Thought I would add  a few pictures of the bindery.

The Black Cat Bindery is a friendly, traditional craft bindery situated in the countryside near to the pretty market town of Castle Cary in the heart of Somerset, England. We are a small professional team of dedicated bookbinders aiming to produce memorable and lasting bindings and boxes for every special occasion. Using traditional hand binding equipment, some of which dates back to the Victorian era, our products are classically authentic. Each order is an opportunity to produce a handmade item which you will treasure forever.

We undertake a wide variety of work from photograph albums – including wedding, christening birthdays, whatever your special memories are, to the binding of limited edition print runs of up to one hundred. We also produce presentation print boxes,keepsake boxes and CD/ DVD folios as well as visitors books, guest books and journals. As we offer a bespoke service we are more than happy to undertake one off commissions.

Restoration of older books is also undertaken and our aim is always to restore the book, giving it lasting strength, whilst maintaining its original appearance.

As all our products are handmade to order turn around time for website items are usually 1-2 weeks but we do always try our best to accommodate if you are in a hurry.

                        Our new website is up and running
                              www.blackcatbindery.com

                Have a look and let us know what you think.      www.blackcatbindery.com

Chiyogami Paper

Chiyogami patterns were inspired from Kimono patterns and first made by Japanese Paper-Makers in the 20th century. With a decline in the manufacture of Kimonos, the old cloth printing studios began applying their patterns to paper. Originally printed by woodblock and used to make paper dolls and other home decorations, Chiyogami is still silkscreened by hand using a mixture of kozo and sulphite. These patterns blended with the existing woodblock-printed Chiyogami tradition to create a newer, wider range of paper patterns that now also included gold. 

Known for beautiful, vibrant and striking colours, many of today's Chiyogami patterns are based on traditional Japanese designs with symbols that represent beauty, good fortune and long life. These patterns include flowers, trees, animals and geometric shapes. Flowering plum trees, pine leaves, clover, bamboo, violets, butterflies, stripes and parasol shapes are among the traditional designs that are still very popular today.

Chiyogami can be used for a wide variety of art and craft projects. It is a favorite choice for Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Cranes, boats and many other shapes and objects are exquisitely beautiful when made with Chiyogami. Japanese paper has inspired many wedding invitation designs and used to line envelopes. Today we see book covers, greeting cards, scrapbook pages, collages, picture mats and lampshades all made with Chiyogami. Due to its strength and durability Chiyogami is ideal for covering all kinds of common household objects, such as picture frames, boxes, tins and light switch covers.

All Chiyogami Paper  is still silk-screened by hand. It's a laborious process, with each pattern requiring a separate screen that needs to be hand-registered for each color layer. 

First Posted in 2010 by Larry Chase

We have been playing around with this beautiful paper and have been commissioned by a few people to line print boxes with it. We think it looks great.

 Wooden Boarded Books

Based on a coptic style binding from the 14th Centry, these wooden boarded books incorporate traditional techniques with a modern twist.
We have used a figured ash with a decorative grain for the boards. They have been hand worked, using traditional woodworking skills and lightly polished to produce a decorative and tactile finish.
The pages are made from  quality Strathmore Pastelle Natural which has a light texture.
Great for writing or sketching.
The book spines are covered with quality morocco goatskin leather which can be personalised with gold, silver or blind lettering on request.

We are, at the moment, producing these books in two sizes
 6 x 9" and 5 x 4"portrait and landscape

 Each coptic style book comes in its own velvet pouch. A perfect gift

http://www.blackcatbindery.com/woodenboardedbooks.htm

For more information email info@blackcatbindery.com

Black Cat Bindery.... Facebook page
www.blackcatbindery.com

Print Release by Sebastian Edge , North London Darkroom

One year to the day the photographer Sebastian Edge made a number of wet collodion photographs of the band Radiohead, using his own hand built camera equipment.

Sebastian is currently working, three years into a growing body of work with the woods he grew up in, in Kent, England. when the project with the band collided.

This edition of the portrait of Thom, Ed, Colin, Jonny and Phil. Was for the press material for the The King of Limbs album, released February 14th 2011.

The hand printed limited edition of 100 by Sebastian, is being released through the North London Darkroom. where photographers make their own prints, to archival standards.

This print sale will help the North London Darkroom in its future endeavours with photographers to make photographs.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000118468198#!/pages/North-London-Darkroom/223095611052080

North London Darkroom

Join The North London Darkroom Mailing list, to get up to date information on when the print is finally ready to leave the darkroom

tiny.cc/nld_mail

Black Cat Bindery has just finished making the first batch of bespoke portfolios for North London Darkroom designed to hold the large limited edition Radiohead print.


Have a look below at the two vimeos to see the photographs and portfolios in the making

http://vimeo.com/37586409

http://vimeo.com/36743856

http://thomthomthom.com/whiteboard/2012/03/sebastian_edge_north_london_da.html

Portfolio style wedding albums

We are always being asked to develop an album that can hold  a bespoke number of pages so we have come up with our portfolio / pillar binding album.
The pages are made up of individual card sheets with cloth joints so that they are able to flex and bend to help with the opening of the albums. It also means that we are able to build each album with different amounts of pages as require.

As we make to order the albums can be covered in a variety of different finishes. The pictures below are of a Damson Tsarina crush silk album with 20 black pages.
We are also able to emboss names, dates and company logos in gold, silver or blind embossed.

The pages and albums are held together with brass pillar screws which allow you to take pages out or swap them around once the album has been made.

The page size of the above album is 280mm height x 275mm width but other sizes are available.
We recommend using photo mounts http://www.blackcatbindery.com/photoalbummounts.htm
Double sided archival tape or photo spray to attach your photos.

We are also able to make matching storage boxes / drop back boxes for your albums.



If you need any more information contact us on info@blackcatbindery.com

www.blackcatbindery.com

 Ivory Tsarina crush silk and Midnight blue Tsarina crush silk portfolios both with 10 cream leaves

Ivory silk portfolio album open

We are also able to get photo frame mounts to fit over the photos.

midnight blue with blue grey ribbon

                                            Ivory silk with ivory ribbon

Box making

Box making in photos

we always start from the inside and work our way out so the first thing we do is the measure the book, or in this case, large mounted photographs that we are making it for.

The trays {walls of the box} are made from 3mm interlocking greyboard

They are then covered in cloth or marbled paper

 The rounded spine is made up from millboard and then rounded using a spokeshave

 The rounded spine is then covered with paper and the leather false raised bands are then added

 The leather is then cut to size and pared thin

The spine is then covered with leather and the boards are covered with cloth

 The trays are the attached to the case and then we can do the gold lettering and tooling

 This box is lined in ivory moire silk