Bookbinding
My artistic journey as a bookbinder was initially
inspired by the fact that my father was an antiquarian
bookdealer. All during my childhood, I was surrounded
by old books and prints, and was influenced by their
presence. Books have always been like old friends
to me.
In
1983, I began my studies with Siegfried Buege, a
master-bookbinder in Germany. From him, I learned
a variety of traditional bindings, in leather, parchment,
cloth and paper. My training also took me to Switzerland,
where I studied under Edwin Heim at the Centro del
Bel Libro in Ascona. In North America, I studied
with Daniel Kelm, Michael Wilcox and David Mowery.
Now, as a teacher, I enjoy sharing my acquired bookbinding
skills, and in this way I hope to keep the old traditions
of fine
bookbinding alive.
There are three primary reasons why I love to bind
books:
-
I
feel it is a privilege to help preserve bookbinding
traditions, employing tools, materials and techniques
that are often centuries old.
- It gives me a great deal of pleasure to repair
or restore books and thus make them usable again
for their owners, or, in the case of rare and
valuable volumes, to preserve them for posterity.
- The vast variety of textures and colours of
bookbinding materials are visually and tactually
stimulating and inspire my creativity.
I
continue to derive great satisfaction from learning
new techniques, and refining learned techniques,
constantly experimenting with different materials,
textures and colours. |