Yesterday was the second gold tooling class I’m taking. Once again, we’ve been practicing lines on dummy books. However, our teacher reserved some fun for the end of the workshop.
Some of you may remember that my workshop serves both as my bookbinding and woodworking den. This has some advantages and creates some challenges, not very typical for a bookbinder’s studio. Workshop is far from being a comfortable place at the moment and I have lots of plans on how to improve it. However, I’ve already done a lot of work and wanted to share some thoughts with you.
Recent discussions with Mihai Vartejaru in Bucharest and with some other people made me to sift through my photo archive in search for the evidence of the first book I ever made.
