Events  | International Competition 2009

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In 2009 the competition received 125 entries from over 100 binders. The judges were Jenni Grey, James Brockman and Julian Thomas, all Fellows and past Presidents of Designer Bookbinders. James Brockman is also a past President of the Society of Bookbinders.

To see the eighteen prizewinning bindings, select one the category tabs above then click on the thumbnails for bigger pictures and more details.

Fine Binding

  • First Prize
    Best Overall Book Bound
    by a Professional binder
    Rachel Ward-Sale
    Antigone

    Rachel Ward-Sale
    Lewes, UK, Professional

    Antigone by Desmond Post

    Bound in bright red Harmatan goatskin with grey leather onlays and doublures. The leather was impressed with string before the onlays were cut out and the edges painted with acrylic paint. Double core silk endbands; top edge coloured red. The design for the onlays is based on photographs of parched earth, the impressed shapes, which are repeated on the doublures, represent the mouth of the cave in which Antigone is imprisoned and the noose with which she eventually kills herself.

  • Second Prize
    Eduardo Tarrico
    Poema para el ángel Marino
     
     

    Eduardo Tarrico
    Buenos Aires, Argentina, Professional

    Poema para el ángel Marino by Eduardo Keller Sarmiento

    French binding construction in full painted leather, sewn on guards. Leather endbands. Decoration with onlays and cuts covered with leather. Edge to edge doublure in Canson paper. Bookcalf painted with print inks. The design was inspired by the sea movement and the rain effect. The colours were suggested by the colour of the ‘plaquette’. The translation of the title of the book is ‘Poem for the marine angel’.
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    Complete Book

  • First Prize
    Sumi Perera
    Building Blocks IX

    Sumi Perera
    Redhill, Surrey, UK, Non-Professional

    Building Blocks IX by Sumi Perera

    Cloth bound with cut mount board covered with textured ‘exterior wall paint’ effect. The inner board is covered in corrugated card, gold painted at the seams that meet an inner cloth covered additional spine that houses moveable pages held by screw-posts. Open-bite acid etched, open aquatint, embossed, stitched, cut, burnt, scorched pages printed with paper ash onto 300gsm Somerset paper. Since process is as important as the finished product in book design, this book mirrors the preparatory processes of building a house. Echoing the features found in buildings, windows and doors.
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  • Second Prize (jointly awarded)
    Ann Tout
    London Bridge

    Ann Tout
    Fareham, Hampshire, UK, Non-Professional

    London Bridge illustrated & printed by Ann Tout

    Printed vellum binding on concertina folded paper text/illustrations. Use of stencils to print the binding and the concertina folded Griffen mill paper. Printing inks, acrylic and Indian ink with some pen and ink work. Designed for a child. Rigid vellum boards stand well upright while the heavy handmade paper supports itself as the song is sung fold by fold until it finally stands full spread.

  • Second Prize (jointly awarded)
    CB Sherlock
    In the Sand

    CB Sherlock
    Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Professional

    In the Sand by Joanna Toft

    Shortened cover with concertina spine, bound using Coptic stitch and stick binding. Letterpress printed in two colours using polymer plates. The images were created through multiple runs of ‘flexi-cut’ shapes hand-placed on a base set in the press bed, re-arranged for each run. The four poems are a meditation on permanence and change. Each poem has the same cadence, the same written theme, and the same visual theme, but each also has different water, different outcomes, and the different time reflected.
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    Restored / Conserved / Period Binding

  • First Prize
    Flora Ginn
    Pennant's British Zoology

    Flora Ginn
    London, UK, Professional

    Pennant's British Zoology Vols 1 & 4 only of 4

    Full mottled calf, sprinkled edges, gilt spine. Lifting, dry cleaning prior to washing, sizing, paper mending & guarding. Re-sewing (vol 4). Re-edge sprinkling where missing on arrival, and after washing part of text block. Re-headbanding 3 of 4. Rebacking (vol 1) with spine preserved. Forwarding (vol 4) with remnant of spine preserved & remainder tooled to match. Board corners repaired. Materials: Aero cotton, natural archival calf, Carr’s leather spirit stain, propanol-2, self-dyed linen thread, Japanese handmade tissue, gelatine, wheat flour paste, acid-free PVA, glaire, gold leaf.

  • Second Prize
    Dominic Riley
    Tales of a Grandfather

    Dominic Riley
    Cumbria, UK, Professional

    Tales of a Grandfather by Sir Walter Scott, Vol. 1 (Vol. 2 unrestored)

    Case binding covered in embossed cloth. The book was pulled, the pages dry cleaned to remove surface dirt and washed to lessen staining from previous water damage. The book was re-sewn with linen thread, dyed with acrylics. The cover boards were repaired. The missing cloth at corners and board edges was repaired with thin Kozo tissue, dyed with acrylics. The spine fragments were reassembled, and the spine reapplied, using fragments of cloth from the turn-ins to fill in missing areas. The cover was waxed and polished.
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    Cased Binding

  • First Prize
    Heather Harrison
    The Seafarer

    Heather Harrison
    Formby, Merseyside, UK, Non-Professional

    The Seafarer prepared from the Anglo-Saxon by Kevin Crossley-Holland

    Bound with silk cord, in the Japanese Mino-style, with covers of library buckram and a design of leather onlays and inlays. The binding is a fully reversible, non-adhesive binding with an inner binding of linen and paper thread and corner pieces (Kadogire) of tissue lined leather. Photographic inlay and mother of pearl fastening. Silk cords and silver rings. The binding style was dictated by the form of the sheets and the images of the woodblock illustrations. The materials used suggest sails and the design is abstract and simple suggesting the sun, moon, stars and horizon.

  • Second Prize
    Julia Van Mechelen
    Dialogue avec Toi

    Julia Van Mechelen
    Diest, Belgium, Professional

    Dialogue avec Toi by Marie-Claude Malichaud

    Bradel binding in Duval paper. Headbands in two colours of silk; paper fly leaves and doublures in pink. Strokes of paper made with an airbrush in black and white colours. The Inlay of the same paper is partly varnished. The title is printed in red film, by hand on the spine and on the second board.
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    Fine Cut Award
    Harmatan Award

  • Award for Finishing
    Mark Harrison
    A Shropshire Lad

    Mark Harrison
    Manchester, UK, Non-Professional (Fine Binding)

    A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Housman

    Bound in mid-green goatskin. Spine with five raised bands, gilt edges, boards gilt with one-line fillet, dots and circles. Boards with outer frame of one and two-line fillets, cornerpieces of small floral tools divided by cherries, central panel with diaper of circles, dots and heart-shaped leaves. Double-core headbands sewn, tapes slotted into laminated ‘cushioned’ boards (Archivite). Covered in Harmatan goat. Edge-to-edge doublures of dark green Oasis. As landscape and nature are the central themes, a green/floral theme felt appropriate. I was influenced by the Arts & Crafts style; the words ‘gold’ or ‘golden’ occur ten times in the text.

  • Award for Forwarding
    Maria Sol Rebora
    Milongas

    Maria Sol Rebora
    Buenos Aires, Argentina, Professional (Fine Binding)

    Milongas by Jorge Luis Borges

    Full leather with a design in five sections. Edges gilt. The spine and front edges are red goatskin, the central panels are onlays. The doublures are also red goatskin. The title has been tooled in gold along the spine. The design is based on the colours of the illustrations and the strong grain of the paper. Milongas is a King of Tango’s song - a typical instrument of this kind of music is the guitar, on which the design is also based.
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    IBAT Award

  • Award for Craftsmanship
    Eri Funazaki & Danny Flynn
    28 Characters (4 men, 10 women, 5 boys and 8 girls)

    Eri Funazaki & Danny Flynn
    London, UK, Professional (Complete Book)

    28 Characters (4 men, 10 women, 5 boys and 8 girls) by Danny Flynn

    The book is bound in the style of a door hinge with various colours of Harmatan goatskin. The text block is sections sewn on rings. The hand printed pages were additionally hand-tooled in gold and blind. The text was handset in 12 point Baskerville metal type and printed in letterpress on an Adana 8 x 5. The A-Z typography and illustrations were also hand-printed in letterpress onto Zerkall – Litho V1 250gsm. The hinge tube was made by rolling kraft paper into layers, and covering with leather.
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    Hewits Awards

  • Award for Innovation
    Max Penn
    Untitled

    Max Penn
    Barnack, Cambridgeshire, UK, Non-Professional (Complete Book)

    Untitled

    Orange/gold fibre paper and Russian Green paper covered binding. Materials used were 2000 micron card, orange/gold fibre paper and Russian Green paper; the boards are both structural and decorative, as are the straps. All binding has been done with double-sided tape rather than glue. The idea was to explore methods of spine and cover attachment that broke from the traditional format and gave both a tactile and visual character to the binding. It has an odd medieval look to it – studs and battlements. I feel it’s a move away from lightweight, delicate bindings in favour of a heavier and masculine feel – how do you read the design?

  • Award for Impact
    Tom McEwan
    A Song to David

    Tom McEwan
    Glengarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Non-Professional (Fine Binding)

    A Song to David by Christopher Smart

    Full leather with coloured inlays and onlays, blind lines and gilt title. Full goatskin leather with several scarf jointed structures, colour inlays and back-pared onlays with blind tooled line work. Sewn on recessed hemp cords. Double core silk endbands. The basic design is of two superimposed ‘cross’ forms spanning both boards against a background of radiating lines in coloured leather and blind. The design concept is based on Smart’s intense religious mania which gradually became a form of madness.
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  • Award for Craftsmanship
    Ann Tout
    Don’t Look Now

    Ann Tout
    Fareham Hampshire, UK, Non-Professional (Fine Binding)

    Don’t Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier

    Brown goatskin with painted panels, graphite edges. Blind tooling of wood grain on plank shapes. Oil painted silk panels worked from each story, silk endbands, graphite edges with stencil work on foredge. Book boards designed to represent doors/shutters as barriers seemed most appropriate through which to glimpse each horrifying story.

  • Award for Craftsmanship
    Julia Van Mechelen
    A b c d e f g h i j k l …12 textes, 12 gravures

    Julia Van Mechelen
    Diest, Belgium, Professional (Fine Binding)

    A b c d e f g h i j k l …12 textes, 12 gravures by Bernard Dumont

    Full leather binding in ivory calfskin. Edges gilt in the rough; meeting-guards; doublures in dark red buffalo leather, flyleaves in bright grey suede; headbands in four colours of silk; vertical decoration to the boards, inlay of the same calfskin, ivory, coloured by hand in blue and lined up in white. On the spine the title is printed in red and white film, by hand.
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  • Award for Excellence in Design
    Pamela Inns
    Seasons

    Pamela Inns
    Bournemouth, Dorset, UK, Non-Professional (The Complete Book)

    Seasons by Pamela Inns

    Coptic binding with rosewood boards, watercolour botanical paintings and gold lettering. Rosewood boards prepared from reclaimed wood and sewn in coptic style with hidden inside stitching. The rosewood had had a previous life as a piece of furniture then as an inside doorstep. The already rather gothic shapes inspired the whole design, which seemed to lend itself to a book of secrets for quiet contemplation.

  • Award for Excellence in Finishing
    Yuri Nomura
    Zukai Seihon

    Yuri Nomura
    Tokyo, Japan, Non-Professional (Fine Binding)

    Zukai Seihon by Tokusaburo Ueda, Taro Shimo

    Japanese-style full leather binding in white and black morocco with gold tooling. The upper cover: white and black morocco leathers with gold tooled decoration, patterns of hexagons and Japanese hemp leaves. Zukai Seihon was one of the earliest illustrated bookbinding textbooks in Japan, which widely introduced not only the techniques of Japanese fukuro-toji binding (pouch bookbinding) but also the European full leather traditional binding. I wished to design this book with Japanese traditional colours of celebration, gold, red, black and white including the hope for the future.
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