The Fellowship of the Ring re-binding
August 2021
The story and world of the Lord of the Rings has always had a huge inspiration to my work and the themes I am drawn to today, so it was only a matter of time before I decided to pay homage in a way. This re-binding was certainly a passion project and it was incredible to see bound together.
The center embroidery piece is one of the Nazgul and it took me several weeks to complete. The binding itself is sewn in a medieval style with dark green goatskin, tooled with 18 karat moon gold. The endpapers were handprinted and sewn into the textblock.
The edition I re-bound was a collectible edition published in 1997 and illustrated by Alan Lee, who was my initial draw to the edition. This was one of my favorite projects I’ve bound, and was certainly a project full of learning curves and new techniques. This includes the small ring on the back, which was cut and pasted on as a leather onlay with wheat paste.