Revisiting 'The River City'

I've been working on a more traditional bookbinding version of The River City. 

I've been participating in The Australian Bookbinders Exhibitions since 2008 and my skills at producing a designer binding are slowly improving.

The first time I entered a book in 2007, I sent a very creative book which I thought I had bound extremely well, but it was rejected because it didn't have a 'proper' spine.

Since then I've managed to make the cut, and have been working hard on French Simplified bindings.  The binding I have used here is a Simplified binding with cover of Japanese paper and onlaid leather with a leather spine, leather headbands and onlaid leather title. 

I can't seem to get enthusiastic about rebinding a ready-made published book so every year I remake the content of one of my books into a binding suitable for this exhibition. 

I do enjoy trying to be more disciplined and skilled with making these traditionally bound books and trying to master the skills of working with leather.

The 2012 Australian Bookbinders Exhibition will be held in the Research Library of the Art Gallery of NSW from 31st October to 14th December 2012.