Gallery

Materials and surfaces from work that has passed through the bench. Books belonging to clients are not photographed for the site without asking, so most of what is here is material rather than finished commissions.

Stone, indigo

Bath run long; the veining is from the third drop of colour.

Nonpareil, moss

Fine comb, four passes, pulled slowly.

Buckram, brick

Reback stock. Fades honestly over a decade.

Goatskin

Pared for a quarter binding; the grain runs with the spine.

Mould-made sheet

Endpaper stock, laid texture, neutral tone.

Shell, ochre

Ox gall in the last colour; the rings are the giveaway.

Light cloth, green

For thin books and pamphlet bindings.

Calf, tan

Smooth enough to tool; unforgiving of a slipped line.

Bench light

Late afternoon, which is when the tooling gets put away.

On photographing books

A binding photographs badly. Cloth flattens, leather loses its grain, and a marbled sheet that has depth in the hand becomes a pattern on a screen. Assume everything here looks better and slightly duller in person than it does on this page.