In the summer of 2023 I was approached by Paul Suntup from Suntup Editions about working on a lettered edition run of the renowned novel, Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier. This was not the first time I had worked with Suntup Editions, having collaborated with the American bookbinder Erin Fletcher in 2021 on another numbered edition run of, The Collector, by John Fowles. The Rebecca edition run however was not to be a collaboration but a sole project – not something I had ever undertaken before. This series of blog posts explains how I made the multiples for this project, which I completed in January of 2025.
For anyone who has worked on an edition run, it’s not a decision that should be taken lightly. Realistically it was going to be up to six months work from beginning to end and I wanted to be sure that I had the time to dedicate to the project around other commitments. I would have to adapt my binding style to suit making a run of the same book, in order to get the job done within the timeframe required.
I had an invaluable chat with the bookbinder Roger Grech, who specialises in limited editions for Fine Press Printmakers, ahead of accepting the work. Roger has been a Printmaker and Bookbinder for over thirty years, teaching both disciplines at various colleges. He now runs his own bindery, Roger Grech Bindery, based in Shipley, West Yorkshire. It was invaluable to talk with him as he was able to give me tips on how to streamline the binding process effectively for larger runs of books.
I gave the editions some thought based on the discussion I had with Roger and the information I had initially received from Paul Suntup about them. On further discussion with Paul it was agreed that he could send me the text blocks collated and sewn but with no glue applied to the spine. This would save me time and I was able to quote for the work with that part of the binding process excluded.
Rebecca is a gothic novel published by the English author Daphne du Maurier in 1938. The novel follows an unnamed woman in her twenties as she tells the story of how she became involved with a wealthy widower and the strange occurrences that plagued her after marrying him. She discovers that both he and his household, a country mansion called Manderley, are haunted by the memory of his late first wife, the title character. The novel is widely considered a classic in the mystery genre. Rhododendrons appear a lot in the novel, so Suntup Edition’s initial idea was an embroidered design of this flower.
Flowers are used symbolically in Rebecca and there are many beautiful flower descriptions in the book, but rhododendrons particularly stand out:
“We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery”. (page 72)
The very first thing I worked on was pulling together coloured leathers and papers to create a visual colour palette that I would like to work with, and could then use to create a sample board to test out a design concept.
I used some examples of rhododendron flowers that Suntup Editions had selected and sent to me as inspiration for creating the cover design. It was important to make the design striking and the right scale for the size of the book, whilst not over complicating it for the budget.
I decided that the best way to add some colour variety without the long process of preparing and cutting out multiple leather onlays for each was to consider ways of printing onlay leather with different colours of ink. Lisa Takahashi is a friend of mine and an expert printmaker, specialising in linocut printing, so I approached her to see if she might be able to help with this element of the project. Although she had no experience printing onto leather, she was happy to experiment to see whether this would work. I gave her a drawing of the flower I wanted to have printed along with the colour palette that I wanted to appear in it, and also some different types of leather on which to experiment: green and maroon goat; fair calf; and also pale green bull skin.
If the printing was to work, the plan was to then use this as a large single onlay and to embroider more detail on top of it. I selected a piece of dark green leather I had in stock, which I felt would work very well as the covering leather for the books in combination with printed flowers in pink and white tones on top. This could then be carried through with pinks and greens being used for the endpapers, doublures and leather joints.
Lisa opted to create a multicolour linocut print for the flowers. This is a relief print that uses many colours to create a design by carving a design into multiple linoleum blocks. Each block is then inked with a different colour before being pressed onto paper (or in this case leather). The design was separated into four colours and Lisa experimented with printing onto the leather samples I gave her with varying success: the grain on some leathers was too pronounced and on others the colour too bold for underneath the printing inks. The drying time was also a big consideration as the coloured layers needed time to dry between each application, which seemingly takes longer on leather than the paper she usually prints onto.
The best results came from printing onto the pale green bull skin so that was chosen for the printing of the edition and I had a large quantity split thinly (see the below left image). I backed this onto Japanese tissue using PVA glue in order to stabilise the pieces and then sent it all to Lisa so she could progress with the printing of the multiples.
I asked Lisa if she would mind writing a bit information for me to include in this blog post, and the following is what she sent me along with some images she took of the printmaking in action:
“Prior to this project, I had never printed on leather before – the only surfaces I had tried out were wood, canvas and paper. However I figured it should be fairly straightforward as leather is another natural material that, like paper, wood or cotton, would have a degree of absorbency (but not too much!) that should hold the colour in place, without it being possible to rub or scratch the ink off too easily.
I used Cranfield oil based printmaking inks, specifically mixing the shades required for the flower image. I added wax driers to the ink to help accelerate the drying process, and make the dried ink rub-resistant. I used my press which is a late Victorian cast iron Miller & Richard Albion printing press, which can apply a uniform and high pressure across the print, ensuring the result is even and well ingrained into the leather.
The flower itself was made from 4 linocut blocks, with a different colour assigned to each block, which I then printed on top of one another, with some colours overlapping to make different blended colours on the leather. Each colour needed drying time before the next layer was printed on top (of around 3-4 days). The lino is made from blended linseed oil and cork dust, and then ink is made from pigment and linseed oil as well as natural resins, so all in all the whole project was a plastic-free, ‘derived-from-nature’ undertaking, which is quite a nice thought!
What I hadn’t anticipated was the slight variation of the level of absorbency to be found across the leather, which caused the ink to dry at slightly different rates in certain areas, and also altered the sheen in places too. Luckily, because the image had quite a few layers, these differences became less noticeable as the layers went on, and by the time the embroidery was applied (hopefully) were not visible at all!“
Once I had received the first completed test prints from Lisa I was able to start work on a sample board of my proposed cover design. I make up all the inner boards for my sample boards and bindings using laminated layers of Gemini board, Kraft paper and watercolour paper that are then bevelled so as to give a cushioned appearance. The laminating of the different layers gives strength to the boards and all my sample boards are cut to a height of 124mm and a width of 78mm.
I initially considered the idea of finding another bookbinder to forward the books to my specification so I could concentrate on the cover design and embroidered elements as well as sourcing materials and managing the process. As I had been more used to binding one-offs, the thought of undertaking an entire project myself like this was quite daunting. At the same time though, I was quite enthused to take it on as a personal challenge, to see how I could adapt my working practice on a grander scale to usual. Each of the binders I spoke to ahead of this were all busy with different projects for the foreseeable future which helped make my decision: I would be working on this alone and a price for the job was agreed with Suntup Editions.
When working on a one-off book, it can be difficult to gauge how long it might take to complete a binding from beginning to end. I don’t have a “set” price list as each commission is completely different. What I do have though is great in-depth knowledge of the time it usually takes to complete a book based on things like the size, the expanse of the design and embroidery work, and the type of container supplied with the binding. I can therefore base the quote for a product from previous commissions undertaken. The sample board for this book was to be number 72 in my collection.
The onlay I used for the sample board was one of Lisa’s original tests, printed onto a piece fair calf, with the colour of the leather showing through in a couple of places giving an extra to the print in this case! I cut around the outline of the flower and stuck it onto the dark green leather with PVA glue before back-paring the reverse of the skin. I then selected multiple coloured threads, in colours to compliment the flower, and began embroidering detail around the edges and on top of the onlay.
I used a mixture of running stitch, French knots, whipping stitch and seed stitch to build up the detail with embroidery threads. The leather was then stuck to the inner board using paste and the edges turned in around the edges of the board.
After sending pictures to Paul Suntup, it was agreed that I would embellish the embroidery a little on the petals and leaf inners of edition run books but they were very happy with the colours and look of the sample board. I used the reverse of the sample board to stick down strips of all the materials that were going to be used across the binding and boxes (below right image).
From top to bottom: Pistachio-coloured bull skin by Remy Carriat Tannerie in France used for the made endbands and for printing the rhododendron flowers; Chieftain Goatskin in a custom green colour for this edition by J Hewit & Sons; Dubletta cloth in the colour ‘Sage’ used to cover the clamshell box trays and Windsor bookcloth in the colour ‘Flint’ used for the case of the clamshell boxes – both from Ratchford Limited; and three colours of Canson Mi Teintes 160gsm paper for the endpapers and edge-to-edge doublures. The only materials missing from this are the marled green wool felt used to line the boxes and the pink Harmatan and Oakridge Leather used for the title labels (I will have to add them to the board retrospectively!).
Once the sample board had been signed off with Suntup Editions I was requested to make a prototype of the book. Making a prototype served a number of purposes: I could gauge how many materials I would need for the whole edition; I could work out tricks to help scale the project through the use of jigs and templates; and it would also give Suntup Editions a product to see in person to feedback on and use to advertise the edition run on his website and social media.
The text was yet to be printed so instead I was sent blank sheets of paper of the same weight and type as what was going to be used for the book: 120gsm Arches Text Wove mould-made paper. I folded up the sections and trimmed them to size. The book was considerably thicker than I had anticipated, with the pages measuring about 8cm, so it was useful to be working on a prototype on the same scale in order to iron out any issues I might have.
The agreement with Suntup Editions was that the books would be made with a deckled bottom and side edges, and the top edge of the book would be ploughed and sanded and left without any edge decoration. The edition text blocks would be sent to me sewn and with already deckled edges, but it was necessary to hand-deckle the page edges for the prototype.
My usual binding style is to sew books onto tapes that are laced into the boards, which is what I initially did whilst sewing the prototype sections together. I realised whilst doing so that I wanted to adapt this structure for the run of books, so requested them to be sent to me pre-sewn but not on tapes as I planned to use a linen joint to attach the boards to the text block instead. I therefore actually removed the tapes I used from the prototype once I had sewn the sections together before rounding and backing the book.
What I didn’t want to compromise on though was the use of leather-jointed endpapers as I much prefer the look of these to full paper endpapers that are pasted down onto the inside of the boards. I would supply leather-jointed endpapers along with edge-to-edge paper doublures (rather than leather doublures, to keep the costs down) for the bindings. I don’t have images to show of all these stages for the prototype but I’ll demonstrate how I made the endpapers and rounded and backed the books in the proceeding blog posts. The same is true for many of the other stages completed to make the prototype book, what follows is a quick summary of how I worked on it:
- The text block was ploughed on the top edge of the book using my lovely Olive and Oak Piccadilly Press and plough (see below left image)
- This top edge was then sanded using Abranet (Abranet is a net-structured abrasive material that’s designed to be dust-free. It’s a type of sandpaper that’s made with a polyamide fabric net instead of a conventional paper backing)
- The spine was lined with linen in between the sewing stations and I made some leather-covered endbands to attach to the head and tail of the spine that were embellished with some thread (see below right image)
- The spine was further lined with a bigger piece of linen that would act as a joint on which to attach the boards.
- This linen was secondary-sewn to the text block through the first and second sections (see below left image)
- The board was lined with watercolour paper on the outside of the already bevelled board (see below right image)
At this point it was possible to work out the exact template for the book, and therefore work out the quantity of leather required for the whole run of books. It wasn’t possible to match the dark green goatskin I had used for the sample board exactly, so J. Hewit and Sons instead supplied me with a custom colour dyed specifically for this edition. I was supplied enough to allow me to get three books out of each skin, and I ordered extra just to be sure I had enough as I knew that it would be costly and time consuming to have more dyed to this colour for me.
I was then able to get on with the part of the binding process I enjoy the most: the embroidery. Knowing that this was going to be a time-consuming part of the making process I set myself up with a way of accessing the coloured threads quickly and easily. I used a big piece of foam and pinned each of the coloured skeins of thread used for the design in a row with their reference codes written onto a strip of paper at the top. Stranded embroidery cotton, also known as embroidery floss, is a thread made of cotton that is often used for cross-stitch and other embroidery. It is made up of six strands that can be separated and used individually or in combination.
I split the six-stranded cotton into pieces of thread of three strands, waxed the threads with beeswax and began the long process of applying detailed stitch-work across the onlaid print. The spare split threads that were leftover I pinned underneath the full skeins so as not to waste and leftover thread – this would be used at a later stage when embroidering the rest of the covers.
Whilst doing the embroidery I kept an accurate written record of the order in which I applied the stitches, which I will explain more in a future blog post that covers that part of the work on the edition.
Once the embroidery was complete it was time to stick the leather to the text block using paste. The spine of the book had been lined with a hollow and an extra outer piece of leather. The book and box were to have title labels applied to them so this leather layer had a recess cut out of it (before being stuck to the spine) that the covering leather would be moulded into. That meant that the leather label would be flush on the spine once the book was covered.
The rest of the details of how the edition run was completed will be explained in future blog posts including: the turn-ins; the infilling; the application of the edge-to-edge doublures; sticking on the spine labels and the making of the clamshell boxes (the materials selected for the boxes can be seen in the below right image).
Part one ends with some images of the completed prototype binding that was shipped over to Paul Suntup in California.
THE FULL BOOK COVER AND THE ENDPAPERS AND DOUBLURES
THE MADE LEATHER ENDBAND AND THE BOOK OPENING
THE SPINE AND DETAIL OF THE EMBROIDERY
(I was going to refine the way I lined the spine for the edition run so that it was more flush, as you can see in the top image the prototype showed too much of the leather turned in at the head and tail of the spine)
THE CLAMSHELL ENCLOSURES
Part two in this series of blog posts which will details how I made the leather-jointed endpapers for this edition run. The proceeding posts cover things like the rounding and backing, ploughing and the preparation of the boards. In the meantime you can see more finished images of the binding in the ‘Special Projects’ section of my website here.