Bookbinding Competition open for entries

The Nation­al Library of Scot­land’s Eliz­a­beth Soutar Book­bind­ing Com­pe­ti­tion is open for entries. It aims to encour­age the prac­tice and devel­op­ment of cre­ative and craft bind­ing skills. For more details see the Nation­al Library of Scot­land’s web­site. Details of this year’s themes, and how to enter are avail­able on the Nation­al Library’s website.

Bookbinding showcase

You can join the Nation­al Library of Scot­land online for a vir­tu­al show­case of the win­ning entries for the Eliz­a­beth Soutar Book­bind­ing Com­pe­ti­tion 2020, which had the 1980s as its theme. You will be able toview the win­ning designs, and to hear from the book­binders about their respons­es to the com­pe­ti­tion brief and their creative […]

Residential letterpress and bookbinding courses

The Grange, near Ellesmere in Shrop­shire, offers a range of res­i­den­tial cours­es that fol­low the cre­ation of a tra­di­tion­al book right through from print­ing to fin­ished illus­trat­ed book — let­ter­press print­ing cours­es, book­bind­ing cours­es, and paper mar­bling cours­es. For details of the cours­es run­ning in 2020, and how to book, see their website.

Scottish fine bindings viewable online

The Nation­al Library of Scot­land have made dig­i­tal images of 42 vol­umes of ‘The British Poets’ series, pub­lished in Edin­burgh in 1773. The set con­tains a selec­tion of key works by British poets writ­ten in the 17th and 18th cen­turies, and was bound by James Scott of Edin­burgh. Scott was one of the finest bookbinders […]

Falkirk bindery create replica of Gutenberg Bible

Helix Binders of Falkirk have been work­ing with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­ches­ter’s John Rylands Library to pro­duce a repli­ca copy of the Guten­berg Bible. The orig­i­nals are too valu­able to be han­dled by schol­ars, so this project aims to pro­vide an alter­na­tive. You can read the full sto­ry is on the BBC’s website.