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Bookbinding Courses & Tuition

Contact Details
We are based in Surrey and West Sussex –

In Surrey
Unit D7, West Entrance
Fairoaks Airport
Chertsey Road
Chobham
Woking
Surrey
GU24 8HX
Tel 01932 845976.
Click here to see map

Please phone before coming

Take a TAXI by calling (01483) 747576 Woking Station £8 Surrey University £18

In West Sussex
Cissbury
Ashfield Road
Midhurst
West Sussex
GU29 9JS
Tel 01730 352042
Click here to see map

Please phone before coming
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Traditional Fine Book Binding

Do you want a fine, traditional leather binding to re-cover an old book, or to set off a new one with style?  At the otter bindery we take pride in our traditional craft bookbinding skills.  We use only the finest leather, papers, silks and gold leaf to create beautiful books which are a pleasure to touch, read and display.  

Various options are available depending on the style required and your budget.  Please contact us to discuss the possibilities.

"Both Ken and I are very pleased with the work on sewing and binding and blocking. Many thanks."  Peter Johnson

"They were delighted with the book. Thank you very much for all your efforts." Regards Philip

"Thank you so much for doing such a lovely job on my book and, more importantly, for being patient, flexible, and understanding!"  Roxanne
Here are some examples of our previous work
Sunday
Jun102012

St George's Hill Golf Club

The pages of this book were printed in house on our printer as A4 landscape sections using a paper to match as closely as possible their original book.  It has hand sewn silk headbands, hand made marbled endpapers made by Jemma Lewis and is covered in green Harmatan vegetable goatskin with gold tooled embossing.

Sunday
Apr172011

Half Leather Binding

Full gilt gold leaf spined, with leather labels on a half calf binding with hand-marbled paper sides.

Hand sewn silk headbands.

Wednesday
Mar092011

Gold-Leaf Tooled Binding

A half-calf binding with marbled sides and traditional gold-leaf tooling

Wednesday
Aug132008

Chambers Russian Wars

This is a re-bind in red morocco goatskin with hand marbled papers by Ann Muir.

Tuesday
Aug122008

Blue Morrocco Binding for Presentation to EIIR

This book was presented to Her Majesty by the Middle Temple in 2008.  Typesetting, photo restoration and printing were all done in house. The sections were folded and sewn in traditional style, then edge gilt.  Watered silk fly-leaves were prepared for the front and back with leather joints.  A box covered in blue Arbelave buckram book cloth was made to house the book and lined on the inside with padded watered silk .

You will be pleased to hear that the Royal visit went off excellently.  I asked our Under Treasurer what the Queen thought of your album and he reported back that she spent a good deal of time leafing through it and made a complimentary comment about it so all your hard work was especially noted.  Best wishes Hannah
The book was covered in Royal Blue morocco leather and decorated in 28ct gold leaf to a design as approved by the Middle Temple.
Tuesday
Aug122008

Full Calf Binding


Above is an example of a book which was bought in to be rebound.  We used a full calf skin binding and dyed it to give an antiquarian look.  The original boards are in the back ground. The binding has a full gilt back with simple gold line borders.
Tuesday
Aug122008

Binding commissioned for Nigella Lawson by her Agent


For this project we produced a full morocco-red leather binding with gold tooled decoration.
Inside are french marbled papers, hand sewn silk headbands and edge gilt pages.