{"id":9317,"date":"2015-03-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/?p=9317"},"modified":"2025-09-15T16:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T20:02:34","slug":"bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/22\/bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheEssenceOfBeeing-TraceyRowledge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The prior posts on Tracey Rowledge’s<\/a> work have focused on her designs mostly inspired by abstract\u00a0markings. However, there are a few pieces in her portfolio that stand out for their sheer difference in design. The above binding of The Essence of Beeing<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Michael Lenehan with illustrations by Alice Brown-Wagner\u00a0is bound in black goatskin with a gold tooled design.<\/p>\n

The second binding featured in this post is a copy of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet<\/a>, <\/em>which was\u00a0bound by Jen Lindsay in a red native-dyed goatskin with rough-edge gilding. Tracey completed the binding by gold tooling the title in 2012.<\/p>\n

Even though letterforms can be viewed as markings in their own right, I wanted to find out why Tracey veered toward a typographic design for these particular bindings.<\/p>\n

I love your use of typography as the single design element on these two bindings. The texture you create by overlapping a word or building up a letter with several impressions of a single tool is really genius. What draws you to use typography over the abstract markings you often employ in your designs?
\n<\/strong>With The Essence of Beeing<\/em> I was interested in combining my handwriting, the nature of the crosshatched images in the book and the wonderful title, to create an image that was the title \u2013 to see how far a fine binding could be simplified in appearance – to see if at first glance it could look like an art book. I don\u2019t know if this makes sense, but to try to explain it another way – I really enjoy the look and feel of a fine binding, but I sometimes wonder if they look to others overly laboured. I was exploring in this work, whether I could remove this element.<\/p>\n

\"Hamlet-TraceyRowledge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hamlet<\/em> was bound by Jen Lindsay in 2002 and it came to me in 2012 to be lettered. Although there was a ten year gap in between the time Jen completed the binding and I gold tooled the lettering, it was very much a collaborative process. We felt it was really important that the lettering worked with the incredible grain of the native red goatskin Jen had bound the book in. The Hamlet lettering is gold tooled using Jen’s handwriting, it being uppercase and superimposed, creates an image that also evokes something about Hamlet<\/em> itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prior posts on Tracey Rowledge’s work have focused on her designs mostly inspired by abstract\u00a0markings. However, there are a few pieces in her portfolio that stand out for their sheer difference in design. The above binding of The Essence of Beeing\u00a0by Michael Lenehan with illustrations by Alice Brown-Wagner\u00a0is bound in black goatskin with a […]<\/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":[1867,1730,1729,1148,1732,662,1731,1720],"class_list":["post-9317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-binder-of-the-month","category-bookbinding","category-feature-book-of-the-week","tag-bookbinding","tag-hamelt","tag-jen-lindsay","tag-leather-binding","tag-michael-lenehan","tag-shakespeare","tag-the-essence-of-beeing","tag-tracey-rowledge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Btis-2qh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9291,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/15\/bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":0},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of my favorite bindings from Tracey Rowledge; the tooling is brilliantly executed and in such a way that is perplexing. Which is precisely why it was included in the interview. Tracey bound this edition of Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster in 1997 using native red\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\/2015\/03\/AuggieWrensChristmasStory1997detail-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9412,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/31\/extra-bonus-bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":1},"title":"Extra Bonus \/\/ Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"To finish off the interview series with Tracey Rowledge, I wanted to present one final binding (or two really). Just last year Tracey bound two copies of A Little Treachery\u00a0by Libby Houston, one in full leather and one in paper. It can seem challenging to push the envelope with a\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\/2015\/03\/ALittleTreacheryLeather-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ALittleTreacheryLeather-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ALittleTreacheryLeather-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9325,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/26\/bonus-bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":2},"title":"Bonus \/\/ Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"To continue with the same theme from the prior post, I wanted to discuss another unique binding from Tracey Rowledge's portfolio. The binding is of a 1929 edition of\u00a0Vathek by William Beckford published by the Nonesuch Press. Bound as a fine binding in biscuit colored goatskin and feathered onlays. This\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\/2015\/03\/Vathek3-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vathek3-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vathek3-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Vathek3-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9402,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/29\/bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":3},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"So far in this interview with Tracey Rowledge we've looked at her binding work and her works on paper, more specifically the work inspired by markings either found or interpreted. The leather panels presented in this post are a wonderful representation of art created using traditional binding and finishing techniques.\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\/2015\/03\/LeatherPanels4-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/LeatherPanels4-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/LeatherPanels4-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9256,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/08\/bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":4},"title":"Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The two bindings featured in this post are earlier pieces\u00a0from Tracey Rowledge, but I think they represent her core interests in melding simple marks into complex gold tooled designs.\u00a0The binding above is an edition\u00a0of A Satyr Against Mankind by The Earl of Rochester, which was bound in a chestnut brown\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\/2015\/03\/Ulysses-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ulysses-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ulysses-TraceyRowledge.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9201,"url":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/01\/march-bookbinder-of-the-month-tracey-rowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":9317,"position":5},"title":"March \/\/ Bookbinder of the Month: Tracey Rowledge","author":"Erin Fletcher","date":"March 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Tracey Rowledge bound her first copy of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets\u00a0in 1997 (shown above) years\u00a0before she would revisit the text again with a parallel\u00a0binding in\u00a02014. You have created two very similar bindings for T.S. Eliot\u2019s Four Quartets; bound in black goatskin with gold tooled markings. The gold tooled design on\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\/2015\/02\/Imperatoris-TraceyRoweledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Imperatoris-TraceyRoweledge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Imperatoris-TraceyRoweledge.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Imperatoris-TraceyRoweledge.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317","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=9317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9324,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions\/9324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.herringbonebindery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}