Gillian Stewart
Gillian Stewart's bookbinding of an edition of 'A Braird O Thristles' by Douglas Young.
This bookbinding by Gillian Stewart (United Kingdom) was highly commended by the judges.
Notes from the entrant:
'As well as Douglas Young's own poetry in Scots and English, this collection also includes translations from the Gaelic into Scots of early work by Sorley MacLean and George Campbell Hay, translations from French into Scots of work by Paul Valery, from German into Scots of work by Erich Fried.
Full leather binding with linen joint flush board attachment. Head decorated with silver leaf and graphite. Alum tawed goatskin hand dyed with cyanotype print and spirit dyes, tooled in matte silver foil. Leather jointed endpapers with cyanotype flyleaves and doublures, tooled in matte silver foil. Housed in a screen-printed and foil blocked drop-back box.
I took huge inspiration from the rich Pictish illustrations by George Bain inside this book. Alluding to the blue of wode, the cyanotype method creates a deep blue that is accented by silver studs. The Celtic and Pictish designs are hand drawn and inspired by ancient artefacts like the Battersea Shield. The design should feel both bold and delicate, creating a book that feels like a timeless home for the power of our stories.'
Claudia Richter
Claudia Richter's binding of an edition of 'Salathiel's Song' by Seán Rafferty.
This bookbinding by Claudia Richter (Germany) was highly commended by the judges.
Notes from the entrant:
'Cardboard binding with attached covers. The decoration is composed of underlay reliefs and metallic green tooling, representing the "Sing and tell" poems by Seán Rafferty. The idea behind this cover is the sequence of lines, which break off and start again. In them one finds rhythms, repetitions, and almost imperceptible variations.'