BIO
Kaori was born in Japan and spent her childhood in Singapore. She graduated from TAMA Art University in Tokyo, Japan in 1993 and from 1993-1997 she did an apprenticeship in Theatre and Costume design with a renowned costume designer, and a member of the Yokohama Boat Theatre performance group.
From 1997-2001 she worked as an Art & Craft curator, travelling extensively around Japan before moving to the UK in 2001. She studied bookbinding with Midori Kunikata-Cockram at Jade Bookbinding Studio and later with Mark Cockram at Studio 5.
From 2003-2005 Kaori did an MA in Fine Art Printmaking at Camberwell University of the Arts London, UK.
2005-2008. In 2005 Kaori began working at The Wyvern bindery undertaking all kinds of bookbinding work, mainly working with leather. In April 2020, Kaori took over the business as a Wyvern Bindery LLP with two other partners.
Kaori was elected as a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 2020 and has won numerous prizes for her bookbinding work.
SALOME- Drame En Un ACTE by Oscar Wilde
Illustrated by Andre Derain
The Limited Editions Club, Paris, 1938
282mm x 200mm x 12mm
Bound in 2016
Private Collection
Black goatskin with Japanese paper chine-collé.
Christmas Romance in CZECH (STEDROVECERNI ROMANCE) by Jan Neruda
Published in 1934
Bound in 2013
Private Collection
The Texture of the Universe
Gwasg Gregynog, 2009
310mm x 183mm
Bound in 2015
Private Collection
Green calf with yellow goatskin. First Prize for The Clothworkers’ Prize for Open Choice Book in the 2015 Designer Bookbinders UK Bookbinding Competition.
Lines of the Alphabet in the Sixteenth Century
The Stellar Press & Bodley Head
252mm x 170mm
Bound in 2015
Private Collection
Dark maroon goatskin.
John Craig’s VENICE
The Whittington Press, 2015
Bound in 2017
Private collection
Full goatskin with back-pared onlay using blind embossed fair goatskin.
Steel Horizon – Poem of the North Sea
Incline Press, 2013
204mm x 304mm
Bound in 2014
Private Collection
Blue goatskin with grey calfskin.
Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri
The Folio Society, 2015
225 x 146 x 25mm
Bound in 2016
Private Collection
White alum-tawed goatskin with multiple red goatskin onlays. Winner of the Second Prize for the Folio Society Prize for the set book in the Designer Bookbinders UK Bookbinding Competition, 2015.
1984 by George Orwell
The Folio Society, 2014
222 x 177mm
Bound in 2015
Grey goatskin and cotton fabric. Winner of the Finishing Prize in the Designer Bookbinders UK Bookbinding Competition, 2015.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: kaorimakijpcom@gmail.com
Website: http://kaorimaki.info
Instagram: @kaorimakibookbinder
Accepts Commissions: Yes
