{"id":4043,"date":"2013-02-24T01:01:13","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/?p=4043"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:28:41","slug":"bookbinder-of-the-month-hannah-brown-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/24\/bookbinder-of-the-month-hannah-brown-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonus \/\/ Bookbinder of the Month: Hannah Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thesonglines_hannahbrown1\"<\/a>The Songlines<\/em><\/a> by Bruce Chatwin with illustrations by Simon Pemberton is a Folio Society edition published in 2010. Hannah Brown<\/a> bound this copy in 2011 as a full leather binding in yellow goatskin with black back-pared leather o<\/span>nlays. Embroidery is done over the onlays with silk and metallic threads in gold, orange, purple, brown, white, black and rust.\u00a0Frosted acrylic ‘windows’ were lathe-turned, hand-pierced and drilled then set into the front and back boards. The larger ant’s eyes are gold-plated, hand-shaped and patterned brass pieces, inserted through the book covers. The smaller ant’s eyes are tooled with gold, additional tooling in both carbon and gold using handmade finishing tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edges are painted with acrylic and tooled with carbon and gold foil. Endpapers and doublures are soft-plate off-set printed with a design of walking ants, appearing to move around the acrylic ‘windows’. Both elements are tooled with gold foils.<\/p>\n

\"thesonglines_hannahbrown2\"<\/a> \"thesonglines_hannahbrown3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m completely blown away by the design on this book. Can you talk more about your initial concept and how you approached making it a reality?
<\/b>The book is a direct account of the author\u2019s travels in Australia. In the book there are references to honey ants, which is what I decided to base my design on. Honey ants (or \u2018repletes\u2019, as they are also known) are ants that are gorged with food so that their abdomens swell enormously. Other ants then extract nourishment from them, they function essentially as living larders. They are found deep underground and are valued highly during time of little food and water.<\/p>\n

I was amazed by these insects and wanted to draw attention to the fact that they have peculiarly large abdomens. I had by chance recently ordered some samples of frosted, coloured acrylic and this seemed a perfect material to use to illustrate their bodies. I used a metal working lathe to turn the frosted acrylic into discs, and cut corresponding holes into the boards before insetting the acrylic in. I really liked that fact that the bodies seemed to light up when the covers of the book were opened. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin with illustrations by Simon Pemberton is a Folio Society edition published in 2010. Hannah Brown bound this copy in 2011 as a full leather binding in yellow goatskin with black back-pared leather onlays. Embroidery is done over the onlays with silk and metallic threads in gold, orange, purple, brown, white, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,68,13],"tags":[1867,657,574,72],"class_list":["post-4043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-binder-of-the-month","category-bookbinding","category-feature-book-of-the-week","tag-bookbinding","tag-bruce-chatwin","tag-hannah-brown","tag-the-songlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Btis-13d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/17\/my-hand-the-songlines\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":0},"title":"My Hand…The Songlines","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"July 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In the second and final year at North Bennet Street School all students are given the same book in sheets (known as a set book) to complete as a fine binding. \u00a0Given complete freedom over the materials and design, the inspiration should be derived from the set book. \u00a0This year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bookbinding"","block_context":{"text":"bookbinding","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/bookbinding\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/DSC8261-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4021,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/17\/bookbinder-of-the-month-hannah-brown-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":1},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Hannah Brown","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"February 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Words to Live By\u00a0was bound by Hannah Brown in 2009 in a cream alum-tawed goatskin with various leather onlays in green, black, grey and turquoise. Additional leaf pieces of acid-etched stainless steel are hand-sewn onto covers with metallic thread; leaf outlines are machine-sewn. Various hand-pierced leaves and plant details in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "binder of the month"","block_context":{"text":"binder of the month","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/binder-of-the-month\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/wordstoliveby_hannahbrown2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/wordstoliveby_hannahbrown2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/wordstoliveby_hannahbrown2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4034,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/24\/bookbinder-of-the-month-hannah-brown-4-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":2},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Hannah Brown","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Locks of the Oxford Canal: A Journey from Oxford to Coventry was published by The Whittington Press in 1984 and includes fifty wood engravings by John Craig. In 2011, Hannah Brown bound a copy for the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition, receiving the Mansfield Medal for Best Book. The binding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "binder of the month"","block_context":{"text":"binder of the month","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/binder-of-the-month\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/locksoftheoxfordcanal_hannahbrown4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/locksoftheoxfordcanal_hannahbrown4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/locksoftheoxfordcanal_hannahbrown4.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/locksoftheoxfordcanal_hannahbrown4.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4010,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/10\/bookbinder-of-the-month-hannah-brown-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":3},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Hannah Brown","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This edition of Daphne Du Maurier's\u00a0Don't Look Now and Other Stories was published by the Folio Society in 2007 and bound by Hannah Brown in 2008 for the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition, receiving the Mansfield Medal for Best Book. Bound in a dark grey goatskin with miscellaneous leather bird onlays\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "binder of the month"","block_context":{"text":"binder of the month","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/binder-of-the-month\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dontlooknow_hannahbrown3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dontlooknow_hannahbrown3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/dontlooknow_hannahbrown3.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11055,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/23\/catching-up-with-hannah-brown-no-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":4},"title":"Catching Up With Hannah Brown \/\/ No. 4","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"April 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, Hannah Brown created this impeccable binding of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Bound in full leather, Hannah first dyed the fair calf in a mottled effect, which provides the perfect stormy backdrop. The rest of the design is comprised of a variety of colored onlays, silk embroidery and blind, carbon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bookbinding"","block_context":{"text":"bookbinding","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/bookbinding\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TheTempest3-HannahBrown.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TheTempest3-HannahBrown.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TheTempest3-HannahBrown.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6932,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/31\/my-hand-field-book-of-western-wild-flowers-part-three\/","url_meta":{"origin":4043,"position":5},"title":"My Hand \/\/ Field Book of Western Wild Flowers: Part Three","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"October 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Part One can be read herePart Two can be read here I need to backtrack a bit. Part two ends with the covering of the matching leather doublures. The remainder of the design elements that are going to be explained in this post were applied before the doublures were pasted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bookbinding"","block_context":{"text":"bookbinding","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/category\/bookbinding\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"wildflowers12-erinfletcher","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wildflowers12-erinfletcher-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wildflowers12-erinfletcher-768x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wildflowers12-erinfletcher-768x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4043"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10292,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4043\/revisions\/10292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}