For a limited time, receive a free kitten with every book purchase of $25 or more

That's a bad joke... This photogenic kitten seems to be in every picture my wife has taken on my phone. I found her in an ally one day on a walk. Her name is Josie.

The book is a no glue, bare basics, rustic type. I've made a couple others like it since seeing the "Lincoln" movie. This one's flap is where the hide ended. Kind of a cool look with a mark from where the skin was stretched. Not for sale I'm afraid, (a Christmas gift for a friend). There will be more like it though, so keep a look out.

Old Books and Lincoln

The other night, my wife and I finally had a chance to see the new movie, Lincoln. We had been waiting for a couple of years after learning that it was being made. 

If you're ever thinking to yourself, "when the hell are these theaters going to show a movie worth watching?!", look up Daniel Day-Lewis on Wikipedia. It may be a while before his next film but the man has never been in a bad one. And his acting is phenomenal. 

More relevantly, the movie has a lot of great, old books in it. A bunch of those classic ones with the marbled paper covers and the leather spines and corners, and those all leather ones with the ties and buckles where they close. In just about every scene, they're in these dimly lit, smoky rooms with glasses of scotch, cigars, and these fantastic old journals. It's all very inspiring. Makes me want to grab my pipe and a beverage and make some of these books. I believe I will. If there is any interest, please be sure to let me know via simplebindbooks@gmail.com.

simple

my lovely minimalist wife's new jounal

date night with your lovely: learn how to make books

 

Luke and Lisa

"Rustic Bible"

So here are sort of "before and after" shots of the Rustic Bible project.

I have this great customer who gives me challenging ideas to work with. for this job, He wanted me to use these thick leather covers from old brochues to cover his Dad's old beat up Bible. He collaborated with me a lot on this design and it turned out to really be what we were hoping for and still practically designed.

These are my favorite kinds of repair projects. It's like survival bookbinding ("here's a beat up old book and some limited, used materials. make something good"). This is how I started bookbinding. I just had some things lying around.

I still mostly use repurposed/discarded, scrap materials but it gets more challenging when it's a repair job because of all the limitations. This is always why I encourage customers to pitch me the idea before they assume it won't work, is too weird, or that I won't do it. The truth is, I'm incurably taken with these challenges and will bend over backwards to make "weird ideas" great books.

Here are the latest books. All custom jobs.

hand made block stamp.

old style english binding, old photo on front.

hand made block stamp, hand torn pages, calf leather.

hand died leather, 100 year old lettering. 

four paper back bibles converted to hard cover. 

hand died canvas, antique lettering. 

this is the back.

and the front.