Iona Abbey Library
Preserving Iona Abbey Library
In March 2017 we were invited to the Isle of Iona to visit the Iona Abbey Library. There John and Lesley Anne appraised hundreds of books on their two day trip and we, along with two other conservators, were awarded the tender.
Iona Abbey Library is one of the most important libraries in Western Europe and attracts over 130,000 visitors a year. It is where St Columba's monks sat down to write and illustrate the Book of Kells before being rudely interrupted by the vikings!
In September 2016 the tiny library, hidden above the cloisters of the abbey, received a grant of £100,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This is being used to support the two year restoration and conservation project preserving the unique works held in the library for future generations.
Shortly after receiving several boxes containing books and manuscripts which delve into the history of Scotland and its Gaelic ancestry we set to work. Where possible the books were restored as similarly to their original bindings as possible. In many cases this involved paper repair work and conservation binding, and where pamphlets and manuscripts had been previously unprotected, they were now secured in new cases so that the internal pages will stay preserved for many more years to come.
In December 2017 we safely returned the precious works to the Iona Abbey Cathedral Trust who will look after them until the Abbey Library restoration project has been completed. We hope to be involved in the public exhibition to be created on Iona; in this it's final year; to showcase all the hard work put into this venture before its expected completion in October.
"Thank you very much to DAD Bookbinders for all your hard work and attention to our books. They have been in good hands"
Sue Clutterbuck, Project Manager, Iona Abbey Library Project
Advanced Bookbinding Classes
A Little Leather?
Later this week we will be excitedly tearing these enticing brown paper wraps open in preparation for the Advanced Bookbinding Class this Saturday.
This, of course, is our leather stash. Leather bindings are a particular speciality here at Downie Allison Downie. It is a very skilled way of binding, which fewer binderies can do these days. Due to the lack of these skills still being taught, and of course the ever increasing prices of leather, it is certainly becoming one of our more high end services.
On our Advanced Bookbinding Class we spend the day binding a notebook in leather - much like this one I made as an example in our last class. We have a choice of leather for the spine and an even wider choice of beautiful papers for the sides to make your book truly the only one of its kind.
We show you how to work with the leather to stretch it over the book's spine and how we create the decorative raised bands. Hopefully we'll even have time for a little bit of gold tooling too!
Our Advanced Bookbinding Class usually requires a little prior bookbinding experience but if you would like to join us you can find out all the dates and details on our classes page. Or if you'd like to know more about our leather binding and repair work you can by clicking here.
The Artists' BookMarket 2017
Our Talented Co-workers at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Kerry Douglas
On Saturday afternoon while most of the capital were watching the rugby Gail and I travelled straight past Murrayfield to The Fruitmarket Gallery to see all the lovely work on display last weekend at this years Artists' Bookmarket, Edinburgh.
Two of our very own bookbinders, Kerry Douglas and Gillian Stewart, were showcasing some of their own stunning prints and books among many other artists, designers and makers.
This was the first year I've been to the BookMarket but I hear it has been running for 7 years now and is sort of an annual mini artist book festival with people exhibiting and selling their work, along with talks and discussion groups, workshops and poetry readings.
There were around 40 stalls to peruse (and purchase from!) showing an interesting variety of not just book making but also book art, photography, poetry, writing, drawings, ceramic and glass work, printing and letterpress among other techniques.
Gillian Stewart
Although here in our bindery we pride ourselves on our quality of craftsmanship, it is not usual for us to be able to work as creatively as we saw the artists do at the BookMarket. The books and booklets we saw were little works of art in themselves and really inspiring to pick up and look through. Kerry and Gillian specialise in graphic design, illustration and printmaking, which combined with the skills they have learnt here at Downie Allison Downie, they use to create beautiful and thought provoking art - in book form!
I should have told you all about it sooner so that everyone could have gone to see the BookMarket - I do apologise! But please have a look at their amazing work and check out their websites. by clicking on any of the images in this post.
If you have an idea for an book project but don't know where to begin we can help it come to fruition We are always happy to listen to your thoughts and answer any questions we can. You could even come and do a class with us to learn the basics now you've seen what can be achieved!
Kerry looking after her and Gillian's stand at the Artists' Bookmarket
Kerry Douglas
Gillian Stewart
Kerry Douglas
Back in the Bindery!
Old Meets New in our New Year
This book has been re-backed in leather with the old spine remounted. The top panel had been lost so we tooled it to match.
Happy New Year everyone! We were hard at it up until Christmas, and January certainly isn't breaking us in gently after the festive season!
After a couple of days to catch up with, and finish off a couple of smaller jobs we spent yesterday cleaning the workshop from top to bottom. Decluttering and tidying in preparation for an exciting year!
Having already been awarded a prestigious tender from a huge library in London towards the end of last year, we are preparing to apply for another! These large contracts are really important for us, not only to keep us all in a job, but for to prove how great our little bindery is! We are a small operation, but we take pride in taking the same care over each book in a big order as we do with those brought to us by individual customers who come to our door every day. The quality of every single book has to reach our high standards!
Our next tender application relies on us expanding our more specialised repair and conservation skills. As more and more binding of new books is being done on such a massive scale, mainly by machines, bookbinding by hand is becoming a dying art - especially book repair. Every book brought to us for restoration is different which makes our job more difficult, but also much more interesting!
We find a lot of people want us to rebind their favourite books, books they want to hand down to their children and some that have been passed down to them. Some folk find old books in charity shops and second hand bookshops and take a shine to them, love the smell of them. They are treasured for the pencil notes in the margins, inscriptions on the front page and beautiful illustrations - both the ones printed in the book and the ones your 3 year old scribbled when you left it out near the colouring pens. Books can hold incredible sentimental value for their owners, something a modern e-book could never manage.
If you have a book you'd like restored, just bring it in - we are always happy to chat about books! You could even have a go at fixing it yourself - under our expert supervision of course - on one of our Book Repair Classes.
A Bookbinders Favourite Tool
John - our Master Bookbinder
Our Unique Bone Folders
With a range of bookbinding tools now on offer to purchase from our online shop I thought it'd be timely to give you a little insight into our favourite one!
A bone folder is, unsurprisingly, traditionally made of bone, although these days you can find them produced in a few other materials. including brass and teflon.
It's purpose is primarily for paper folding, card making and origami but it has other uses. We use it for covering boxes and poking the cloth into all the nooks and crannies. It is also perfect for adding a little extra glue to a job, rubbing down paper to make sure it sticks and on the odd occasion I have seen it used for stirring coffee in our workshop!
You can see our small range of bone folders now in our online shop - all of ours started off life just like one of those. One of the reasons we are all so attached to our own particular folder is that they adapt and change as you use them. The way you rub every single spine when lining often creates a dip in one side. Sometimes we sharpen the end a little to get into a small space and unfortunately sometimes they break and so we shorten them and reshape them to continue their life. And needless to say we are in a complete panic when we misplace our folder!!
Mia - a beautiful array of shapes and sizes!
David - a name tag so no-one pinches it!
Kerry - relatively new clean ones!
Mine - one of these is teflon - non stick!
Gillian & Robin - Robin's sadly broke today!
Erin - a particularly pointed one for box making!
Check out our ever expanding online shop to see our current range of tools and materials. We don't sell anything that we don't use on a daily basis here in our workshop so it is all to true production bookbinding standard - and why not pick yourself up your own bone folder? It really is a bookbinders favourite tool!