These series of images are of a book I had the pleasure of binding for a delightful client. Danyah has collated, written and illustrated recipes from friends and family. These recipes were beautifully type set in a font like an old typewriter, printed and then we chose colours and details to bind this special book. It is a wedding gift. What a lucky recipient.

I was able to arrange for the printing to be done then we set about designing the colours and papers to use and  I set about bounding the book. It is a single section binding and is covered in a rich, dark mauve material, one of our new bookcloths. Finished with a leather label and velvet marker. We also had very suitable paper for the endpapers, these feature old kitchen utencils. To add a richness some of our decorative papers were inserted.

It certainly is a unique and very beautiful book.

Unfortunately I did not have time to read the recipes, a quick glance was sufficient to know that they were fantastic.

Whey I say our papers and bookcloths I am referring to my retail business – Amazing Paper (www.amazingpaper.com.au)

These images show our first class exploring this technique with pieces of coloured leather. We are yet to complete the designs onto covers that will be for a Simplified binding. This style of binding allows the covers to be made separately and attached to the spine ‘cap’ of the book. Our books are already stitched with the spine ‘caps’ attached.

The first images show students using the Brockman machine to thin their pieces of leather. The pieces are attached to a base paper, sanded to create an interesting surface. Finally they will be cut to desired shapes, attached to the leather for the covers and the books then can be completed. One of the students, Penny, had fun adding lines and dots in gold foil to her panel.  The second last image show a completed book and slip case as a first attempt with this technique. The book is covered with bookcloth with a recessed area for the decorative panel. The final image is a book I bound a little time ago with the Lacunose panel at the base.

This technique was taught to me by Paul Delrue (Rithin, Wales) during my visit last year when attending a bookbinding conference.

I am heading to Wanaka, New Zealand, in a few weeks time to teach this technique at the Wanaka Autumn School. I am sure we will have some interesting results.