Selected Work
Pieces that have lived in our hands, and why we made them the way we did.
1930s Family Bible, Rebound
A water-damaged leather Bible carried west by a Portland family's grandmother needed to survive another century. We rebuilt it to do exactly that.
The spine was detached, the endpapers foxed and warped from decades in the attic. Rather than strip it down, we preserved what mattered: the original marbled endpapers, the surviving cover leather, the sense of continuous use. We reattached the spine with new hand-sewn signatures, matching the original thread gauge—a detail that matters more than most people know. The rebacking in goatskin honors the weight and color of the existing leather. The Bible opens now as it did then, and the client's story moves forward with it.
The Work
- Spine reattachment
- Hand-sewn signatures
- Original endpapers preserved
- Goatskin rebacking
- Thread gauge matched
The Brief
A trekking group exploring the Cascadia range needed journals tough enough for rain, dust, and daily use. Delicacy was the enemy.
Cascadia Trail Journal Edition
Twelve hand-bound journals made for hikers who take notes at alpine lakes and need their books to survive the descent.
We chose waxed canvas for the covers—soft enough to fold into a pack, weatherproof enough to outlast a season. Waterproof endpapers. A pocket inside the back cover for maps and permits. Long-stitch binding holds everything tight through miles of movement. Each journal was numbered by hand. The paper is sturdy but takes pencil well. These aren't precious objects. They're meant to be used until the margins are full.
Wedding Guest Book, Mt. Tabor Ceremony
A couple married at Mt. Tabor Park asked for a guest book that would hold the weight of that day without trying too hard.
We built a Coptic-bound book with covers in hand-dyed leather—a color they brought us as a swatch, muted sage that matches the Douglas firs around the meadow where they said their vows. The first page is hand-lettered with the ceremony date. The binding is exposed and visible, a quiet design choice that shows the craft without calling attention away from the signatures inside. Coptic binding lets the book open flat, which guests always appreciate. This project shows what's possible when you start with a commission: a book that's entirely particular to one moment.
The Method
- Coptic binding structure
- Hand-dyed leather covers
- Custom color matching
- Hand-lettered title page
- Full-flat opening
Conservation Work
We distinguish between restoration—bringing a damaged book back to function—and conservation, which means protecting fragile originals without altering them.
Rare Book Box Set, University Library
A set of fragile 19th-century volumes needed protection for another hundred years in a university's special collections. We built enclosures that don't touch the books.
Custom clamshell boxes made from archival board and linen hold the volumes safely without modifying their original bindings. The boxes open like a book themselves, allowing curators and researchers to access the works without handling them directly. Each box is fitted to the exact dimensions of its volume. Inside, Japanese tissue paper supports the spine. Outside, a label in letterpress identifies the contents. This is conservation work: we're not remaking anything, just giving old, irreplaceable books a second life in the hands of people who love them.
Chapbook Edition of Thirty
A Portland poet published a small collection of new work with a local letterpress. We were asked to bind the thirty copies by hand.
Hand-sewn binding made sense here in a way it doesn't for every book. A long print run might warrant case binding for speed and durability. Thirty copies asked for something quieter. We used pamphlet stitch—the oldest binding structure—with deckle-edged paper and a cover in natural linen. Each copy was numbered by hand. The poet wanted readers to feel the intimacy of the work, and a hand-stitched spine does that without announcing itself. These books are meant to be given and kept, opened and read until the binding softens and the margins fill with notes.
The Edition
- Pamphlet stitch binding
- Deckle-edged pages
- Hand-numbered copies
- Natural linen covers
- Thirty copies made
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