Denver Bookbinding Company is hosting their delightful Trunk-or-Treat event again this year. This fun tradition is changing the way kids go hunting for candy at Halloween. And in the week leading up to Trunk-or-Treat, the bindery will play host to storytelling for the kids (or kids at heart).
Denver’s Channel 7 News recently did a feature story about our bookbindery. They touch on all the unique parts of our history: that the bindery has been in the same family for five generations; that it is woman-owned; and many more!
Denver Bookbinding is opening their workshop doors again to welcome makers in to learn new techniques and create together. If you have longed to be creative and be with your tribe, we have two workshops in September to choose from.
If you spent an inordinate amount of time indoors in the last year and a half, and you're getting back out into the world, you may have noticed some changes to Denver. There is construction of buildings and streets everywhere. A drive through the RINO area by Brighton Blvd demonstrates that nothing much stays the same in Denver.
I spent an afternoon talking with the folks who work behind the scenes to take damaged or worn out books and breathe new life into them. Though she is always in the middle of a handful of book restoration jobs, I had a chance to chat with Emily Wallace about some little known book conservations facts. Thanks for sharing your experiences and expertise in book conservation, Emily!
These fairly dry books filled with historical records for the American Legion arrived to bindery in various stages of disrepair. The necessity of this repair is a reminder that no matter how dry and specialized the subject matter of a book, it's important to someone if it comes to us for repairs. And we treat each repair or rebind as though the book was a precious family heirloom. We were able to revitalize three of the original covers and then matched up the other two so that they all looked ‘of a kind’ when the job was finished.
Sometimes you just have to be willing to wait. Cicadas wait for 7-17 years before they bust out and do their thing. We waited 90 years, so we’ve got all those impatient cicadas beaten. And it was well worth the wait! We are pleased to announce our Denver Bookbinding On-the-Dock Sale.
Here’s a very old Webster's Dictionary from 1894 that had lost its luster. This was a custom conservation and rebuild for a holiday gift. The front and back covers were still intact, but the leather needed to be dyed and treated. The challenging part of this preservation project was centered on the spine; it was attached with glue to the text block itself, which can be a problem for the stability of the book itself. The old spine was removed and a new spine was created by our conservation specialist, Emily.
We took on a visual merchandising project recently and as the designer explained the theme to us, it was not surprising to find out that it revolved around the stories that books tell us. Not necessarily the words in the books, but the stories that accompany the possession of the book. Who gave it to you, why you love it, what it means to you. It’s personal and unique -- these stories of why we keep books in our lives. Just like our real life love stories.