Restoration of a damaged artwork or artifact poses a delicate issue: while restoration can perhaps return an artifact to what it might have looked like when it was newly completed, the fact that the artifact is damaged in the first place is also part of its history.
In the second part of our talk Kathy Abbott takes us for a tour of her workshop and shows some of her bindings. We also talk about conservation aspects of her creative projects and Tomorrow's Past — a project she's been a part of for some years already.
Our podcast's guest this time is Kathy Abbott. A bookbinder, bookbinding teacher, and book restorer (with a conservation lilt). Watch the episode on our YouTube channel or listen to it on major podcasting platforms.
Our guest is Mark Cockram, a book artist, teacher, and bookbinder from London, UK. Mark is the owner of the Studio 5 Book Arts. We talk about his early career, teaching, and experiments with structures and materials.
Our podcast's guest is Rita Udina, a book and paper conservator from Barcelona, Spain. Rita shows her fantastic studio, we talk about her projects, and answer questions that were sent by our followers!
Our podcast's guest is Eliane Gomes, a Brazilian/Dutch book restorer and bookbinder, owner of the Nautilus Boekbinderij in Haarlem, Netherlands. I already had several collaborations with her and posted a studio tour on iBookBinding.com.
Recently we posted about a mixed three-section stab binding that was published in the early days of Soviet Russia. My question was: what would be a reasonable approach to digitization and preservation of the book?
Washi is often dubbed “the world’s thinnest paper,”. Chinzei’s variety, tengu-joshi washi, is 0.02 millimeters thick and weighs 1.6 grams per square meter. As opposed to standard paper, which is thicker and weighs 70 grams per square meter.
The first time I learned about phase boxes, I was on a tour of The Leeds Library. It was conducted by their bookbinder, Brian Cole, who ventured up from the depths of the library basement to show us around.
Too often, repairs to comic books are done by people with good intentions without a better understanding or training in the field of conservation. Okay, there are cases of bad intentions and no training, as well.
Old books tell lots of stories and often have sentimental value. They also offer a challenge for conservators. But what about comics? They are no exception.
One of my most exciting projects was an 18th-century book I worked on for one of my restoration course final exams. The book was brought to me by a friend, and its story started to unveil as the months went by.
Super thin paper made by Hidaka Washi Ltd. is used by museums and other institutions all over the world for conservation and restoration projects. But the technology of production dates back a thousand years.
I have a copy of The Fair Penitent by Nicholas Rowe, published in 1776. I found it in a rare bookstore. It has no boards, barely any spine left, and the frontispiece has been cut out.
This project is a bit out of our general scope. However, subject of cloth restoration and conservation in general and matters of working with silk in particular may be of interest to some of bookbinders.
