Middlesex Bindery

12/27/2025

Look what came today (after being lost in the network for a while).

12/24/2025

Made myself a thing



Only 5 tags per post now?

11/29/2025

A little bit of rabbit skin glue.

11/22/2025

Frosty tracks

11/22/2025

Some of what I do

11/16/2025

One of the most important and valuable internet projects.

In Memoriam Dr. Gregory Newby

On October 21, 2025, Dr. Greg B. Newby left us a great legacy of optimism as well as a deep sorrow for our loss. Earlier this year Greg was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. He entered hospice care in August as treatments were unable to push the cancer to remission. He died surrounded by loved ones at his home in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Greg began working with Michael Hart in the fall of 1991, contributing eBooks #41 and #59 together with his wife, Ilana. While Michael championed eBooks and the concept of “public access” to the world, Greg focused on the technical and organizational side—maintaining infrastructure, coordinating volunteers, and managing operations.

In 2000, Greg took on the role of founding CEO for the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF), and participated in the creation of Distributed Proofreaders (DP), a collaborative project developed by key Project Gutenberg volunteers. After Michael’s passing in 2011, Greg continued to guide Project Gutenberg, PGLAF, and DP, with diplomatic grace and enduring dedication.

11/14/2025

https://archive.is/Jce3e

11/14/2025

* THE SIX BOOKER PRIZE BINDINGS FOR 2025 *

Texture, shapes, angles, colour and a whole lot of exceptional technique: all very appropriate words to describe the work done by the six Fellows who created bindings for this year's Booker Prize.

We are thrilled to reveal this year’s hand-bound editions of the Booker Prize 2025 shortlisted books! This year the six Fellows that bound books were (from left to right of the bindings) Hannah Brown, Glenn Bartley, Tom McEwan, Stuart Brockman, Angela James and Sue Doggett. All totally unique in both design and ex*****on, these six bindings show examples of work being done by some of the most exceptional contemporary fine binders working today.

We have only been able to share fairly abstract work in progress images up until this time, so as not to give away the final designs. We are pleased to finally be able to share full colour images of each of the bindings, and see how close you were in trying to guess what design the binders came up with for the novels they had been paired...

We will be featuring each of these bindings separately with more images over the course of the next couple of days. If you are eager to see more now, please visit the Designer Bookbinders website here:

https://designerbookbinders.org.uk/events-and-exhibitions/booker-prize/

Images © Indira Birnie for the Booker Prize Foundation

The Booker Prizes The Reading Agency

11/10/2025

Video of what a bindery in 1916 looked like:

This short film shows what is probably the D.L. Clement eftf. bindery in 1916. Daniel Louis Clement was born in 1820 and passed away in 1877. The bindery was then taken over by his wife, Sara Elise Petrine Nilsson, who died in 1911. It continued to exist, having merged with the Forlagsbogbinderiet i...

11/02/2025

Trigger warning

10/28/2025

Some recent rebindings

10/15/2025

Sad news.

Sharing this very sad news with the papermaking community. It was an honor to know Jim Croft and his legacy will continue to live on. He will be deeply missed. May his memory be a blessing. Thank you to Brien Beidler for sharing this news.

Sharing this beautiful homage from Tim Barrett:

Jim Croft was a master at book binding. Of that there is no doubt. When he was in the zone, and hitting his stride, everything about a book he was making was thoroughly wrought, the paper, the sewing, the boards, the headbands, the brass clasps. He worked until each part was right and entirely integrated with the whole. He worked until it was completely, honestly, and utterly done. The result in his best books was so well executed it hurt to behold the damn thing. You felt lucky just to be around it, and to know the guy who made it. Which brings me to the other thing Jim was a master at: living life, living his work in his life, and enjoying every second of it. He was a life force. Like I say, you felt lucky to be around the guy, to know him as a fellow human being. So, we are left feeling someone, something has been taken away from us. But at the same time, we know down deep that Jim worked his way into each of our hearts and souls, just by being himself. And we also know that the way we celebrate him at this moment is to keep him alive in our lives and work, in the way we interact with others. That gesture will keep him among us. No question about it, we were all lucky to have had Jim Croft as a friend, colleague, or family member.