Bound by Jeanette Koch

Urban Birds
Published by Incline Press, Oldham 1999
A collection of cuts by Jo Spaul, with accompanying poems from an English anthology of poetry through the ages

"Over two years ago I bought a black ostrich skin which sat in my drawer in the bindery waiting for the right book. Last year I wanted the chance to have fun with a speculative binding. I laid my hands on Urban Birds, grabbed the ostrich skin and saw how lovely its natural edge was. Loath to cut it, I decided to top and tail the binding using the edge to effect over a natural goatskin, leaving the horny textured area to lie loosely over the spine. Jo Spaul's cuts are stark and often framed with a strong dark blue or black line, which the ostrich skin's intense black complements well. I had planned to leave the middle section of multi-coloured leather underlays as a continuous area on each boards, but a moment of interruption when I was just about to cut out my headcap leather pieces caused my concentration to fail, and I cut into the wrong bit of my precious and very small natural goatskin remnant! I then revised my design and split up the multi-coloured underlay areas, which in the end worked much better. The title is tooled in blind on the front board alongside tooled bird's feet traces on both boards. The top edge is coloured with gouache, and the endbands are made of multi-coloured leather onlay bits. Brown paper doublures are followed by flyleaves decorated with coloured Japanese Mingei paper strips sandwiched in between speckled-egg textured paper. Anyone looking at this binding will query the term 'Urban Birds', as ostrich, unless farmed locally, is dubious and my underlays smack of the tropics rather than London despite the parakeets in the park. But with global warming who knows!"

Bound by Cathy Robert

Soul Traders
Written by Jonathan Gabay

Full Black Chieftain Goatskin cover with red end paper, white blocking with a recess to house a saroski stone, red lined slip case and blocked as the book.

Delta Design Studio has been creating customised handmade limited edition books, portfolios and boxes for over 25 years, along with a range of other services including custom-made bags, cases and menus.

The company has a large range of materials in the studio, including the finest leathers, leatherettes and linens in many different colours. They offer blocking on site as a way of personalising the work. Again this service is available in a range of colours.

At Delta Design Studio, the team believes anything is possible, so please call them to discuss your requirements.

Tel: +44 (0) 207 837 7557
info@cathyrobert.com
www.cathyrobert.com