Events  | International Competition 2011

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After successfully organising the International Bookbinding Competition for the last four years, Stuart and Louise Brockman handed over to Hannah Brown and Arthur Green. 2011 also brought a few changes to the Competition, with support from some new sponsors, five categories instead of four, and a new award to encourage newcomers to bookbinding.

As in previous years the Competition has attracted interest from around the world. There have been 75 entries, from 61 binders, from the following 16 countries: England, Wales, Argentina, USA, Belgium, Israel, Spain, Japan, Scotland, Australia, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Switzerland, Lithuania, France and Denmark.

Judging took place on 26th June 2011. This year’s judges were: Jane Rutherston (Head Book Conservator at The Victoria and Albert Museum), Glenn Bartley (Bookbinder and Fellow of the Designer Bookbinders), and Royston Haward (Conservator at The British Library).

 

Competition Catalogue
A catalogue containing pictures of all 75 bindings entered in the 2011SoB International Bookbinding Competition can be purchased online here.

 

Fine Binding

  • First Prize
    Best Overall Book Bound
    by a Non-Professional binder
    Tom McEwan
    Aucassin and Nicolette

    Tom McEwan
    Glengarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Non-Professional

    Aucassin and Nicolette translated by F W Bourdillon

    Full leather binding with covering leather and doublures of goatskin. Inlays of reverse print images, with acrylic ink. Blind and gold tooled lines with all edges decorated with watercolour, acrylic and gold.

    The design reflects the rhythms of the chant fable text and depicts the frustration of imprisonment experienced by Nicolette.

  • Second Prize
    Best Overall Book Bound
    by a Professional binder
    Eduardo Tarrico
    With Some Justification

    Eduardo Tarrico
    Buenos Aires, Argentina, Professional

    With Some Justification by Warren Slesinger

    A French binding construction sewn on guards in full leather. The leather is sanded and polished with onlays and hand-tooling. Sewn silk endbands with an airbrushed top edge. Housed in a protective box with magnetic closure with a blind-tooled title.

    The book was a typographical game proposed by Kim Merker, with double printing and misalignments. The design was inspired by these “problems” with the printing. I want to represent with the onlays this “out of alignment” and the sanded represents the printing texture.

  • Third Prize
    Glenn Malkin
    Out of Africa

    Glenn Malkin
    Hornsea, East Yorkshire, UK, Professional

    Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

    Full Harmatan goatskin binding with onlays and dyed background design. Back pared onlay and puckered leather onlay features. Background dyed with leather dye. Edge decorated with acrylics and sprinkled gold leaf. Full leather doublures and goat-suede endpapers.

    Evoking the beauty and vastness of the African landscape.
    •  
    Complete Book

  • Frist Prize
    and the
    J Hewit & Sons Award for Design
    Ann Tout
    Sleeping Beauty

    Ann Tout
    Fareham, Hampshire, UK, Non-Professional

    Sleeping Beauty
    A concertina binding covered in goatskin, with blind tooling of a tower and a transparent vellum slipcase. The boards are blind tooled and dyed and the papers have cut outs and are painted with inks.

    The concertina folded paper consists of two layers, the upper layer sewn at the foredge is slightly shorter in width to give a three dimensional scene when opened out.  The transparent vellum slipcase with its sepia drawing lets the tooled and dyed castle show through the thorns    .

  • Second Prize
    Eri Funazaki
    Finger Prints
     
     

    Eri Funazaki
    London, UK, Professional
    Finger Prints with text by Danny Flynn and illustrations by Eri Funazaki

    A double concertina style binding bound in goat skin and letterpress printed suede. The text was handset and printed in letterpress by Danny Flynn and Eri Funazaki (the binder).  Illustrations were printed in letterpress and additionally hand tooled in gold and white gold. Book covering material (suede) was printed with oil based tint medium and finished with gold and carbon tooling.

    The book is about a pointy finger, which you may commonly find in old posters and signposts. The whole design was inspired by this particular character, which seems to have visual authority over text and illustration. The design of the book was influenced by old wooden poster type and geometrical shape of printing furniture and quoins. It ends with a question “Can it be trusted?” The answer is “Well I really don’t know…..”
    •  
    Case Binding

  • First Prize
    Eduardo Giminez
    2-Eros

    Eduardo Giminez
    Zaragoza, Spain, Professional

    2-Eros by Pieter Boddaert Jr. with illustrations by Danielle Vadenwyngaerden

    Stub binding in black calfskin. Boards covered with hand-decorated paper using aniline colours. Blue Roma Fabriano paper doublures and flyleaves.
    •  
    Restoration

  • First Prize
    Flora Ginn
    The Book of Common Prayer, 1745

    Flora Ginn
    London, UK, Professional

    The Book of Common Prayer, 1745

    A cottage roof binding covered in full scarlet Morocco with full gilt spinew. Re-backed preserving the original spine.

    The materials used were scarlet goatskin, unbleached linen thread, aero linen, Canadian wheat flour, gelatine, Japanese handmade tissue and vulpex liquid soap.
    •  
    Historic

  • First Prize
    Jan Camps
    Via Vitae Aeternae

    Jan Camps
    Diest, Belgium, Professional

    Via Vitae Aeternae by Antoni Sucquet

    Gothic binding covered in full leather with green headbands and Grolier-style decoration. Bronze heels and oak boards.
    •  
    Best Binding Submitted by a Newcomer

  • Emily Beattie
    Choir of Sirens

    Emily Beattie
    London, UK, Professional

    Choir of Sirens

    Acetate sections with hand drawn illustrations and text. Packed sewing with nylon thread on medical tubing at three stations.

    Influenced by family link to medical profession. Interest in anatomy and desire to apply old techniques to new materials
    • Fine Cut Award
    Harmatan Award

  • Award for Finishing
    Flora Ginn
    History and Survey of the Cities
    of London and Westminster, 1770

    Flora Ginn
    London, UK, Professional (Restoration)

    History and Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, 1770 by Henry Chamberlain

    A full goatskin binding with all edges ‘Antique Gilt’ by binder. Full gilt spine, gilt decorative rolls on front and back boards, turn-ins and edges. Tooled with decorative rolls in 24 carat gold and self dyed linen thread for the headbands. Spirit stain old leather removed and original boards retained. Back flyleaf and pastedown replaced with matching marked paper.

    Late Neoclassical style suitable to the period of the book. This volume had previously been inappropriately rebacked. The leather covering the boards was worn, torn and stained.

  • Award for Forwarding
    Scott Kellar
    Neverwhere
     

    Scott Kellar
    Chicago, USA, Professional (Fine Binding)

    Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

    Bound in full goatskin with leather onlays and blind tooling. Marbled endpapers, embellished by the binder. Sewn on 4 stranded cords laced into the boards. Edges trimmed, coloured and burnished with silk endbands. Goatskin for covering and goatskin (some hand-coloured) for onlays.
    •  
    Hewits Awards

  • Award for Craftsmanship
    Dominic Riley
    The Wizard of Oz

    Dominic Riley
    Cumbria, UK, Professional (Fine Binding)

    The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum with illustrations by Barry Moser

    Bound in full salmon pink goat with multi-coloured onlays, acrylic painted edges, gold tooling, leather joints and flyleaves. The forest, poppy field, and Emerald City are panels with additional back-pared onlays, worked off the book, and then put onto the covering leather along with the yellow brick road and the forests, and then the whole cover is back-pared again, giving a smooth, flat surface.  The book was covered at this stage and then tooled.

    Dorothy and Toto are hidden in the forest (recalling the scene in the story where they get attacked by trees). The poppy field on the back has giant threatening flowers. The Lion and the Wicked Witch are in their respective forests: the witch lives in her forest in the west and the lion is made king of his forest for his bravery.  Their profiles lie hidden in the tree-tops. The other two characters, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, appear inside on the doublures, and are picked out in parallel lines of gold tooling. The red cloth box has the tornado tooled on it in the same fashion. The only character who doesn’t appear is the Wizard himself, a deliberate decision in keeping with the mystery at the heart of the story

  • Award for Merit
    Ann Tout
    The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol

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

    The Collected Stories of Nikolai Gogol

    Natural coloured goatskin with painting under transparent vellum.  Book box of light brown cloth with circular disc to open it. Bound with a French joint, hollow back and silk headbands. Blind tooling and dyes with painted endpapers and edges painted with watercolours.

    The tooled and dyed leather depicting a snow storm is designed to create a sense of movement to the painted scene that wraps around the book.  The scene incorporates buildings from the illustrations to the stories.
    •  

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