My Roots
It all started with a work experience placement with school - my first book, my first box and I was smitten. Only a year later I applied for an apprenticeship.
Since then I’ve mostly worked in smallscale industry gaining insight into the handling of different machines and larger production scales. But the appeal of a handmade thing, of delicate craftmanship on different materials never left, and in autumn 2019 I was able to complete my “Meister“, the highest working title given in the craft field in Germany.
Moving with my partner to the UK gave me the perfect opportunity to build my passion into a business.
About me
I was born in the south of Germany and from my childhood on, was quite a crafty person. Encouraged by my parents and gran, hardly a day went by where I wouldn’t draw, sew or build something.
This desire to create would spill into different hobbies growing up and finally determine my choice of work.
Although there can be stressful moments in creating an object after all these years still, I deeply enjoy the steps of the process and the feel of progress. To see paper and cardboard and cloth and thread and leather all being brought together and transformed into something greater is remarkably satisfying.
Bookbinding is such a wonderful craft to me because it includes so many different techniques. Besides the many traditional ways to make a book or brochure it introduced me to box making, picture and object framing, and trying out unconventional methods of binding. I dabbled in recreating a medieval codex with wooden covers and tried fore-edge painting. It also means working with many different materials, from classic paper, leather and cloth to modern acrylic glass.
It is something I feel I will learn for a lifetime and yet never tire of.