BIO
Nicky has over 20 years of experience working as a bookbinder and design binder. She completed studies in Art and Design which led her to studies in Bookbinding at the London College of Printing. She has worked at several trade binderies in London before freelancing and establishing Black Fox Bindery, London, in 2009. Nicky became a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders, UK, in 2016.
Nicky has worked extensively using decorative leather dyeing techniques on various objects. This includes books, furniture and circus trapeze boots. She has lectured and demonstrated in the UK, Australia, Europe and the United States on topics in this area of specialised skill and knowledge.
An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
Published 2019
Bound in 2019
205 x 138.5 x 47mm
Structure:
Bound in hand dyed fair calf. Foil tooled.
Graphite and pigment edges.
Multi-coloured hand-sewn French double silk end bands.
Leather joints. Suede fly leaves. Hand dyed calf doublures – blocked with a feather motif.
The book is housed in a two-tray drop back box with suede pad linings
Concept:
Chinonso Solomon Olisa is a simple chicken farmer and the protagonist of this story.
The story is narrated by Chinonso’s chi, his spiritual guardian and it is told in the form of three incantations. At the beginning of each incantation, Chinonso’s chi pleads to the Old Fathers of Bechukwu; the Heavenly Place, to spare his host’s soul, for he knows not what he has done.
There is a sense of foreboding from the very beginning of this tale – I wanted to capture the essence of that through colour, movement and stillness. I also wanted to include small details from within the text to decorate the piece.
The metallic blue bands represent Chinonso’s chi and the three incantations. Each of the bands has been decorated with hologram chicken feathers. The eleven arrows are a nod to the eleven processes of reincarnation. The black vertical bands on the front board are for the four years Chinonso spent in prison and the feather that has been blocked onto the calf doublures is a gosling feather – which can been seen on the suede fly leaves like a ghost.
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Hamish & Hamilton an imprint of Penguin Books
Published 2023
Bound in 2023
242 x 164 x 61mm
Technique:
Full calf leather with linen board attachments. Hand dyed and decorated with foil stencil and tool work and 23ct gold leaf. Inlaid silver squirrels to the front and back boards. Painted and printed doublures and black suede fly leaves. End-bands part leather and part sewn. Edges decorated with graphite and pigment.
Design:
This fabulous story is rich with imagery. I harvested as many elements as possible for the design. Without giving too much of the plot away, I shall simplify the details: I chose the storm, flood, forest and the “bunker” as the backdrop of the composition. I incorporated ‘VW’s’ within the line-work, which is a nod to the family business.
The circles represent the characters; Dickie, Imelda, Cass and PJ and 12 people whom I believe had influence over them in some way. Dickie and Imelda’s fractured marriage; the distorted gold ring and the pearlescent mesh ring (representing the wedding veil).
The two smaller circles, the indentations of which were made with the bottoms of glass bottles; a water bottle for PJ (innocence) and a beer bottle for Cass (alcohol). They were then embellished with coloured foil. Copper and grey for PJ (copper hair/grey squirrel). Red and grey for Cass (should have been the grey squirrel but wanted to be red).
The pink circle on the back represents Rose and her teacup, with golden swirls as the tealeaves. The two silver squirrels are an additional salute to Cass and PJ.
On the verso of the front board, there is an impression of a bee design which appears, ghost-like, on the suede fly leaf opposite – there, but not there.
Detailing in the end-bands: within the head end-band; the LGBTQ+ flag colours. Within the tail end-band, I incorporated the Trinity College logo colours and the Irish flag.
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Vintage – Penguin Random House
Published 2024
Bound in 2024
222 x 140 x 44mm
Technique:
Full goatskin leather. Hand dyed and decorated with foil tooling and back pared onlays. Edges decorated with graphite and pigment. Hand sewn double endbands. Dyed paper edge-to-edge doublures and suede flyleaves.
Design:
It can be a bit of a challenge binding a Booker book when it reads like a movie; each paragraph offering up rich and vivid scenes. I decided to choose the elements which were the strongest for me: Neanderthal cave drawings, the mega-basins of water, corn, magnesium crystals, the rows of poplar trees, the big and little dippers and the North Star – Polaris.
I wanted the overall feeling to be reminiscent of cave drawings with the inclusion of the other ingredients, depicted in a naïve and semi-graphic way.
In addition, the majority of this story is set in France, so I included the French flag within the head end-band.
La Vie en Rose – Miniature “Music” Tile Commission
The Tile – 3” square
The Box – 98 x 97 x 43 mm
Bound in 2022
Neale M. Albert Collection, New York
Technique:
The miniature tile was bound with fair goat which was hand dyed with the “bubble” technique. The rose comprises of 31 pieces of leather individually hand dyed. The rose tile sits within a tray which has a coral pink Suedel lever panel. This tray can be removed and beneath it, within a compartment, lives a crank handle music box which plays La Vie en Rose. The box has been covered with the same hand-dyed leather as the board to match and the lid is secured with magnets.
Design:
The brief for this commission was to create a 3” square tile with the theme “Music”. I chose La Vie en Rose and used a photograph of a rose taken by my client as a template. On the verso of the tile I have blocked the lyrics to the song with real gold foil.
Pornography & Obscenity by D.H. Lawrence
Alfred A. Knopf, 1930
Bound in 2024
182 x 116 x 12mm
Private Collection
Technique:
Fair kangaroo leather – hand dyed. Leather jointed Gelli-plate printed doublures and black suede flyleaves.
Foil tooled. Blind and foil embossed with brass wire. Hand sewn French endbands. Graphite edges.
Design:
D.H. Lawrence wrote this essay in response to the banning of his earlier work, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Within this text, he explores the notions of what might seem obscene or pornographic to one person, may seem humorous and frivolous to another. The banning and subsequent court trials over his previous works are, to me, an early example of “cancel culture”, which is very prevalent today.
Shahnama
This copy was commissioned by a group of Zoroastrian Iranians in the 19th Century
371 x 262 x 51mm
Bound in 2021
Private Collection
Design:
“The Shahnama is the national poem of Iran written in the 10th century. Part myth, part history, part epic, part romance and part tragedy it tells the story of Iran up to the Arab conquest of the 7th century. There are several notable manuscripts including that of Shah Tamasp in the 16th century. This printed version was commissioned by a group of Zoroastrian Iranians in the 19th century.
The central figure in the design is the Simurgh – a mythical bird – which personifies wisdom, healing and the protection of nature. I wanted the design not only to convey the magic of Iran but also to convey the beauty of the nature: the golden light in Iran, the mountains and the forests as well as pay homage to the artistry of past Persian miniaturists.”
Technique:
Full leather binding with laced on boards. Screen printed fly leaves and doublures. Multiple, hand-dyed onlays with a gold leaf background. Real gold foil edges. Hand sewn end-bands, 10 colours French double technique.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Designed, Printed and Signed by Mark McMurray
Caliban Press, Canton NY, 2001
Edition 94/125 – Signed
300 x 235 x 28mm
Bound in 2022
Design:
I have been experimenting with various dyeing techniques over the last few months for research and I created this dyed panel of goat skin. The moment I saw the result I knew it had to be for this book. The Rorschach-like pattern conjures up twisted faces within the stormy blue swirls – “A storm created by magic to exact revenge”.
Technique:
This is a full leather binding – tape and linen board attachment. The fair goat has been hand dyed using various leather dyes. Foil tooling to the front and back boards with patterned wire impressions. The end-bands have been hand sewn. Graphite and pigment edges head and tail with a deckled fore-edge. The edge-to-edge doublures are painted as well as the decorative folds on the verso of the petrol blue suede flyleaves.
Winter’s Tale by Neale M. Albert
Piccolo Press 2021
Bound in 2023
80 x 67 x 32mm
Technique:
Hand-dyed Shoji paper strips to the front and back folds of the text-block. Concertina front and back boards bound in hand-dyed goatskin. The endpaper doublures have been hand-painted with watercolour inks, acrylic inks and leather dyes with a flourish of 23ct gold leaf. The leather panels are decorated with hand-dyed onlays: a mixture of goat, calf and kangaroo and finished with foil tooling and 23ct gold leaf.
The box:
This style of box is a take on the structure called The Neck Box. It is covered in black book-cloth and has a green Suedel lining. The two parts are secured with magnets. The hand-dyed leather label and the two small inlays have been tooled with real gold foil.
The Design:
I wanted to extend the concertina of the text-block to the front and back boards as this provided me with a larger canvas to create a frieze. I extracted a few of the flowers from Neale’s beautiful photographs and combined them with a few of my own.
I researched the hidden meanings behind each of the flowers and I chose ones which reflected the emotions and themes within Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale:
Dahlia (dishonesty)
Bird’s Foot (Revenge
Pansy (thoughts of lovers)
Abuliton (strength and perseverance)
Nasturtium (patriotism, love and strength)
Orange Lily (hatred, pride and wealth)
Balloon (eternal love and sincerity)
Pink Orchid (grace, fertility and elegance) and Cornflower (life and fertility).
Within the design, the dahlia and the orchid have been split in half. Depending on the arrangement of the boards, each half can be reunited, allowing a small variation of the composition.
