Two years ago, I discovered a copy of Of the Western Isles in the Iona Abbey Heritage Collection and immediately recognised it as an ideal candidate for a future design binding. While initially lacking a specific vision, I soon secured a copy with a damaged cover. Not an issue given my intention to remove it entirely. After a thorough read, I placed the book in my “think about it” pile, waiting for the right inspiration or project to emerge. At that stage, I was certain only that the binding had to be a stub binding, as the pages were the wrong grain and the folds were struggling.
Last year, the licentiates of the Designer Bookbinders UK were offered additional funding to create a binding for the Festival Bindings exhibition in Edinburgh this year. I revisited my “think about it” pile and rediscovered Of the Western Isles. It felt like the perfect book for a Scottish venue.
Before starting on the design elements, some first aid on the book was needed. Alongside the usual pulling of the book and repairing the original sewing holes, I wanted to save the endpapers. These were illustrated maps that would have been a shame to lose. With the help of some humidified blotting paper, a modified hacksaw blade, and no small amount of cursing I was able to very carefully lift them off the boards. The backs were a bit damaged from the glue, so I lined them with a toned lightweight kozo.
Having lived on the island of Iona for the last 16 years, I have visited the Outer Hebrides numerous times and explored several neighbouring Inner Hebridean islands. What strikes me daily on Iona and with every trip to other Hebridean islands is the colour of the seas and sands along Scotland’s west coast. These colours became the starting point for this binding. Although I was unsure of my success in emulating them, my social media posts of the progress immediately led viewers to identify the sea colours, confirming I had at least achieved a partial success.
The endpapers feature a modified “made” zigzag construction using The Paper Foundation Early Wove and Mingeishi handmade paper. I began with blue Mingeishi and layered acrylic inks until I achieved the desired effect. Similarly, the leather joints and spine were dyed to match the endpapers, substituting Mingeishi with fair goat leather from Hewit and acrylic ink with dyes from the Leather Conservation Centre. The process remained identical, though the resulting paper and leather did not match perfectly. Nor should they as they are different materials, after all. And I wanted to have a range of moods of the sea represented on the book.
The endbands were sewn in fine silk thread, echoing the colours used elsewhere in the binding.
I have long standing affection for parchment as a bookbinding material, admiring its slightly unruly nature (as master bookbinder Kathy Abbott once noted, it always wants to return to running the fields), its tactile feel, and its creamy finish. It occurred to me that parchment’s natural hue closely resembles the colour of these beaches.
Previously, I had only used parchment from Cowley’s or fish parchment I had made myself. The fish parchment was neither large enough nor the right colour or thickness for this book, and while Cowley’s was my initial intention, a friend directed me toward Woodland Tannery, a Scottish parchment maker using ethically and locally sourced hides and traditional methods. They had a beautiful Scottish roe deer parchment in stock, the perfect size, and even better, it featured mottled bits of translucency—exactly what I wanted for this book.
I aimed to play with the parchment’s natural translucency to reveal sea colours beneath. I backed the parchment with paper inked in blue tones used elsewhere in the book and lined the boards with paper inked in green tones. To further amplify this effect and echo the woodcut illustrations within the book, I incised the back of the parchment/paper laminate with wavy lines. This technique allows the creamy parchment to reveal the sea colours peeking through in both natural and geometric patterns.
I have learned a parchment over boards structure from Karen Hanmer and an off boards structure from Glenn Malkin, both of which are refined three-piece bindings. I used the framework of the off boards structure, borrowing aspects from the other to accommodate parchment instead of paper or leather covering.
The book is now ready for the Festival Bindings exhibition at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where it will be displayed alongside other contemporary bindings from 10 to 29 August. The exhibition provides a unique chance to see the practical results of these binding processes in person and is definitely worth a visit.
