JRR Bookworks

“It is not enough to think a book I bind is pretty. You have to feel the layers of leather, metal, cloth and paper. you have to smell the materials, posses it and display it. That is what the art calls for and the books desire. That is what they (the books) tell me to do in the process of being bound. And so why should I argue with them when often they are so much older or wiser than I.”

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 JRR Bookworks is a small custom hand bindery just East of the Rocky Mountains and just West of New York State. Bookbinder J. R. Rose has been binding books for many years. He started in the antiquarian book trade in York Beach Maine, struck out on his own in Chicago Illinois, and found the art of binding after moving to his current locale.

“I can bind in almost any material including paper, cloth, leather, and even exotic skins like snake and stingray. Some of my finest work is done with hand dyed, deckled, and marbled calf or goat skins. When putting on my hand hammered and formed brass or metal onlays, hasps, and fittings, acid etched plates and hand tool designs I add more layers and more experiences for the new owner to enjoy as they handle the book. I gold tool all my leather by hand or with custom plates I create. I use old world techniques which means many hours of applying each piece of a design. Each line and curve is applied to build up an image. Each application of the heated tool must be correct, confident, and precise. Each binding takes many hours to create. Some take months.

   My clients understand that books have been around for thousands of years and will continue to be around in spite of mass electronic media. When books can be downloaded and read on an electronic device it may appear convenient but how long will that device be the “current trend” and what happens when the batteries run out? Who copied that book into electronic form… is it the real words once written….or an annotated expurgated dumbed down mess for ignorant modern audiences? My clients like books. They like 1st editions or definitive editions, and they like to feel, smell and hold books. They know that a good book will outlast them and a good library is better than the sum of its parts. My clients realize that they are not buying just a book but a piece of history, the future, art and truth. They love it when a question arises and they have to search through carfully gathered shelves of books in their libraries or when, with a calm aire of tranquility, they can gently remove a favorite volume and again mentally devour a piece of fine binding art.  They know that it is not the electronic ephemera of the day that matters- that such things will come and go- they know that what they want is a unique, uncommon, fine piece of binding art and….a bit of immortality.”

Mr. Rose has a degree in Comparative Religious Studies, is a 32 Degree Master Mason, and is a librarian for his Lodge and the Scottish Rite Valley of Minneapolis. He is also a husband and father of two exuberant young boys. With his several writing projects, ongoing steam punk home re-decoration, and other interests it is little wonder he is awake well into the wee hours of the morning – while the family and world sleep- working in his bindery.

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