When asked, I usually tell people I come to work to do craft every day. It’s true; I wear a glue smeared apron, cut paper with scalpel knives and play with glue. The week really starts on a Wednesday; that’s the day of the trolley run around the various collection points in the library. Nellie, our new binder [...]
Author Archive
Reattaching the spine of a book, or rebacking
Ever had the spine of a book fall off into your hands? Would your first brilliant thought be: “I’d better glue this back on before it gets lost.”? The idea of keeping the spine intact and with the book is great; it’s the glueing part that is the problem. You see, in the majority of [...]
Practising paring, ploughing and paperwork.
I’ve been rather quietly lately about the goings-on in the bindery. I guess it’s all become routine, and I forget that from the outside Preservation might seem like a mysterious place. Practise makes perfect; I suppose in any craft one looks to attain a degree of skill that makes the jobs seem effortless. Well, let [...]
On a bookbinding journey thanks to the Kenneth Binns Travelling Scholarship
The Kenneth Binns Travelling Fellowship is an internal Library grant awarded to a staff member in the first seven years of their career. I was lucky enough to win the scholarship to further my training as a bookbinder and visit conservation laboratories in the United Kingdom. As recently as three months ago I travelled to the London Rare Books [...]
Laboratorio de conservacion Nicolas Yapuguay Del Fondo Antiguo de la compana de Jesus
During my stay in Buenos Aires in March this year I visited the Fondo Antiguo de Jesus, on Callao Ave, in the centre of Buenos Aires, close to my apartment. I had walked past this Jesuit church and college many times, little realising what lay hidden behind its façade. The Fondo Antiguo is a Jesuit [...]
Lights! Pin! Infilling!
I’ve been a little quiet lately; it’s been the holidays, and with Robin now here there is a lot of learning going on. However I am a little excited over an item I just finished, that had been in my pile for a few months. Its cover was in bits, and the request had been [...]
Simplified binding in Eduardo Tarrico’s studio
I’m always keen on learning new techniques and meeting new people. So this trip to Buenos Aires (BsAs) fulfilled both of those needs. I obtained Eduardo Tarrico’s contact details through the BookArts Dist List. His only course for March was on simplified binding. Simplified binding is a method developed by Sun Evrard, and in its [...]
Paper making in Buenos Aires
Not only am I a bookbinder but I am also a tanguera. I travel every March to Buenos Aires looking for those great dancers, taking classes, doing very little tourism.Last year however, I took time off from dancing to visit the Biblioteca Nacional de Argentina, in Palermo. This year, I thought I’d take a more [...]
No lumpy leather in this bindery
“Can you feel the lumps?” asks Robin. “Lumps?” I reply, “what lumps? my fingers are too numb!” I’ve been paring leather this week, and my fingers are numb from holding the leather and the knife and pushing down and pushing across, all at the same time. Paring leather is the action of making the leather [...]
A gathering of bookbinders
At the beginning of November, close to eighty bookbinders gathered at the Rheinberger Centre in Yarralumla for what promised to be an exciting week-end of anecdotal and informative exchanges. The Gathering, a national conference of book binders, was organised by the Canberra Bookbinders Guild, the second to be held in Canberra since 1984. David and [...]
