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Leathersellers’ Review 2024–2025
funded project, a key aim is to make those leaving school, between the ages of 16 and 18, consider bookbinding as not only a viable career path but a vibrant one. “I really want people to see this not as a hobby, it’s not a chichi little crafty thing, it’s a true profession to which you can add your personality, your ability to create, your imagination,” she says. “Students really get some haptic well-being from it; it is quite a contemplative, focused, calming space to express yourself.” In Scotland, McEwan also teaches his skills to others, both at his studio and through a scheme with the Society of Designer Bookbinders at universities and colleges such as Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art. The Leathersellers’ Foundation helps to fund the latter with a multi-year grant. As part of its commitment to providing opportunities to gain leatherworking skills, the Foundation has partnered with Designer Bookbinders to bring classes and workshops to students and staff at universities across the UK. It further supports leatherworking skills through various initiatives for artisan leatherworkers. These include awards providing subsidised space and business mentoring at Cockpit (which houses the Leather Hub, a communal space with specialist leather tools and machinery), apprenticeship support, training bursaries through Heritage Crafts, and QEST scholarships.
McEwan has taught two QEST recipients, who receive up to £18,000 to develop their skills in their chosen craft. “It means I can take people close to the highest level, technically, and go into the design side in more detail,” he says. He’s also noticed a shift in how his students approach the subject, towards “book art.” “More and more of them are making the content of the book as well as the binding; they might write it, or it may not even have words, it could be illustrations. It’s a new direction that bookbinding seems to be taking.” Stevens’ students too are using the traditional bookbinding toolset in increasingly outré ways, she says, while Orme adds that running their own business means striking a balance, both creatively and financially, between more traditional and more experimental work. “Fine binding commissions don’t come along very often. It’s a very specific request, and can cost thousands, so you have to diversify — and I’m particularly happy about this because I love making boxes. So if anyone wants a bespoke box, come to me.”
“More and more [students] are making the content of the book as well as the binding; they might write it, or it may not even have words, it could be illustrations. It’s a new direction that bookbinding seems to be taking.”
The Leathersellers’ Foundation provided grant funding of £6,500 to Designer Bookbinders for 2024–2025 towards their ‘Transferring Design Project’ that reintroduces bookbinding classes into art and design study. After three successful years of this, three universities have already developed bookbinding modules within their curriculum, and with our ongoing support we hope that this will continue to grow.
Opposite above: Aimee Wragg, student enrolled on West Dean’s Graduate Diploma, Books Opposite below: West Dean MA cohort, left to right: Shaun Thompson, Visiting Lecturer in Books; Daniella Shuhman; Megan Whiteley; Amy Randall; Chris Duffy; Jamie Chmara; Beckett Thornber; Victoria Stevens, Subject Lead Tutor Books Below: A student on the Tom McEwan and Designer Bookbinders course
Photography: Paul Read
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