{"id":6013,"date":"2013-06-23T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/?p=6013"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:21:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:21:49","slug":"bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/23\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"pictorialwebster-sonyasheats\"<\/a>

Photo by Brandon Constant.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2010, the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers<\/a> exhibited a series of juried design bindings for Johnny Carrera’s Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities<\/em><\/a>. As a project that began in 1996, Carrera<\/a> patiently sifted through a collection of around 12,000 engravings from the Merriam-Webster Company that are now housed in Yale’s Arts of the Book Press room in hopes to create a visual dictionary inspired by the Illustrated Webster’s. Carrera’s Pictorial Webster<\/em> became available to the public as a trade edition in 2010. Original letterpress copies were bound in several different styles from full leather to oak boards to full cloth. Additional copies were left unbound and made available to bookbinders.<\/p>\n

Sonya Sheats<\/a> was amongst the binders selected for the NEGBW exhibit deFINEd BINDINGS hosted at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, MA. Bound as an open joint binding and sewn on water snakeskin and vellum tapes. The spine is white and black snakeskin and the covers are MDF and walnut veneer with dyed walnut onlays. The binding fits snuggly inside a shaped walnut slipcase. Sonya’s binding was awarded “Best Binding Structure” by North Bennet Street School<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A comment from Sonya regarding the structure of the binding:<\/strong>\u00a0
Looking back, I do not think I would use an open joint structure on a book this thick. The covers essentially hang off of the book by the sewing tapes, which are hidden in a sort of de Gonet style with the dyed wooden onlays. Because of the hefty appearance of the walnut, I think it works here, but in general, I think of this structure as quite delicate and lanky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"pictorialwebster2-sonyasheats\"<\/a>

Photo by Brandon Constant.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2010, the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers exhibited a series of juried design bindings for Johnny Carrera’s Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities. As a project that began in 1996, Carrera patiently sifted through a collection of around 12,000 engravings from the Merriam-Webster Company that are now housed in […]<\/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":[1867,190,1069,1071,975,949,1070,1007],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-binder-of-the-month","category-bookbinding","category-feature-book-of-the-week","tag-bookbinding","tag-guild-of-book-workers","tag-john-carrera","tag-merriam-webster","tag-new-england-chapter","tag-north-bennet-street-school","tag-pictoral-websters-a-visual-dictionary-of-curiosities","tag-sonya-sheats"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Btis-1yZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6071,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/30\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":0},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When Harold Pinter was award the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, the Nobel Museum\u00a0(located in Stockholm) began a collaboration with the Swedish Bookbinders Guild to offer an annual Nobel Museum Bookbinding Exhibition. Their goal has been and continues to be to give bookbinders an opportunity to work together with\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\/06\/MadrigalTranstromer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/MadrigalTranstromer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/MadrigalTranstromer.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5787,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":1},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"June 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Paperrad was an artist collective based in Boston and comprised of Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci, and Ben Jones (all fantastic friends of Sonya Sheats). Their multimedia projects use \u201clo-fi\u201d visual aesthetics, bold fluorescent colors, and images from popular culture. In 2006, Jacob visited Sonya in France. Paperrad\u2019s first book, BJ\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":"paperradpoly-sonyasheats","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/paperradpoly-sonyasheats-1024x654.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/paperradpoly-sonyasheats-1024x654.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/paperradpoly-sonyasheats-1024x654.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5796,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/09\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":2},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"June 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Bien Aim\u00e9 Raymond\u00a0by Max Jacob with illustrations by Jean-Marie Queneau was bound by Sonya Sheats in 2007. This was Sonya's first open joint binding using MDF and wood veneer. Sonya refers to this binding as an open joint because the covers are attached by the snakeskin and vellum sewing tapes,\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":"bienaimeraymond-sonyasheats","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bienaimeraymond-sonyasheats-1024x468.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bienaimeraymond-sonyasheats-1024x468.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/bienaimeraymond-sonyasheats-1024x468.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5930,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/16\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":3},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"June 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"5 Nouvelles Conjurations\u00a0by Pierre Mrejen was bound by Sonya Sheats in 2010 and is the smallest book she's ever bound at 8.5cm x 7cm (3.3\" x 2.7\"). Bound as an open joint binding sewn onto eel skin and vellum tapes. The spine is brown goatskin with polycarbonate boards covered 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":"5Conjugations","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5Conjugations-1024x473.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5Conjugations-1024x473.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5Conjugations-1024x473.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6075,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/30\/bookbinder-of-the-month-sonya-sheats-bonus\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":4},"title":"Bonus \/\/ Bookbinder of the Month: Sonya Sheats","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Les M\u00e9moires de L'Oiseau Mendelssohn\u00a0by Monique Lepeuve was bound by Sonya Sheats in 2005 and was her first polycarbonate binding made during her first apprenticeship with Edgard Claes in Belguim.\u00a0It tells the story of a bird by the name of Mendelssohn, who introduces the reader to the incredible characters 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\/06\/oiseaumendelssohn3-sonyasheats.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/oiseaumendelssohn3-sonyasheats.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/oiseaumendelssohn3-sonyasheats.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/oiseaumendelssohn3-sonyasheats.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5640,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/12\/online-exhibit-new-england-chapter-of-the-guild-of-book-workers\/","url_meta":{"origin":6013,"position":5},"title":"Online Exhibit \/\/ New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"May 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers recently bound copies of Book Art Studio Handbook,\u00a0a practical guide to bookbinding co-written by Amy Lapidow and Stacie Dolin. 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