The Harrington Bindery

During the recently past holiday season I was commissioned to create a set of non denominational gifts for the members of a women in business empowerment group. The leader of the group contacted me late summer to discuss the possibility and options available. For her the traditional gift baskets and potted plants given in the past were fine but lacked a personal touch. The handmade nature of my work had spoken to her and together we found the perfect covering material and papers. The design is borrowed from a previous project of mine and features a hidden magnetic catch that closes with a satisfying *click*.

The K-118 binding structure is a hand bookbinding technique that I started experimenting with about a year ago. It promises reliable, easily opened books without 'Backing' the mechanical folding of sections of pages onto themselves at the spine. It uses oversized parchment spine liners that are glued, worked into the spine and subsequently interlaced with beveled cover boards. I find that at this point in the process (as shown) the book is very stable, the last picture above is an early example of this binding style I attempted, put aside, then promptly forgot about only to rediscover it last weekend - a year later. This is due in part to the fact that all of the structural components of the book are already in place. To say it a different way, the covering material is not counted on to be structural, though I have found that particularly thick leathers (4 oz+) will undoubtedly impede the opening slightly. Is it an exaggeration to love the K-118 style? For me, I don&

I am often struck by the depth of knowledge and skills one must attain to be any good at binding books. That's not to say that one can not make a fine book without these things but the nuance of the art seems to come form being able to make well informed decisions. I find it almost thrilling (that is after the panic) to come to a roadblock in a process or job and be forced down a detour to another skill or process that must be concurred before continuing. Three years ago around this time I was in my final semester of my masters, my thesis consisted of a book for which I spared no expense. It was the first time in the eight years since I had started to learn the craft that I had touched a fine bookbinding leather. It was one of those moments that doesn't gain its psychological weight until it ripens with age and when it does its almost obvious. I had an English style leather pairing knife for a couple years, purchased in 2010 because of its inexpensive price and numerous men

Over the past spring I designed this blank for a very close friend. Fitted around a mechanical engineers front shirt pocket this tiny volume needed to be exceptionally strong and as hard wearing as the owner. A 4 oz goat skin covering leather is minimally paired to provide the requested, slightly limited, flexibility, 10 x 10 1 inch grid custom designed and printed on Mohawk supper fine 25% cotton paper. End papers are custom printed turn of the century images of the city of Worcester MA.

Its Official! I will be participating in Bushwick Open Studios the upcoming weekend of September 30 - October 2. I will continue to post more info when I receive it and more information about the event can be found here : http://artsinbushwick.org/ Also, if you have been wondering, that is what I have been up to instead of writing here. So sorry. Lastly, a new website that features my bookbinding will be launching soon.

Mid way through working on a commissioned set of books for a carpenter friend of mine I came across a binding style referred to as the K-118 by Bruce Levy who wrote about and bench tested the structure. The K-118 structure piqued my interest immediately due to its remarkable flexibility and full access to the gutter. I originally tested the structure on a collection of books, articles and transcribed lectures on bookbinding that I digitally compiled into a single document and printed in signatures. The basics of the structure are a text block sewn on velum strips, tapes or cords in a manor to keep swelling to a minimum. The block is rounded but not backed and covers are shaped on the spine edge to continue the arch of the round of the block. Covers are attached and the spine is lined with velum cut to fit in between the supports and three times longer than the width of the spine. The excess velum on ether side of the book is cut into thirds and the outer two sections are attached to

I determined that a Springback album I was making for the carpenter wasn't going to work. At all. But thats okay. After this was determined I was able to pull off the covers, spring, and spine linings.  See that Here.  What I was left with was the sewn block that had an exaggerated round with no swell and also sewn in end bands.  I chose the Springback structure for this project because of its inherent ability to throw the pages out and allow them to lie flat with full access to the gutter. It is able to accomplish this without forgoing spine liners, hard covers or other design and strength elements that I wanted or needed to include for a pair of books this size. Part way through this project I read an article about the K-118 structure and further research led me to write  a bit about it and start sewing together a text I had to serve as my introduction to the style. What struck me about the K-118 structure originally, besides its natural flexibility and propensit

A project I have been working on over the winter and coming into the spring is a set (pair?) of books, one a sketchbook and one an album. The pieces are part of a trade I set up with a good friend and master carpenter in exchange for a proper bench in which to bind books on. The idea at first to was have a twin set matching in style and decoration. The two were worked in almost parallel but the sketchbook was the first to be ready for covering material and besides a necessary modification of the spring, you can see it here. It caused no issues and functioned pretty close to what I expected. The album is made from the same one hundred percent cotton paper as the sketchbook. Its construction features the use of loose guards sewn alternating with the full folios in a ratio of 3:2. The intention to create a spring back led me to sew the pages to four stations of double 1/2" linen tapes. Once the sewing was complete the levers were formed with card stock, paper and the sewing suppo

I made this small spring back travel journal on commission as a gift for an incredible photographer / visual artist. Her long time assistant approached me awhile back and asked several times for me to make this piece. Its pages are 24lb Mohawk Superfine and its covered in a beautiful piece of alum tawd goat. I was able to find a turn of the centenary map of Brooklyn and located both the home and studio of the artist's and worked the map in as the end papers of the book. No matter how far she goes she will have a piece of home with her.