Words to Live By was 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 brass and silver are scattered throughout the design. Hand-tooling in carbon and Moon gold with hand-made finishing tools. Head edge of text block is painted with turquoise acrylic.
In 2009, Hannah Brown bound Glimpses of Nature by Andrew Wilson in a mustard-yellow goatskin with various leather onlays in dark brown, black and grey. Each dandelion seed head was hand-sewn with white and metallic thread. The binding also includes three hand-pierced and drilled brass dandelions. Hand-tooling in carbon and gold with hand-made finishing tools.
More dialogue after the jump…
These bindings are quite similar, floral elements are scattered throughout your work. Are you particularly attracted to flowers as a design element?
Yes, I am particularly drawn to flowers as a design element (as you have seen from my pictures of the Shakespeare competition binding), but more broadly to nature as a whole. I find it very hard to design and make abstract covers, the majority of my designs to date being quite literal.
The bookmark ribbon with metal charm appear throughout your earlier work, but cease in your later work. Any reason for this?
The bookmark charms were a fun design detail that I used a lot in my early bindings, however it was suggested to me a few years back that it gave my bindings a ‘trade’ appearance, so I decided to steer away from doing this in my later work.
how lovely!
This work is so exquisite and smart and beautiful.