Life: A User's Manual
by Georges Perec
Collins Harvill, 1988
Bound: August 2007. 216 x 155 x 80mm
Dos-a-dos binding in black goatskin and Zerkall papers.
Unsupported link
stitch with secondary sewing with continuous linen board attachment.
Endpapers hand-drawn
in pastel.
Paper
onlay with
elephant paper.
Housed in a black box which incorporates a jigsaw puzzle.
Collection: The British Library
Designs on the Dances of Vaslav
Nijinsky
by Francis
de Miomandre
Illustrated by George Barbier. Bound January 2010
Sewn on an
accordion guard with secondary sewing. Continuous linen board attachment.
Soft spine three-phase binding. Title blind tooled on front cover. Colours
were chosen to coordinate with
Gorege Barbier’s illustrations. The
front cover illustration is hand-drawn in gouache and the arabesque pattern
is made with recessed onlays of hand-dyed calf. Hand-printed doublures and
endpapers
(soft plate offset printing) with drawing in watercolour pencil.
The design is based on the ballet stage, with each motif on the front cover
illustrating and representing one of
Nijinsky’s popular performances
(Le Festin, Scheherazade, Spectre de la Rose, Petrouchka). I used ‘arabesque’ as
the inspiration for design of this binding. It is known as one of the more
recognizable and beautiful positions
in ballet, as well as a type of artistic
design in which lines wind around each other. The arabesque
pattern gives
an exotic, oriental feeling that suits and expresses Nijinsky’s performance
trademarks, such as
limber movement, high jumps and a character that seems
to be charged with sensual undercurrents.
Private Collection, USA.
The Idylls of the King
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
illustrated by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale
263 x 208 x 53mm. Bound 2011
Sewn
with unsupported link stitch and secondary sewing. Continuous linen board
attachment. Full leather
binding with paper onlays of hand-dyed Japanese
Gampi paper and gold dot tooling. Rough edge decoration with
sprinkled gold
leaf. Printed on Japanese paper using the soft plate offset method.
This
edition is the first set of Idylls (Enid, Vivien, Elaine, and Guinevere)
by Tennyson. Sometimes the Lily represents
Elaine, who falls in unrequited
love with Sir Lancelot. I used the Madonna Lily as a design motif.
The colour of the binding
reflects this rueful nature of the story and the
image on the endpapers depicts lilies sinking under the water.
Goblin Market
by Christina Rossetti
illustrated by Laurence Housman
185 x 109 x 17mm. Bound 2011
Sewn with unsupported link stitch and secondary
sewing. Continuous linen board attachment. Full leather
binding with leather
onlays and hand-dyed Japanese Gampi paper onlays (The Gampi was laminated
with
very thin transparent parchment for surface protection). The edges are
coloured with acrylic ink.
The cover design reflects the atmosphere of the
Goblin’s Market and harmonizes with the enchanting illustrations.
Private Collection, UK.
