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 calf or goat skins. In the dyeing process I use natural dyes and vegetable tanned skins. When I dye the leather myself I am afforded a broad range of control and can create a binding with complex levels of color and texture. When adding my hand hammered and formed brass or metal onlays, hasps, and fitting, 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 my hand or with custom acid etched plates I create. I use old world tecniques which emply washes, the application of egg glaire, finishes and many many hours of applying each piece of a design. Each line and curve is tooled with straight or bent tools, circles with several applications of a gouge, or curved line tool. Each application of the heated tool must be correct, confident, and precise. Each binding takes many hours to create.”

Check out PAGES on the right hand column the main page to see just a few of the many projects JRR Bookworks has produced.  Feel free to email with your binding questions and never think that having a custom binding made is unobtainable.

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