BIO
Midori was born in Tokyo and graduated from the BA(Hons) Academy of Arts course at Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo. She started learning fine binding in Tokyo and went on to gain a Diploma with Merit in Fine Bookbinding and Conservation at Guildford College of Technology in the UK. Since graduating she has given workshops, lectures and exhibitions in various countries. She opened the ‘Jade Bookbinding Studio’ in London 1997, concentrating on private tuition, commissioned and personal work.
Her work is held in public and private collections in the UK, USA, Europe and Japan. She was among 25 Distinguished winners in the Designer Bookbinders International Competition in 2017 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. She was Elected as a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 2007 and is also a member of The Society of Bookbinders and The Tokyo Bookbinding Club [Japan].
Winter’s Tale
Photography by Neale M. Albert
Piccolo Press 2021
231 x 231 x 21 mm
Bound in 2021
Private collection, USA
Accordion binding. Front and Back boards covered black goat skin with multiple coloured circles leather onlays. “Winter’s Tale” is originally concertina miniature book and I had cut into single pages. All the pages are mounted on watercolour paper and backed with Japanese Paper. The folding text opens like the blooming of flowers. The 32 Circles of cover represent each page/photograph.
Box for the “Masquerade” Theatrical Sketches by Aleksandr Golovin’s
285 x 214 x 52mm
Made in 2021
The box was made for the “Box Your Book” competition in the Netherlands and selected one of the 34 boxes for the exhibition.
Jury comments: A very classy box, extremely well made. The circles in the lid exactly mach the circles in the title on the inner flap. Everything corresponds perfectly.
The box construction is a combination of a drop back box and a Japanese Hako-Chittsu (Box Case). The outer tray makes a window that supports a mesh made from fishing gut. The 6mm paper circles are attached onto the fishing gut. The book title is on the spine of the box with gold tooling on the multiple coloured leather. The title is also on the inner lid with the four leather covered masks. These masks representing the main dramatise personae.The “Masquerade”-Theatrical Sketches- is the record of the first performance and dedicated to Aleksandr Golovin’s art work. The book was printed in 1941 and published in 1946. The box design represent the theatre and thick drop curtain.
Doulandi de Lachrimae: A Little Collection of Verse / Possibly written by John Dowland
Nicholas & Mary Parry at the Tern Press 1983
165 x 125 x 8mm
Bound in 2021
Private Collection, USA
The binding was made for the “Under 100” exhibition at Wittockiana in Belgium. I chose under one hundred grams, so the weight of the finished book is ninety-three grams.
Full leather case binding with leather joint and a hand-cut paper inlay on the front board and leather onlays on the back board. Six hand-dyed line ahead inlays. echoing the strings of a lute, travel from front to back, and the design for the end drawn endpapers coordinates with the hand-cut paper inlay on the front board. The design is based on an image of a 16th century lute, and a Dowland’s music themes are often associated with tears or grief, I chose relatively sombre colours with also harmonised with the colour of the text-block paper.
The Song of the Forest / Colin Mackay
Wood engravings by Alyson MacNeil
The Old stile Press, 1987
185 x 135 x 15 mm
Bound in 2024
Private Collection, UK
Bound in green goatskin and vellum. The goatskin areas are pierced with a design of branches and leaf shapes revealing hand-coloured paper. The vellum areas of the binding have been under-coloured with shades of pastel, with a series of leather onlays in a branch and leaf motif. Inspired by the poem Uruisq, the design evokes the atmosphere of a forest. The Raven is symbolic of all things evil. The design is carried through to the endpapers, which are pierced, again to reveal hand-coloured leaf shapes.
Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay / Arthur Phillip Capt. Hunter, Lieu’s Shortland, Watts, Dawes, Bradley, Capt.Marshall, etc
John Stockade, Piccadilly 1789
305 x 243 x 47mm
Bound in 2024
The Private Collection of The Athenaeum, London
The binding is secondary sewing on a continuous linen board attachment. It is full leather binding with leather onlays and pierced circles on the front board. Hand sewed silk headband.
The Cover Design:
The overall image represents the voyage that Governor Philip took to Botany Bay in 1787. On the front board, the green circles show birds and the plants inhabiting the coast line as seen through a telescope. The right bottom light blue grey part is the shape of Port Jackson from a map of 1788. Orange and Beige circles on the back board represent the fleet of 11 ships that undertook the voyage. Several birds, flying across the front and back board express movement and an expectation of the New World. Front board, the Birds and plants in the green circles are hand drawn by the book binder.
The Endpapers:
The design concept for the end papers is based on a report about Norfolk Island and various bird illustrations found within the text block. The report goes on to describe the landscape of the Norfolk Island as below. “ The woods are inhabited by innumerable tribes of birds, many of then very gay in plumage”. Using the Norfolk pine tree a repeat pattern interspersed with birds of paradise the intention is to create and express the atmosphere of the Norfolk Island landscape. All the drawings are by the book binder.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: jadebookbinding@aol.jp
Website: http://jadebookbindingstudio-jadestudio.blogspot.com
Accepts Commissions: Yes
