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Posts Tagged ‘gabrielle cooksey’

  1. North Bennet Street School // Student & Alumni Exhibit 2015 – Part Two

    May 28, 2015 by Erin Fletcher

    In addition to the set books I wrote about in Part One of this post, the Student and Alumni Exhibit at North Bennet Street School includes a selection of bindings produced by current students and alumni of the full-time program. In this post, I’ll be highlighting some of my favorites.

    I’ll start with my own bindings. This year I submitted two miniature bindings, which I’ve completed within the last 8 months. The book on the left is Goose Eggs & Other Fowl Expressions bound in the Dorfner-style with wood veneer boards. I wrote about the process a few months ago, you can check that out here.

    The second binding is The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde. The book is bound as a traditional French-style fine binding. The nightingale on the front board is created using various back-pared onlays, feathered onlays and embroidery. For those of you who know the story, there is also a small wood veneer inlay that represents the rose’s thorn. The binding includes tan goatskin doublures. The back doublure showcases the rose and was created in the same manner as the nightingale.

    ErinFletcher-NBSSExhibit

    Next up is Jacqueline Scott’s embroidered binding of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans. Jacqueline is apart of the 2015 graduating class and I featured her set book in the first post. Her work is so stellar and I had the delightful opportunity to see this book as it took a journey to became this very gorgeous binding.

    The embroidery is so delicately handled and the feather embroidered on the spine of the box adds just the perfect amount of intrigue. The swan’s wings extend beyond the fore edge and are covered on the backside with matching green goatskin leather. I can’t wait to see how Jacqueline continues to explore embroidery in her work.

    JaquelineScott-NBSSExhibit

    The rest of the images were taken after the exhibit was fully installed, so please pardon any glares, shadows or my reflection. I would also like to note that I had intended to include the work of Rebecca Koch and Anne McLain, but it was rather difficult to capture an accurate photograph of their bindings due to reflection and glare issues. So sorry you two but I would like to say that loved your bindings!

    The following binding was recently bound by my charming bindery mate Colin Urbina, 2011. In his binding of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne, he created an abstract underwater scene with several tooled leather onlays and inlays of pearl. Other portions of the design are texturized with an open circle tool and by pressing sandpaper into the wet leather. The title and author are blind tooled on the spine.

    The head edge is painted in a vibrant purple with brushstrokes that cross over one another. Colin put in matching edge-to-edge doublures and added a frame of ascending “bubbles” using the same open circle tool.

    ColinUrbina-NBSSExhibit

    GabrielleCooksey-NBSSExhibit

    Monsters and Beasts is the work of the incredibly talented Gabrielle Cooksey, 2014. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about this piece. But I believe that everything from the illustrations to the printing were all done by Gabrielle. It’s absolutely beautiful work!

    KaitlinBarber-NBSSExhibit

    Kaitlin Barber is the master of miniatures (and there always seems to be one in every class). In this adorable and wildly impressive collection of bindings, Kaitlin has miniaturized a selection of historical bindings she learned over the course of her time at North Bennet Street School. She’ll be apart of the 2015 graduating class and I wrote more about her work in the first post.

    Continuing on with the topic of historical structures, the students were treated to a week long workshop in the spring with Dr. Georgios Boudalis. Using his extensive understanding of Byzantine culture, he taught the students none other than a traditional 12th century Byzantine structure. Todd Davis, 2016, included his binding in the exhibit. The bindings are quite massive and required a lot of detailed work, such as board shaping, primary and secondary headbands, braided straps and clasps. After all that blood, sweat and tears, the class bound some really lovely models.

    ToddDavis-NBSSExhibit

    The next binding on my list of favorites was done by another studio mate of mine, Lauren Schott, 2013. Bound in the Dorfner-style (same as Goose Eggs) with wood veneer boards and a leather spine. Lauren’s design on this binding of Walt Whitman’s Song of the Broad-Axe is so elegant.

    Lauren and I are both a big fan of incorporating shapes and symmetry into our designs. The front and back board are gold tooled onto the wood veneer; the tooling sits in the veneer so that at certain angles becomes almost invisible.

    LaurenSchott-NBSSExhibit

    And to round out the favorites is this stunning binding from Johanna Smick Weizenecker, 2010. This binding of Chairmaker’s Notebook is a quarter leather goatskin binding with semi-hidden corners. The design on the front and back cover continues onto the spine as an onlay. The title and author are hand titled using black and copper foils.

    JohannaSmickWeizenecker-NBSSExhibit

    So that concludes this year’s Student and Alumni exhibit at the North Bennet Street School. I hope you enjoyed this overview and I want to thank all of you who were able came out to see the show in person!


  2. North Bennet Street School // Student & Alumni Exhibit 2014

    May 13, 2014 by Erin Fletcher

    Every year the North Bennet Street School hosts an exhibit to celebrate the work of current students and alumni across several of its departments, which include Bookbinding, Violin Making, Jewelry, Cabinet and Furniture Making, and Preservation Carpentry. The exhibit opened on May 10th and runs through the end of the month. The opening reception will take place on the evening of Tuesday, May 13th for the Annual Evening of Craft when supporters of the school and exhibitors come together to discuss and explore the handcrafted items.

    As an exhibitor this year, I had the opportunity to help set up the show, which allowed me to document and chat with each of the graduating students about their fine bindings. The photographs in this post were taken during the set-up, so please excuse the occasional body in the background or roll of blue tape.

    Dirck de Bray: A Short Instruction in the Binding of Books was chosen as this year’s set book for the graduating bookbinding class. The earliest known Dutch bookbinding manual is a tiny illustrated manuscript from 1658, in which, Dirck de Bray described the making of a full leather binding and a parchment laced-case binding as the most common techniques of the 17th century. The manuscript is illustrated with 16 instructive drawings in pen and watercolor. This 17th century bookbinding manual originally appeared for the public in a 1977 edition, which has been re-edited in the 2012 edition that the students bound. This second edition includes each original page from the 1658 manuscript along with an in-depth look at the life of Dirck de Bray and the time period he lived in, as well as, the way books would normally look, the master’s test for bookbinders and other early manuals.

    The 2012 edition was printed in an unusual oblong format to include the historical Dutch paired with a contemporary Dutch and English translation next to the original page from the 17th century manuscript. I asked each of the graduating students to share with me their concept for their design.

    DirckDeBray5-AlcamyHenriksen

    Alcamy Henriksen
    As I mentioned above, the set book was written in both Dutch and English. Alcamy ran with this theme by including a phrase from the text: “This is where you must really pay attention” is blind tooled on the back cover, while “Let hier goed op” is the Dutch translation blind tooled on the front cover. These two phrases are enclosed within a box created through the use of orange onlays.

    Dirck de Bray was a talented artist across several mediums, but principally known for his paintings and worked on the murals of “Orange Hall” (Oranjezaal) in Huis ten Bosch, a royal palace in The Hague. The orange cube spanning across the covers represents the space of the artist’s creavity and its challenging limitations.

    DirckDeBray4-AlcamyHenriksenDirckDeBray2-AlcamyHenriksen

    Alcamy’s binding is bound in gray Harmatan goatskin with matching leather doublures. She used handmade papers from Hook Pottery Paper as the made flyleaf. The head edge is decorated with graphite with a single line of orange running the length of the edge. Alcamy’s design is really striking and made great use of long horizontal shape of the binding.

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    DirckDeBray1-ChristineAmeduri

    Christine Ameduri
    Inspired by 17th century Dutch tile designs, Christine reinterprets the design as a broken frame of simple corner ornaments. The intersecting gilt lines at each corner are paired with two small smoke-tooled droplets. The center tile is a black onlay tooled with de Bray’s name and framed within gilt lines. Bound in yellow Harmatan goatskin with matching leather hinges. Inset on the inside of the boards is a panel of handmade marbled paper made by Christine herself.

    DirckDeBray2-ChristineAmeduri

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    DirckDeBray1-GabrielleCooksey

    Gabrielle Cooksey
    In the classic drawing style that I’ve seen emerge on Gabrielle’s work during her two years at NBSS, she has created an elegant and simple design binding. The motif on the front cover is reflected on the back cover and was created from a series of line palettes and gouges through gold foil. The motif was inspired by Gothic door frames. The edge decoration mimics the shape of the design on the covers.

    Bound in dark blue Pergamena goatskin with matching leather hinges. A panel of black leather fills the inside of the boards. The made flyleaf is a handmade marbled paper.

    DirckDeBray2-GabrielleCooksey

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    DirckDeBray1-LeslieTo

    Leslie To
    The diaper-style design and onlays of various blue leathers are extracted from the illustrations in the manuscript. de Bray mentions that in art you must look past the surfaces of your surroundings to find the details. Leslie captures the background details of the archways, windows and blue tile flooring through both gilt and blind tooling. The head edge is decorated with green pigment, which is also pulled from the manuscript illustrations. 

    DirckDeBray3-LeslieTo DirckDeBray2-LeslieTo

    Bound in black goatskin with navy blue doublures. Leslie hand marbled the paper used on the made flyleaf. Pulling from the architectural elements within the illustrations, Leslie has created a complimentary structural design on her binding.

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    DirckDeBray1-ElizabethCurran

    Elizabeth Curran
    Elizabeth also found inspiration in the original manuscript illustrations, but put her focus on the illustrations of stacked books to create a design of an abstracted library. The stacked books on her binding are created through a series of gilt line palettes and gouges, with a few being surface gilt. Separating the stacked books are a series of vertical stripes of colored onlays, some being tooled onlays. A nice detail that Elizabeth included, was wrapping the colored onlays onto the board edges.

    The design is quite striking and each cover can stand alone or be displayed fully open as the image above displays.

    DirckDeBray3-ElizabethCurran DirckDeBray2-ElizabethCurran

    Bound in grey Harmatan goatskin with biscuit-colored goatskin doublures paired with a handmade marbled made flyleaf. The headbands are hand sewn around a flat rectangular core made from laminated goatskin and vellum.

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    DirckDeBray1-MariannaBrotherton

    Marianna Brotherton
    Marianna took her inspiration from designs on mid-17th century bindings, a period that is contemporary to the original manuscript. The frame is created with a black onlay and tooled using an ascona tool over gold foil. The center inlay panel of vellum is framed with a black onlay mimicking the style of the outer border. Marianna wanted to incorporate vellum in her design as a homage to the original vellum binding of the manuscript. The title, along with de Bray’s name, has been hand-tooled with gold foil onto the vellum.

    Bound in green Pergamena goatskin and vellum with black goatskin doublures paired next to a stunning Claire Maziarcyk paste paper made flyleaf.

    DirckDeBray3-MariannaBrotherton DirckDeBray2-MariannaBrotherton

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    DirckDeBray1-JeffAltepeter

    And last, but certainly not least is the binding created by NBSS instructor and alum, Jeff Altepeter. Bound in crimson goatskin with matching doublures. The boards are blind tooled in a lozenge pattern using a single hand-carved finishing tool which mimics the classic ‘cusped edge stamp’. de Bray’s name is hand tooled on a leather label pasted on the spine. Marbled ‘Dutch curl’ endpapers in the typical 18th century palette are used for the made flyleaf.

    DirckDeBray2-JeffAltepeter


  • My name is Erin Fletcher, owner and bookbinder of Herringbone Bindery in Boston. Flash of the Hand is a space where I share my process and inspirations.
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